In Chapter 4, Victor says "Learn from me . . . how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow."
What do you think about the dangers of knowledge? We are working in an academic environment (i.e., a college Honors course) based on improving knowledge in this class. So how can we reconcile the potential dangers and benefits of knowledge? What about this topic in your own life?
Saturday, January 28, 2012
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8 comments:
I believe that knowledge is dangerous only because of the people who use it.
In Frankenstein, it wasn't the knowledge itself that was the problem, it was Victor. If he had treated his creature fairly, I don't think he would have become a killer. It was Victor’s job to get people used to the fact that a he created life. Fear usually comes from the unknown so if someone was told about the creature before meeting him, it wouldn’t be as scary as if he just appeared in front of you with no explanation.
Even if a certain subject is dangerous, it could result in some great things. Not only are nuclear bombs themselves dangerous but the knowledge itself caused the Cold War along with other events the resulted in a lot of deaths. Even being dangerous, nuclear bombs paved the way towards nuclear power, extra knowledge in chemistry, and advances in medicine.
Cloning is feared because people believe that there will be attempts to clone tyrants along with other dangerous creatures. Along with the bad, cloning could also be used to clone some of the most loved people in the world along with allowing for major advances in medicine.
People used to fear electricity when it was first began appearing but after they gave it a chance, they soon found themselves in a position where they couldn’t really live without it. We now have lights, computers, cell phones, Televisions, and many other everyday appliances that would never have come about if we hadn’t held back our fear.
Knowledge is dangerous because we can't stop someone from making atomic bombs, from cloning Hitler, or maybe even changing the past. Even with all these dangers in mind, I believe that knowledge will always has more pros than cons.
Knowledge is dangerous, but this because of the people who use it. All knowledge has a good side and a bad side. If the bad could be prevented from being used, knowledge could only be good.
However, this is nearly impossible. Every group and society have different ideas of what's good or bad. When one group makes a decision it often forces others to react.
An example of this was the arms race during the cold war. After the nuclear bomb was used, the US and the Soviet Union had a race to obtain a super weapon to protect itself. It would have been suicidal for either side to give up their weapon researching. Neither side liked what disasters these new weapons could bring, but stopping would have meant to submitting your fate to a hostile country.
In this case, the knowledge of nuclear power/bombs was only bad because of human nature.
I believe there is no solution to this. We can forbid others from doing things but we don't really have the power to. Now we see that with middle eastern countries trying to get nuclear weapons. The UN has decided to limit the availability of these weapons but we can't seem to actually stop them if they are dedicated enough. Cloning also shows examples of this. Though the US is largely against it, many others believe the benefits outweigh the bad.
Because we don't have much control over knowledge and its uses, it can be very dangerous.
Everything that a person is comes from knowledge of some sort. Everything in this world is based upon the knowledge of learning. From a baby's first step to scientists figuring out how to create clones or atomic bombs, everything was deprived from learning which in itself is knowledge of some sort. By viewing it in this way, a person can then think of knowledge from a different view point.
I don't believe that knowledge is the ordeal that is dangerous, I believe it is the person, or creature pursae. Like I said before knowledge is everything we know, from the tiniest of things to the greatest.For some people, such as myself, knowledge is like a hunger. We desire to know the un-imaginable and the material that we don't already know. Along with this idea though, we don't use our knowledge for reasons other then to understand and grow in information. When you begin to create and test is where knowledge becomes tricky such as when Victor created his creature.
The idea of knowledge isn't dangerous, it's more the way in which it is percieved and how it is used
I think that knowledge is dangerous and at the same time a gift. Knowledge is frightening and that is perhaps why some people choose to live by the saying "ignorance is bliss" because in a way it it. Knowledge is also subjective. There are plenty of people who think they have knowledge and are simply ignorant. However, I think if you are truly knowledgeable, it is not dangerous. This goes back to the earliest philosophical notions of Socrates, Aristotle, Francis Bacon and many more since. Philosophy challenges us to ask what knowledge truly is. I think it is a common theme among philosophers that knowledge is acquired via independent thinking.
The danger of all of this questioning and knowledge itself is that it is very real. It isn't fun or enjoyable to find our worst fears realized or even to find something out that we really didn't want to be true. Though these things are on a more superficial level, it's still gathering knowledge. In Frankenstein, the monster is an example of knowledge at it's most frightening. Victor surprises himself with his knowledge and that spurs his fears. This is where I think knowledge is subjective. I also agree with Cerberus in that it's not necessarily knowledge that is problem, it's how we handle it and what we do with it.
Clearly, knowledge has the potential to destroy and create; the responsibility lies with the individual.
While many might argue that knowledge can be addicting, and in Victor’s case, lead to unhealthy obsession, I would argue that ignorance is worse. Remaining ignorant effectively reduces one’s choices. For example, although many of us would like to remain ignorant to horrific events such as genocide and famine, remaining ignorant strips us of our choice to help.
It is especially important, in our modern world where information is so rapidly exchanged and situations change constantly, that people be as aware/informed as possible. Information does not need to be ignored to resist temptation. Once we begin to ignore information, for the sake of not using it negatively, our ignorance will lead inevitably to negative choices. It is important people be aware because stupidity steams from ignorance.
Knowledge is good. Ignorance (or lack of knowledge)is bad. Knowledge gives the power to survive, cure disease, grow crops and make food, shelter, transportation, communication, and entertainment. Knowledge gives us art, science, industry, medicine,law and politics.
Ignorance leads to the misuse and abuse of all these. It leads to crime and exploitation. It promotes enslavement of the human spirit as well as the human mind.
Knowledge enabled Victor to have the dream to create life. His ignorance of the consequences of his obsession, coupled with his ignorance of himself led to his rejection of his creature and ultimately transforming it into the monster he hated.
Knowledge itself is not necessarily either good or bad, but its application or lack there of has the power to improve life or destroy it. If a person knows how to alleviate the suffering of others and then chooses not to better their lives, then his knowledge is no better than ignorance, which might have excused his inaction. However, if he uses his knowledge to prevent the spread of a virulent disease, then his knowledge becomes a valuable tool for accomplishing his good works. On the other hand, if he uses his knowledge of diseases in order to infect and annihilate an entire village, then his knowledge becomes a deadly instrument that aids him in murder. In other words, knowledge can be likened to a carving knife; in the hands of one person it can create art that inspires joy, but in the hands of a different person it can take another's life and bring despair.
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