Knowledge and Intelligence

Real education leads people to discover what they know, not to deny what they know. The statement may puzzle one, but the fact is that human beings are naturally knowing beings. Uneducated scholars know what others know and do not know what they know. They reposit a vast mass of knowledge but can little cultivate intelligence to know what they know.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Knowledge

 Knowledge is a tricky phenomenon. Generally, we assume that knowledge is good. We endeavour to learn and pay to be taught in search of the good. 

But, often many things we get as pieces of knowledge are destructive and unimaginably harmful for self and others. And, there are absolutist systems of knowledge, which invade our minds and make us puppets. 

Knowledge is unavoidable. Human beings are hyper-knowledge-seeking and possessing species. 

We hold good and bad pieces of knowledge and the balance shapes our being, well or ill, overall. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Knowledge

About its perilous bearing and beingness of good

Ordinarily, knowledge destabilises the inner space and discomposes the inner man, but provides the constituents of goodness we all cherish. Here, I mean 'ordinarily' as concerning people who do not have the airs of being extraordinary and by 'knowledge,' that of the serious kind, not of the general knowledge type, substantive, not formal and procedural.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Business of Knowing

One who is in know, knows that knowledges are illusive. Thence, when wise persons speak and act, they think of and are watchful of the effects, the counter-effects, and the after-effects of their words, decisions, and actions for long term. Such people are very alert readers of the past and of the contemporary social processes, and when they speak up or take up anything, that is a studied measure. And they are always ready for course –correction and even reversal of any measure. Constant watchfulness is their credo. If one judges, the person rarely finds many of the wise men so designated and more so of their followers fitting this criterion. Over generations, great numbers of human beings have been sacrificed or violated in the name of the wisdom, which turned out to be or remain misconstrued. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Do we need to bother about ignorance?

Many wise people hold that ignorance is our biggest problem. But the reality is that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is the least menacing compared to the other problems in the realm of epistemology. I would list them in the order of harm they cause, the most harmful comes first. 

1. Doctored knowledge - Ideologies, in its two variants – ecclesiastical and temporal, which substitute knowledges with make-believes or pseudo-reasoning, perpetuating themselves on the strength of indoctrination. These fanciful ideas find ready adherents among the vulnerable people or the dimwits.

2. Illusion of knowledge – Indoctrinated or ill educated persons as a result of bad education have this affliction. A brush with some knowledge sources gives such illusion too. And on the other end, there are people who are very well-read but in the absence of sufficient and correct training they are unable to handle the inputs they get. 

3. Lack of knowledge – This is the third category. People are not educated, have no access to knowledge-sources. They may seemingly talk inane things. But it is necessary to qualify this position. Knowledge is stratum related. What may be inanity for you is effective wisdom for some. 

I am a case of the third category but without the benefit of the caveat I have added. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Save the Knowledge from Yourself.

Negate yourself to let knowledge prevail. Your persona should never subsume the knowledge you seek to impart. This subverts the knowledge even if it tends to be valid.

Niraj Kumar Jha