Knowledge is something that we humans always looked for because of our curiosity. Today, we need knowledge to have a job, money, reputation… Almost everything.
But does this make us unhappy? Is ignorance the key to happiness?
In the ‘Holy Bible’ it says ‘The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.’ It tells us about a teacher, who says that everything is meaningless because he knows everything that goes under the Sun. ‘Generations come and generations go, but the Earth never changes. The Sun rises and the Sun sets, then hurries to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the Sun is truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.’
In our daily lives, we often see people who don’t watch the news and remain ignorant of all horrible things going on in the world. Socrates’ famous statement ‘I know only one thing – that I know nothing’
While knowing somethings can make people feel unhappy. It can also make people happy. Because a human can never learn everything, they always lack knowledge. For example, can a human know how was the solar system made? Probably no, for now at least. When people obtain new knowledge that they need, this usually makes them happy. Imagine a child that is trying to learn how to hold a pencil properly. When the kid discovers how to hold a pencil properly all by himself, he will gain confidence and be happy.
So, should we agree or disagree with the proposition ‘Knowledge makes people unhappy’ ? It actually depends on what you are learning. If you are learning something that you will need when you are in an exam, this knowledge will not make you unhappy. If you are learning something like a crisis, this will make you sad.