Chapter 41 41 knowledge

We talked about going to school earlier, and going to school is for knowledge (including skills).According to common sense, knowledge is better than ignorance.But if you ask further, why knowledge is better than ignorance, or ask further, what is knowledge, how to obtain it, how much is the quantity, and what is the quality?Here I have no choice but to reluctantly talk about what I thought of at the moment. Let's start with what is knowledge.I read a book on cognitive psychology not long ago. Based on what it says, it can be inferred that sensory sensations become images in the nervous system, and sensations alone become perceptions when compared with other images.As evidenced by the sound, there was a small gong outside the door, but they just heard it but did not feel it. The so-called hearing but not hearing is a pure feeling; compared with the old feeling (which includes complex psychological activities such as reasoning and judgment), I think it is When the sugar seller comes, it becomes consciousness.This simple perception is also knowledge, knowledge at the lower end.At the high end, it can be very large, such as Ma Duanlin's "General Examination of Documents", which has a deep meaning, such as Einstein's "Theory of Relativity".We usually call it knowledge.It refers to the relationship between the high and low ends, which can be understood but difficult to express in words.Reluctantly speaking, it refers to the common sense that a literate person who can read generally should have, no matter how high it is allowed, no lower level is allowed.Or to put it in a more labor-saving way, a group of people can be divided into intellectuals and non-intellectuals according to common sense. We say that what is filled in the minds of intellectuals is knowledge; Less, can not be counted.

The knowledge possessed by this kind of intellectuals comes mainly from reading. Reading, in modern times, especially reading newspapers and periodicals.The scope of knowledge, although limited to common sense, must be ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign; it must also be able to reason, and have the ability to judge right from wrong (it does not mean that it must be correct).Is it good to have such knowledge?Common sense says good and sees no problem.In fact, some people don't see it that way.There are domestic ones, and they are Taoist.As "Laozi" said: It is the rule of the sage to empty their hearts, strengthen their stomachs, weaken their wills, and strengthen their bones, which often makes the people ignorant and without desires. (third chapter)

Put more decisively: Shu is the emperor of the South Sea, Hu is the emperor of the North Sea, and Hun Chao is the emperor of the Central Sea.When Shu and Hu meet each other in the land of Chaos, Chaos treats them very kindly.Shu and Hu sought to repay the virtue of Chaos, saying: "Everyone has seven orifices. You can feed on seeing and hearing. There is nothing like this. Try to chisel it out." Digging out a thief every day will kill Chaos in seven days. ("Emperor Ying") This means that if you want to live well, you need to be ignorant, so that you don't even need perception.Why do you have this idea?One of the reasons comes from looking at the society. Chaotic phenomena such as fraud and struggle can be seen everywhere. Taoism believes that it all comes from the complexity of the mind, so it believes that the radical cure should be to return to simplicity.The second reason comes from looking at oneself, the more knowledgeable the pain, the more intense it is, so if you want to reduce suffering, it is better to be ignorant than An Zi. Knowledge will bring suffering, and the West also has such a view.The most typical is the "Old Testament? Genesis" said:

The woman said to the snake, "We may eat the fruit from the tree in the garden, but the tree in the middle of the garden, the fruit of which God has said, you shall not eat it, nor touch it, lest you die." The snake said to the woman: " You will not necessarily die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." Then the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and she Delighted, it can make a person wise, so he plucked the fruit and ate it.And he gave it to his husband, and he ate it too.And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. ... (God) said to the woman again. "I will multiply your pains in conception. You will give birth to children with pain. You will love your husband, and your husband will rule over you." And he said to Adam, "Because you obeyed your wife and ate what I commanded you of the tree from which you shall not eat, the earth shall be cursed for your sake, and you shall labor to eat of it all the days of your life."

Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit of wisdom, they lived a carefree life, as the saying goes, "I don't know what I don't know, I follow the emperor's rule".After eating the fruit of wisdom, that is, having knowledge, the situation is different, and they cannot avoid suffering.Is this idea right?it's complicated.First of all, there is a reason for this kind of thinking.On the social side, the problem is more complicated because most people are involved.Let’s stand on the standpoint of Laozi and Zhuangzi. If there is a society envisioned by Laozi of “a small country with few people” and “the old and the dead do not communicate with each other” with little knowledge, it can be inferred that fraud, struggle and other chaotic phenomena will be correspondingly reduced, so that people’s livelihood will be miserable. Maybe a little lighter.In this way, even if we leave the standpoint of Lao and Zhuangzi, we seem to have to admit that for society, the increase of knowledge will also bring harmful side.The progress of modern science and technology can prove that we not only have the ability to raise people to improve agricultural production, but also have the ability to kill people to manufacture nuclear weapons.Let's talk about the personal aspect.Knowing is accompanied by suffering. It can be said that suffering is a kind of feeling, and of course it can only come from the channel of knowing.You can also use the comparison method to find evidence, that is, the shallower the level of knowledge, the less suffering you feel.The willows in the long pavilion are broken and the willows are also living things. It is presumed that even if they are not ignorant, they will not feel much pain because of their ignorance.Ascending to animals, such as locusts and crickets, we often see a thigh lost due to some kind of setback. We presume that it will not feel nothing, but it seems to be calm, and the reason can only be that the degree of knowledge is far away. lower than us humans.It's different when you rise up to be a human being.The degree of physical pain may not be related to the degree of knowledge, that is, as the saying goes, people are born with flesh.The spiritual aspect becomes very relevant.Generally speaking, a person with knowledge can feel something about a situation, and a person who doesn’t know it may not feel it. If he feels it, the chance of being unsatisfactory accounts for at least half. A lot of suffering.This kind of suffering, for example, some are more substantive, such as unwillingness to endure the oppression of an autocratic monarch, and some are more remote, such as trying to figure out the purpose of life but being unable to do it no matter what. There will be these troubles.In addition, at certain times, some pain or disaster will fall from the sky, and it will only fall on the heads of knowledgeable people. For example, there were literary inquisitions in the old era, and there are non-leftists in the new era.One more thing can be added, embroidery writing is not as good as leaning on the city gate. I am afraid it has been natural since ancient times, and it is still strong today. That is to say, knowledge and poverty are often inextricably linked. It is better to be ignorant than to know.

