Ask Me Help Desk - Is knowledge success in itself?

My question is what is the importance of gaining knowledge, without any materialistic interest, and just for the sake of gaining knowledge. If a very knowledge able person has no wealth, fame, power and any other materialistic plus point, still can he say that I'm successful just and just because I have knowledge? For Example if a person Mr.A led all his life in the pursuit of knowledge, just because of his curiousity, and earn no money, fame, power, niether he conveyed all his learnings to anyone by writing or any other mean.Niether he got self satisaction, by knowing that he has become a great scholar, (because to him there are tooooo many things he don't know even then), and in this pursuit he died. Can we say that Mr.A led a successful life.

You seem to be asking not one, but two questions here. The first would be concerning what the importance of gaining knowledge is to a person without gaining any materialistic rewards, such as wealth, fame, power, etc. The second would be concerning the fate of Mr. A.

Concerning the first question, it depends on your matter of opinion as to whether the pursuit of knowledge is of value to you in your life. I would say that the answer is yes, if your goal is to pursue and gain knowledge and find satisfaction merely by the fact that you have been successful by gaining the knowledge that you have sought. On the other hand, if your endeavor in the pursuit of knowledge is because you believe that attaining knowledge will lead you to fame and wealth and you do not attain fame and wealth in the pursuit of the knowledge of things in which you have sought, then you would not be able to find yourself successful because you have not achieved your goal of being wealthy, famous, etc.

Concerning the fate of Mr. A, if he was just curious about gaining knowledge about things, then that would indicate that he was not really serious in his pursuit of the knowledge. Having no satisfaction in the pursuit of the knowledge is therefore not an issue because he was just curious. So, I would say that he had been successful in the pursuit of the knowledge and thus also his life, because his pursuit of the knowledge had been only out of curiosity. It was not a goal for which he was striving to gain the material things which you have described as being rewards for such a pursuit if the attainment of them was to be a result of pursuing the knowledge of the things sought.

It depends on what your definition of success is. Does it all depend on materialistic wealth? Does he really need to convey his knowledge to others? For myself, I pursue knowledge for the pure gain for myself, because I wish to know more and always will. The only difference is that I am a student, and so I want to pass on that knowledge to my fellow students.

It's what you do with your knowledge that makes all the difference. Do you use it to create, destroy, or educate each other? That determines your success, I believe.

Look at Einstein... he was a total genius, and found the formula for nuclear power. But what happened when he gave it to the US government? They created the atomic bomb. So Einstein's knowledge, which he meant to use to help others, was used instead to kill others. Hat is definitely not a measure of success. Yeah, his intentions were good, but because WWII was going on, the government used his findings for the bomb.

It's a good question!

Knowledge alone doesn't guarantee very much. It doesn't even guarantee wisdom.

If one's life goal to gain as much knowledge as they possibly can for no particular reason, then yes, that's success. I don't think very many people would die thinking that was a very meaningful purpose to live by.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamworld05

The only difference is that I am a student, and so I want to pass on that knowledge to my fellow students.

Yes indeed. That's success.

In my point of view, the only real meaningful success comes from our ability to have a positive impact in other peoples' lives. I can't think of one cherished person in history that didn't offer some kind of good to help humanity, or at least give them something to enjoy. When we get old, we think of the good we did for others.

Success does not come from knowledge or from wealth or power or glory or even from society. Success is a judgement of how we feel about ourself. We may allow socieity to decide it for us, if we accept their view points and beleifs, We may deny it to ourself by not accepting society and not setting a proper goal in our life.

Success is and has to be an inner goal that we view ourself by. So society can not make us anything, only we can decide what we are.

While I agree that knowledge doesn't guarantee success, I have lived by the philosophy that knowledge is power. I believe the pursuit of knowledge to be one of the loftiest goals man can attain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

success does not come from knowledge or from wealth or power or glory or even from society. Success is a judgement of how we feel about ourself. We may allow socieity to decide it for us, if we accept thier view points and beleifs, We may deny it to ourself by not accepting society and not setting a proper goal in our life.

Success is and has to be an inner goal that we view ourself by. So society can not make us anything, only we can decide what we are.

Do you believe it is humanly possible to judge ourselves without compare ourselves to others? If we had never met another person, we wouldn't know what we are or have any idea how to form a meaning for our life. I think most people weed through a lot of ideas and modify them to suit their heart.

Sometimes the greatest motivation for success is to overcome hardship or tyranny. Success comes when we've done good for ourself or others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamworld05

It depends on what your definition of success is. Does it all depend on materialistic wealth? Does he really need to convey his knowledge to others? For myself, I pursue knowledge for the pure gain for myself, because I wish to know more and always will. The only difference is that I am a student, and so I want to pass on that knowledge to my fellow students.

It's what you do with your knowledge that makes all the difference. Do you use it to create, destroy, or educate each other? That determines your success, I believe.

Look at Einstein...he was a total genius, and found the formula for nuclear power. But what happened when he gave it to the US government? They created the atomic bomb. So Einstein's knowledge, which he meant to use to help others, was used instead to kill others. hat is definitely not a measure of success. Yeah, his intentions were good, but because WWII was going on, the government used his findings for the bomb.

It's a good question!

Great illustration, I would totally say the same, while we are talking about knowledge and gaining it, as you said it might have to sites, positive and negative one depands on how you use it.

For example X personal has knowledge about computer programming and viruses, he thought to the person Y how to creat a viruses that will demage 2 billion computer, so the question is ( does this knowledge is worthy or not ) that's allways depands and the way you want to put in use.

I really would say you broad up a hot topic that related to our daily life.

Just one more thing I want to mentation here, cause some times I just read things and everyone wants to gain knowledge eventhought that might not bring us materialistis incoms just for couriosity, I would say this couriosity should be up to somewere limited period, rather than just gaining for couriosity this would like not worthy you get what I'm saying.

Good luck all

" don't gain knowledge if you don't plann using it in the future" hehehheheh :p

There is a common misconception in our society that knowledge is power. This statement is utterly and completely false! In fact, quite the opposite is true. Knowledge is useless. Your college education, your experiences in life or your above-average IQ don't mean a thing and they won't allow you to earn a dime or to have a moment of happiness or prosperity in this world.

Unless you USE them, of course!

Jeff

Having a mind full of knowledge and fact as opposed to fantasy and superstition protects an individual from fear of the unknown and fear in general.

Choux

Knowledge without proper use or application is just so much chaf in the brain, it matters very little and it is not conducive to success.