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The Story of The Good Brahmin

TheBook

TheBook

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Voltaire: Story of a Good Brahmin

For those of you not familiar with Voltaire's "The Good Brahmin" A link has been provided to it. It is a brief tale of a very wise man, who is jealous of his ignorant neighbor's happiness.

It asks a question which seems quite relevant in our modern society. Is knowledge the enemy of true happiness? Can one truly be wise and entirely happy?

Another question which arises is, is intentionally being ignorant morally acceptable?

I'm curious about what the community thinks about this idea.
 
Ah gotta love some Voltaire had to read Candide for one of my history classes.

But I think that knowledge is the key to true happiness, but at the same time I can see how happiness can be blocked by having knowledge because once you've gained knowledge it is almost like your on the sidelines just watching and observing society. So in that sense you can feel detached from society since your not buying into the norms of society like everyone else, and since everyone else is but you are not it could make you feel alone because you can't relate with anyone. As for the question, "Is intentionally being ignorant morally acceptable?" I would say it depends on what your definition of morality is.
 
TheBook said:
Voltaire: Story of a Good Brahmin

For those of you not familiar with Voltaire's "The Good Brahmin" A link has been provided to it. It is a brief tale of a very wise man, who is jealous of his ignorant neighbor's happiness.

It asks a question which seems quite relevant in our modern society. Is knowledge the enemy of true happiness? Can one truly be wise and entirely happy?

Another question which arises is, is intentionally being ignorant morally acceptable?

I'm curious about what the community thinks about this idea.
Click to expand...

I really think to see the truth of the matter, one has to look at a child. Look at how happy a child is with their ignorance. They don't know anything about the world, or the people live in it, and they couldn't be happier. I really think it's learning about what a sh*tty place the world actually is, that brings that sense innocence and wonder crashing to the ground. So, yes I'd have to say knowing too much will degrade happiness. As a wise man once said, "ignorance is bliss". I think it's good if you want to be happy, to find a common ground. Knowing too much really isn't productive to one's happiness. I'm pretty sure there's information somewhere, that would completely destroy one's faith in humanity. I believe there's certain things people just don't want to know. I personally want to know everything, as I believe one can accomplish anything with the proper knowledge. I honestly don't care what implications it has on my personal happiness. But some information, really can have a negative effect on one's personal happiness.
 
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Good point Arcadius.

The problem with ignorance is that even though it may make us happy, I feel that it is a fundamentally immoral state of being.

Let's take a look at children for a moment. Going with the premise that they are blissfully-ignorant, what if one never grew up? They would lack a certain degree of the empathy and understanding that comes with true maturity and adulthood. Without empathy and understanding, a person often fails to realize the consequences of their actions. This lack of understanding can often lead to the bullying. In many cases, those being bullied stand out in some way. They don’t fit in with those around them for some reason, whether they are overweight, have a different skin color or religion or simply behave differently from the collective. We see this behavior in adults as well, but it is rarely as widespread or bare-faced as it can be with children. We have also seen where this sort of behavior can go if left unchecked, in adults at the very least.
 
Arcadius said:
I really think to see the truth of the matter, one has to look at a child. Look at how happy a child is with their ignorance. They don't know anything about the world, or the people live in it, and they couldn't be happier. I really think it's learning about what a sh*tty place the world actually is, that brings that sense innocence and wonder crashing to the ground. So, yes I'd have to say knowing too much will degrade happiness. As a wise man once said, "ignorance is bliss". I think it's good if you want to be happy, to find a common ground. Knowing too much really isn't productive to one's happiness. I'm pretty sure there's information somewhere, that would completely destroy one's faith in humanity. I believe there's certain things people just don't want to know. I personally want to know everything, as I believe one can accomplish anything with the proper knowledge. I honestly don't care what implications it has on my personal happiness. But some information, really can have a negative effect on one's personal happiness.
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I am inclined to believe that the state of a child's happiness has more to do with their stage of brain development over what they know.
 
megaprogman said:
I am inclined to believe that the state of a child's happiness has more to do with their stage of brain development over what they know.
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My parent's let me know whatever I wanted to know as a child. I spent most of my childhood trying to come up with ridiculous plans on how to create a better world. I also spent a large portion of my childhood trying to come to terms with the idea that I wasn't some sort of messiah hear to singlehandedly save the day. It eventually developed into me feeling alienated from those around me because they couldn't understand my dream. It got to the point where I was basically lying to everyone I knew, and was generally acting like a completely different person than I actually was. I was not a very happy child, quite the contrary actually. I think it was the knowledge that caused this, not my brain development, although I would say it played a part. Despite all this I still believe knowledge is good, but too much (especially when you're not ready to learn) can cause unhappiness.
 
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TheBook said:
Good point Arcadius.

The problem with ignorance is that even though it may make us happy, I feel that it is a fundamentally immoral state of being.

Let's take a look at children for a moment. Going with the premise that they are blissfully-ignorant, what if one never grew up? They would lack a certain degree of the empathy and understanding that comes with true maturity and adulthood. Without empathy and understanding, a person often fails to realize the consequences of their actions. This lack of understanding can often lead to the bullying. In many cases, those being bullied stand out in some way. They don’t fit in with those around them for some reason, whether they are overweight, have a different skin color or religion or simply behave differently from the collective. We see this behavior in adults as well, but it is rarely as widespread or bare-faced as it can be with children. We have also seen where this sort of behavior can go if left unchecked, in adults at the very least.
Click to expand...

I never said it didn't have negative implications. I was simply stating that a child's innocence and sense of wonder is happiness in it's truest form. I also think innocence is just ignorance, and too much ignorance will always be very negative. I believe an abundance of knowledge's positive implications will alway be greater than the negative. I just believe it can have a negative effect on one's personal happiness. And if you're truly searching for only happiness you don't want to know everything.
 
This is the perfect philosophical question. It requires one to form an opinion, or philosophy, on the basis of ambiguity due to complex variables. One would first need to define what happiness is; and since that alone provides the first road block in defining the parameters, it sets the debate on fire, coz NO ONE can answer the question to any degree of validity encompassing all variables.

The philosophers dream discussion point I suppose. Ask a question that cannot reasonably be answered. :)


Tim-
 
TheBook said:
Let's take a look at children for a moment. Going with the premise that they are blissfully-ignorant, what if one never grew up?
Click to expand...

He'd spend his time talking to fairies and getting chased by pirates.
 
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