What does knowledge alone contribute when it has become independent from compassion?
Please Login to ask or answer a question, or Register if you do not have a WryteStuff Account.
Answers to this question:
Excellent ethical question. Knowledge, when enacted without compassion, has a ruinous affect on society. Take for example technological knowledge, which can be inflicted on society, and incrementally ratchets away trust and self-reliance, causing us to displace our decision making abilities to chemicals, electronics, and other externalized and impersonal methods. We have web cams ready to nab us as our car inches over the line at a red light; parents no longer establish words of trust with their children, because some conscienceless SOB invented a cheap drug testing kit, which he has convinced you that you really need; cops have tasers, and are more likely than ever to taser a person for the mildest of reasons, only because he has one. In short, just because we have knowledge doesn't mean we must use that knowledge. The problem is, you can't thank a person for not using knowledge irresponsibly, because you don't know what you don't have. Good, conscientious and ethical behavior is unrecognizable. On the other hand, once a person has inflicted knowledge on society, it is too late, it's out there, the genie is out of the bottle. Too often laws are unresponsive to ethics, so that people have wide latitude in their ability to act on their knowledge and cleverness unethically.
Gregory
I love reading your posts be it a reply to a question or one of your articles. It stirs so much within.
I love the perspective you offer regarding technological knowledge's affect on society as it truly implicates every other form of knowledge from one perspective. i had not originally thought of it from a technological perspective; rather, looking at the question from a mental / spiritual perspective.
I am going to have to take my thoughts (those nasty opinions that always exist) and reconsider them with this new perspective.
I'll be back with thoughts.
mwah
The WryteStuff Q&A section is for entertainment and civil discourse only. As always, if you need professional advice, seek the advice of a professional.