What has been said above is roughly seen with the eyes of Taoism, and of course it is inevitably one-sided.In fact, it is not only one-sided, it can be said that whether it is based on reason or on facts, it is rare to be tactful.We can use rhetorical questions to point out the lack of rationality, which is: "It is better to return to the truth than to return to simplicity. It is your way of life, and you think your way is higher than other ways, and this way is higher than others. If you have no knowledge, is this possible?" This proves that when Lao Zhuang praised ignorance, he had already secretly affirmed the value of knowledge.The necessity of knowledge is more powerfully proved by facts.The desire of a living being is to be able to live and live well. Seeking knowledge, simple, such as knowing that tigers and leopards can hurt people, and complex, such as air conditioning can prevent cold and heat, all serve this fundamental desire. Therefore, Unless we don't want to live, and live well, it is impossible to oppose knowledge.Second, return to simplicity, for example, when you return to living in caves and drinking blood, social turmoil may be reduced, but there must be many other difficulties and hardships. How to avoid them?It can only rely on increasing knowledge.Third, no matter in terms of individuals or society, the gradual increase of knowledge is inevitable, and the retreat from more knowledge to less knowledge, or even ignorance, is just an illusion.Fourth, in order to conform to human nature, we should try our best to change barbarism into civilization. The change depends on many conditions, among which knowledge must be the most important, because noble morality, strict laws, reasonable systems, and material construction, And so on, must be based on knowledge.Fifth, even the so-called elegance and vulgarity, which seem to have little to do with the taste of life, if you value elegance and hate vulgarity, you have to pay attention to knowledge, because elegance, also known as elegance, cannot be immature without literature. It is inevitable to encounter all kinds of problems, such as the divergence of roads, which one should be taken, and the small ones such as torn clothes and how to repair them. If you want to solve them, you must seek help from knowledge.Seventh, you can also look at it from the negative side. Regardless of the group or the individual, ignorant or little-informed, moving forward is like a blind man riding a blind horse. If you run wild, there is too much danger of failure.Eighth, let’s talk about high requirements. Even if a person has no ultimate value in his life, he can think about what is the ultimate value and why there is no. At least I think it is like Qu Yuan’s "Heavenly Questions". Will get an answer, better than ignorance, be at a loss until the end of life, okay?

After acknowledging the usefulness of knowledge, to see it in practice is to seek knowledge.It's hard to say what to eat.Zhuangzi sighed a long time ago: "My life has a limit, but my knowledge has no limit." That was the Warring States period two or three thousand years ago, and Taoism, which does not include skills, is just the ones reviewed in the article "Zhuangzi? The World".It is very different now. One is that it has been developed many times in a wider area, and many of its departments did not exist in the past; the other is that it has been developed many times in depth. Taking macroscopic knowledge as an example, the ancients imagined that the earth is flat and square. Surrounded by the sea on all sides and covered by the sky above, it seems to be large but not very large. Now, with the help of instruments and calculations, it has been seen hundreds of millions of light-years away.There is no limit to true knowledge, how can I ask for it?Let me start with a general principle, that is, if possible, the more you know, the better.Naturally, this is rarely possible, so seek truth from facts and divide knowledge into general knowledge and professional knowledge. General common sense requires everyone to have it, and professional knowledge only requires people related to the profession to possess it.There is a difference in the amount and level of common sense and professional knowledge content, and it is also appropriate to seek more and seek higher, but common sense can be more relaxed, because, for example, historical knowledge, the change of dynasties is not very clear, and it is not enough for daily knowledge. What is the big impact on work and life.

The knowledge of ordinary people is limited to common sense and some professional knowledge, which means that the amount is limited, or simply a drop in the ocean.There is one or more limitations, even if the amount is large, it must be admitted that knowledge is not omnipotent.Just say something important.One is that we don't know everything yet.Kant wrote, analyzing the ability of human reason, admitting that some situations (such as the four antinomies) are beyond the knowledge of human reason (such as the universe is bounded and boundless, and the two judgments are contradictory, all of which are consistent with reason).Some people dismiss this view as agnosticism, but there are still many questions like this that we are unable to answer.So, at least for now, we have to admit that the power of knowledge is limited.The other is that we rely on knowledge to judge whether something is true or false, and we may also be affected by many conditions and make mistakes.The common phenomenon of disagreement is enough to illustrate this situation. The same thing but different views cannot be all right, and the wrong ones also come from knowledge.There is another kind, involving lust, which is often known but may not be able to act.Quitting smoking and drinking is not a good example. Knowledge judges that quitting is beneficial, but seeing smoking and drinking, we have to put aside knowledge.In this way, are we returning to Taoism and despising knowledge?Not so, because admitting that the power of knowledge is limited is also a kind of knowledge, perhaps a higher level of knowledge, just as Confucius said: "Know what you know, and what you don't know is what you don't know. This is knowledge."

The pros and cons have been mentioned above. The general spirit is to follow the destiny of heaven and the nature of life. It is advocated that people, including individuals and groups, should use knowledge as the Hinayana or Mahayana to carry us towards civilization.After affirming the usefulness of knowledge, the remaining problem is how to obtain knowledge, or in other words, obtain credible and useful knowledge.In my opinion, this mainly depends on reading, and I will leave it for the next article.