"In Expanding the Field of Knowledge We but Increase the Horizon of Ignorance" (Henry Miller) Is This True?
What can you walk towards forever and never reach? The answer is simple: the horizon. The use of the horizon as a metaphor for knowledge is very accurate, depending on how one perceives knowledge. To some people, knowledge may seem like a giant treasure chest filled with knowledge, but it if we keep taking from the chest one day we will run out of knowledge. To me knowledge is so vast that no one person could ever even come close to knowing everything.
With each new discovery we make, we open doors that make it possible to discover more and more things that we never knew. I humans will continue to pursue knowledge until the end of time. Each step we take forward, each area that we claim to know, only increases the already vast horizon of the unknown.
Take into account the areas in which people claim to know things, or the Areas of Knowing: Mathematics, the Arts, History, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Ethics. Mathematics has so many different branches and uses that the only way for a person to learn every branch and use of math would be to dedicate their life to math at a young age, and even then they would only know math. And who can really say they know everything about art? With the many different perceptions of art, and how art stirs different emotions in different people, art is somewhat of an individual knowledge. History will never be completely learnable. Even if we invented a time machine, we would only be able to completely know history if we lived it ourselves. And most likely, we would die before we finished. And for each second we spend learning history, more history is being created. Human Sciences is a subject that would probably have to be learned using a generalization. Most people cannot even understand themselves, how is anyone going to understand the other billions of people in the world? Natural Sciences are so controversial that we might never come to an agreement on what knowledge in this area really is. Some say nature is all
With each new discovery we make, we open doors that make it possible to discover more and more things that we never knew. I humans will continue to pursue knowledge until the end of time. Each step we take forward, each area that we claim to know, only increases the already vast horizon of the unknown.
Take into account the areas in which people claim to know things, or the Areas of Knowing: Mathematics, the Arts, History, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Ethics. Mathematics has so many different branches and uses that the only way for a person to learn every branch and use of math would be to dedicate their life to math at a young age, and even then they would only know math. And who can really say they know everything about art? With the many different perceptions of art, and how art stirs different emotions in different people, art is somewhat of an individual knowledge. History will never be completely learnable. Even if we invented a time machine, we would only be able to completely know history if we lived it ourselves. And most likely, we would die before we finished. And for each second we spend learning history, more history is being created. Human Sciences is a subject that would probably have to be learned using a generalization. Most people cannot even understand themselves, how is anyone going to understand the other billions of people in the world? Natural Sciences are so controversial that we might never come to an agreement on what knowledge in this area really is. Some say nature is all
Bibliography: 1024, Mike. "Everything2." Everything that can be invented has been invented@Everything2.com. 04 June 2002. Everything2. 27 Feb 2008 <http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1312916>. "Brainy History." 1st Computer Patented January 8 in History. BrainyMedia.com. 27 Feb 2008 <http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1889/january_8_1889_62836.html>.