Responsibilities of an Educated Person

In the world that we live in today, education plays an enormous role in cultivating societies and granting younger generations the tools and mindset required to increase their standards of living and contribute to the greater good. However, the term “educated” is a rather loose concept which differs from culture to culture. Having grown up in Western society following an international upbringing, I am naturally biased to attribute certain qualities to an “educated” person that another person from a different culture might not recognize. These various attributes affect the direct but also the suggested responsibilities that an educated person might hold, the latter being implied and not related to any concrete school of thought (utilitarianism for example.) That being said, the main responsibilities of an educated person are: to contribute to the development of the global society, impart their knowledge on to the next generation, and to achieve personal success in whatever way suits their own personal desire.

For the sake of brevity and to provide a context for the question, the term “educated” will be used acknowledging the following qualities: those who find themselves educated generally have the ability to think critically and provide commentary on the world around them; educated people are literate and have pursued an area of study that they can regularly practice; educated people are aware of the presence of other cultures and are open-minded and tolerant towards the idea of multiculturalism and globalization. These are the main qualities that define an educated person in my opinion. There are other admirable qualities such as pragmatism and leadership-skills that would fit nicely into the equation, but it has been proven throughout history that one does not necessarily need to be educated in order to be a good leader or pragmatic. It should also be noted that one does not necessarily need to be in possession of all these traits in order to be considered