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It's a matter of intelligence

There are two types of people in the world; those who believe they know everything, and those who believe they will never be finished learning. Which one are you?

Benjamin Franklin once said “the doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance”, and this quote speaks to me, because only he who believes he knows all, is ignorant of knowledge.

This quote is simply telling us that no man, even the smartest of all, could possible know everything, and if they said otherwise, they are arrogant and ignorant. To be ignorant means to be lacking in knowledge, meaning that if you believe you know everything that the world can offer you, you lack awareness of the ever changing world and the new knowledge it can bring.

The quote is very similar to, and possibly even inspired by Socrates’ quote “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing”, which also has a similar meaning of that it’s impossible for someone to know everything, despite what they may claim. This can be linked to the idea from thousands of years ago, when some people believed the earth was round, but the majority believed it was flat. Of course we know now that the earth is round, as we have the science to prove so, however, back then was based on faith and supposed “knowledge”, which can now be seen as ignorance, as it’s only been recently that humans have gained the knowledge to find the evidence for themselves.

Another Socrates quote that is much alike to Benjamin Franklin’s is “and in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all”. Again, both men are simply telling us that the world is continuously changing, as are interpretations, and that nothing can really be known.
Furthermore, there is also a hint lying underneath this that everything can be doubted, as we cannot truly know anything for sure, except, as the philosopher Descartes said, the fact that we think - cogito ergo sum - “I think therefore I am”. However, on the other hand, although we can think, and can be aware that we think, we cannot assume that what we think is always correct, as that is not wisdom, but rather ignorance of other views.

This leads onto comparing Benjamin’s quote to the analogy of Plato’s cave - a comparison showing the difference between those who slowly gain wisdom, and those who remain arrogant, as men are left staring at cave walls, talking about shadows that are cast by a fire of the outside world. Obsessed, they discuss the shadows, guessing what would appear next and being correct earnt the player praise of being a “master of nature” and one of the cleverest men alive, in their little game. However, when one man escaped the cave prison, he discovered the beauty and intelligence of the real world, and became less interested in the trivial shadows he had spent his life looking at, however when he returned to tell the other prisoners of the cave, they didn’t believe him and they killed him. This links to the quote from Benjamin because the prisoners of the cave were prisoners to their own life, believing they knew all, and completely ignorant to the real world, because they only believed what they saw, whereas the man who escaped learnt new knowledge, granting him a step closer to wisdom. Plato’s escaped prisoner was a reference to a good friend Socrates, who drank hemlock due to him being on trial for “corrupting the belief of youths” as he offered new philosophical ideas, as like Benjamin, he knew people would never be done learning, however in ancient Greece this behaviour wasn’t accepted.

So why are you reading this?


What character do you relate to? Are you like Socrates - arrogant, and with the belief you know everything? Or are you like Benjamin - he who believes that no one can be done learning about the world?

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