I know it's a boring title for a post, but your assignment here is to write a body paragraph attacks or defends the quotation from Ecclesiastes, something that you didn't write the first time around. Have fun. Make it sharp -- it will be read out loud in class.
An increase in knowledge may bring the awareness of depressing events or facts of the world, but it also raises maturity and enables one to take the steps neccessary to deal with the problem. The first people to discover the smallpox virus would have been very disheartened by its fatality rate and contagiousness. But, in the long run, knowledge of its workings enable the creation of a vaccine that has wiped it off the face of the earth. The world is a happier place as a result of this knowledge than it would be without it. If we had refused to seek knowledge, than we would be a primitive society still at the mercy of nature. It is clear that the arguement of Ecclesiastes holds no water; it is impossible to support this philosophy without advocating a return to the stone age. We must embrace knowledge and wisdom, for they are what set us apart from lower species of animals.
ReplyDeleteI can read, therefore I have sorrow. Wait… that's not right….
ReplyDeleteAlthough knowledge does increase sorrow, we can use this grief to lessen others' sorrow. People are not born compassionate or empathetic but instead are born greedy and self centered. But as people grow up they learn how to interact with others and how to have complex feelings of sympathy. Without this knowledge, people would not be able to understand other people. Although empathy creates sorrow and grief, it is not something that people should want to dispose of. Yes, empathy makes people sad in the short run but it gives the human race a tool to better the world. For example, without empathy we would not have cared about the Haitians devastated by the recent earthquake. So we would not have sent money or supplies or personal that saved many lives. Because we felt sorrow for these people, we cared enough to help them and in the long run increased their happiness at least a little. I agree with Ecclesiastes that wisdom does increase grief. But I also think that this grief can help us better the world so we should not try to lessen the sorrow we feel.
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ReplyDeleteThe book of Ecclesiastes is incorrect in equating knowledge and wisdom to grief and sorrow. The essence of maturing and becoming an adult is the accumulation of knowledge and the attainment of wisdom. Therefore, according to Ecclesiastes, growing up would be full of grief and sorrow. However, my experience as a teenager has been nothing of the sort. I have learned about the formation of the earth and the history of man but have had none of the sorrow Ecclesiastes predicts. Although I was saddened as I learned about the destruction of the harbor seal’s habitat, when I joined my friends and family to clean up a local breeding ground our happiness far exceeded my previous sorrow. Our group effort to help the planet was a blast and an example of the fun that can be derived from knowledge. If I had not known about the harbor seal’s plight would I have felt the initial sadness? No, but I would have also been denied the satisfaction of learning new things and the fun that often accompanies it.
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ReplyDeleteWell... let me just come upfront and apologize if this paragraph resembles the one that got a 1 or a 2...
ReplyDeleteContrary to conclusion the Ecclesiastes quote comes to, knowledge does not bring sorrow, nor does wisdom bring us grief. How we process the knowledge we have acquired is the determiner for whether we will let our knowledge increase our sorrow or whether we will allow grief to increase parallel to our wisdom. Martin Luther King Jr. knew about the hundreds and thousands of black people that were being civilly mistreated . But if he let that knowledge get himself under a stormy cloud, Martin Luther King Jr. might not have accomplished what he did. Instead of allowing that stormy cloud to park itself over his head, Martin Luther King Jr. took account of knowing that his fellow blacks were suffering. Using the knowledge of knowing, Martin Luther King Jr. gave himself the force and energy to push harder for civil rights to come sooner. Focusing on the sorrows in life will have some people coming to the same conclusion as Ecclesiastes, that, "For in much wisdom is much grief, and increase of knowledge is increase of sorrow." Its not the knowledge of what we know that gives us sorrow, its how we "process" the knowledge we take in and whether we take actions against it or for it. As Jane Austin says, "Angry people are not always wise." The same goes for people filled with sadness or grief. People that have sorrow and grief tatooed on their skin allow feelings to distract them from the knowledge they have and the knowledge and wisdom they can use to prevent themselves from grieving or feeling sorrowful.
