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Single Idea 16120

[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge ]

Full Idea

If there exists the knowledge of how to make men immortal, but without the knowledge of how to use this immortality, there seems to be no value in it.

Gist of Idea

Knowing how to achieve immortality is pointless without the knowledge how to use immortality

Source

Plato (Euthydemus [c.379 BCE], 289b)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.726

A Reaction

I take this to be not a gormless utilitarianism about knowledge, but a plea for holism, that knowledge only has value as part of some larger picture. The big view is the important view. He's wrong, though. Work out the use later.

The 38 ideas with the same theme [situation of holding a set of reliable true beliefs]:

6328 To know yet to think that one does not know is best [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
6323 Pursuit of learning increases activity; the Way decreases it [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
16120 Knowing how to achieve immortality is pointless without the knowledge how to use immortality [Plato]
2133 Knowledge must be of the permanent unchanging nature of things [Plato]
2080 Things are only knowable if a rational account (logos) is possible [Plato]
547 The ability to teach is a mark of true knowledge [Aristotle]
12072 For Aristotle knowledge is explanatory, involving understanding, and principles or causes [Aristotle, by Witt]
12073 'Episteme' means grasping causes, universal judgments, explanation, and teaching [Aristotle, by Witt]
12378 The reason why is the key to knowledge [Aristotle]
5991 For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code]
7289 Do not try to do things, or to master knowledge; just be empty [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
21397 Perception an open hand, a fist is 'grasping', and holding that fist is knowledge [Zeno of Citium, by Long]
20783 Knowledge is a secure grasp of presentations which cannot be reversed by argument [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
9089 Knowledge is a quality existing subjectively in the soul [William of Ockham]
9091 Sometimes 'knowledge' just concerns the conclusion, sometimes the whole demonstration [William of Ockham]
5640 Spinoza's three levels of knowledge are perception/imagination, then principles, then intuitions [Spinoza, by Scruton]
12544 Our knowledge falls short of the extent of our own ideas [Locke]
19424 Knowledge needs clarity, distinctness, and adequacy, and it should be intuitive [Leibniz]
19397 Perfect knowledge implies complete explanations and perfect prediction [Leibniz]
19757 No one would bother to reason, and try to know things, without a desire for enjoyment [Rousseau]
20944 Knowledge is threefold: apprehension, reproduction by imagination, recognition by concepts [Kant, by Bowie]
5617 Knowledge begins with intuitions, moves to concepts, and ends with ideas [Kant]
21957 'Transcendental' concerns how we know, rather than what we know [Kant]
20126 The strength of knowledge is not its truth, but its entrenchment in our culture [Nietzsche]
4537 We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche]
22869 Knowledge is either the product of competent enquiry, or it is meaningless [Dewey]
16482 All our knowledge (if verbal) is general, because all sentences contain general words [Russell]
6430 In epistemology we should emphasis the continuity between animal and human minds [Russell]
5431 Knowledge cannot be precisely defined, as it merges into 'probable opinion' [Russell]
15037 Why does knowledge appear in sudden bursts, and not in a smooth continuous development? [Foucault]
8878 It is acceptable to say a supermarket door 'knows' someone is approaching [Sosa]
8888 The concept of knowledge is so confused that it is best avoided [Bonjour]
3897 Epistemology is about the justification of belief, not the definition of knowledge [Scruton]
6346 The main epistemological theories are foundationalist, coherence, probabilistic and reliabilist [Pollock/Cruz]
3756 Perception, introspection, testimony, memory, reason, and inference can give us knowledge [Bernecker/Dretske]
21627 We have inexact knowledge when we include margins of error [Williamson]
19566 Epistemology does not just concern knowledge; all aspects of cognitive activity are involved [Kvanvig]
19712 Maybe there is plain 'animal' knowledge, and clearly justified 'reflective' knowledge [Vahid]