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WHY KNOWLEDGE IS NOT MERELY AN ACCUMULATED BASKET OF INFORMATIONS




One of my friends is fond of "absurdity" as a philosophical concept, originited, as per my knowledge and belief, through the works of great novelist Albert Camus. His famous book, The Myth of Sisiphus, is no ordinary work. That kind of work requires the great concentration and observation of life at its subtle best. Thinkers, like Buddha, Camus, Sartre, J. Krishnamurti, Osho, and even movie like Lucy move into the direction of absurdity of life, though each one has own way of looking knowledge and belief system in our life. But I do believe the story never ends simply by prophecising about the death of knowledge, what Prof. Baxi exclaims, "epystemocide". Knowing is still relevant though knowledge is not necessarily all about informations. In the era of global village no fact has enough space to breathe independently, sometimes manufacturer and cultivators of informations do find social media as a medium to spread hatred and contempt against humanities.

Lucy is a wonderful movie. This movie shows one important thing, the more we know the less we feel away from it. I'm pretty sure that the quest of learning does increase in proportion of knowledge. And of course, there is no end of it. The question is ultimately that what we know is more or less theoretically composed than practically engaged one. Like hearsay evidence, we are more inclined to leap over what is said or written than observed. One reason can be attributed to the very classical philosophy which has an essentializing tendencies to reach near universalization, quantification, verification as per utilitarian calculus, and even people like Rousseau, Kant, or Hegel for that matter does not avoid theorising for the sake of humankind. Even though all those theoretical conclusions are not obvious for every human being. Critical thinkers like Marx, in spite of his materialistic vision, is trapped in the old school vision of searching the universal law in social behaviour and evolution, and reached to the false conclusion, like in his own term, false consciousness. 

Knowledge and to pursue it is unlike hemlock and a never ending task. And to be alive and survive require at least two important pursuits; knowing and having faith over knowable and unknowable. That's also a way to excell in life, and to be engaged in quest of eliminating all sorts of injustices, violence, etc. Nobody knows about a life after this. This life could be lived in a meaningful way if one dares to give a meaning in a way that would provide peace in mind and joy in heart. No being on this Earth is dearth of this wisdom of knowing, and of course, the accumulation of facts are not what I mean by knowing. Knowing is something which is useful for our existence, of limb and consciousness. Knowing is prerequisite for every single animal, including humans to find life and its meaning. Absurdity is not a good way to end here. Even though, it's equally true that we can't exhaust upto a certain limit.

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