Some may pretend that accruing the knowledge that the state of California mandates is enjoyable, but there is a reason that most can’t weight until summer. I personally have never heard anyone say, “I just can’t wait to do my biology reading tonight because nothing gets me going quite like the lymphatic system.” Additionally, nobody on the brink of death ever sits in his rocking chair and says “Gee, I wish I would have spent more time at the office.” Suicide is the third leading cause of death in people from ages 15-24. I am not sure if this is do to the pressure in their lives or the anguish that ensues from being forced upon knowledge that brings them nothing but frustration and wasted time. To properly understand this, one must realize that the kind of knowledge that brings happiness is knowledge that serves one’s own interests. This is why people have hobbies. They don’t care about the box of knowledge that they have been forced into for years so they must find a vice or an outlet with witch they can alleviate themselves of the grief that their so-called wisdom brings with it. -Stephen Armstrong
ReplyDeleteWhile the gain of knowledge may sometimes bring grief, there are many positive effects of increasing ones knowledge and wisdom. When one is knowledgeable, they can learn of things that are going on in the world, and can help efforts to fix these problems. An example of this would be the lack of clean water in Africa. Because our school promotes awareness and has the Walk for Water, I have more knowledge about this problem. While this knowledge may bring me compassion these people who struggle to find water every day, it does not make me sorrowful, because I know that there are ways that I can help these people, and this makes me happy. While knowledge of the problem may bring me sorrow, the knowledge that the problem is fixable lets me feel like I can make a difference in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe gain of knowledge is like a double-edged sword: It is good because it allows a person to become aware of many things but it is bad because the knowledge that a person acquires carries weight to it. In this case, the bad outweighs the good. Although some might think that knowledge is simply information that you obtain, I believe knowledge is information that once known provokes interest and action. In the case of Frederick Douglass, when he learned how to read, he acquired the knowledge that blacks in the North were free unlike in the South. Perhaps in another person's case, this sudden interest in an issue would be beneficial, but often times it makes people realize what they do not have and cannot obtain. Knowledge brings about awareness of things that are going on around people, that they do not know at the time. It makes people realize reality, which is not only hard to grasp, but is also very depressing. Once people really see what is going on around them, the "bubble" that they lived their life in, is gone. Whether these people acquired knowledge voluntarily or involunatrily, they now know the reality, and they will never be able to go back and look at their life the same. Knowledge is a "bubble-buster", and makes people carry too much weight for the good that it does.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is certainly merit to the idea that an increase of knowledge can bring about an increase in sadness. In this respect, the arguments of Ecclesiastes make sense. However, I believe that a distinction needs to be made between knowledge and wisdom. While knowledge can certainly cause disappointment and sorrow, true wisdom has no such effect. In the Ecclesiastes quote, the words knowledge and wisdom are used interchangeably; in reality, these words have not only different connotations (literary term ftw) but also different denotations as well. In regard to the question at hand, knowledge may bring about sorrow or pain, but wisdom lies in knowing how to effectively use that knowledge, as sad as it may be, to bring about positive change in one's personal life or even in the world. There are manifold examples throughout history of people using otherwise depressing knowledge as a tool for world improvement. Certainly, learning about the suffering of starving people in Africa is hard to swallow, and the tsunami that devastated Indonesia is not a fun topic either. However, if a person possesses the wisdom to put aside painful personal feelings and use this knowledge effectively, then that person can begin to help solve the problem. Personally, I believe that dealing with the pain in order to be part of a solution to a distressing situation is the far superior choice to being simply ignorant of it.
ReplyDeleteThough knowledge is occasionally accompanied by sorrow, that is not always the case. In terms of medicine, an increase in knowledge is always accompanied by praise and rejoice. For example, Jonas Salk's discovery of the polio vaccine in the 1950's came with wonder and appreciation from the public and the scientific community. The vaccine immediately went into circulation and went on to save thousands, even millions, of lives throughout the world. This, along with many other scientific discoveries including penicillin and the eradication of smallpox, came with joy and gratitude. This is obviously different than the Bible's mention of an "increase of knowledge is increase of sorrow."
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