...Iraaj Majumdar 4576366 Question 3 : Ignorance is Bliss “Ignorance is bliss” was first put into a phrase by Thomas Gray in is ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. When considering this, to me the key thing to understand is perception. “Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt. If we are to say that ignorance is bliss, then we are saying that knowledge is sadness. Turing and Russell, noted logicians, would say that of course ignorance is bliss. When we are unaware of the things that could make us unhappy, we are in a state of happiness. But is that to say we were happier? Ignorance is plainly then just ignorance. It is only through knowledge that we can understand that we were happier when we didn’t know. We do not know what we are ignorant of until we discover the truth. To the example at hand; Cypher would be neither happier nor unhappier being back in the matrix. The only way he would know that he was blissful would be by comparison, making this idea in itself a paradox. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but the thoughts about it. Beware of the thoughts you are thinking” – Eckhart Tolle. Tolle’s view supports the idea that it is the knowledge that makes us understand whether or not we are happy. The idea that thinking is what makes us happy goes all the way back to Descartes, in a way. If the only thing we are sure about are our thoughts, then we are the masters of our own ignorance and our own bliss. Having a Socratic understanding...
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...n our world today, ignorance is a fluent trait in our population. People live through their lives in an ignorant bliss because they do not take time to look into reasoning beyond a normal perspective. Ignorance doesn’t necessarily refer to one’s knowledge in an academic sense but more so is one’s understanding of our surroundings and the world. It cannot be seen with a blind eye, but when looked at on a large scale, our population’s ignorance from our entertainment, inaccurate beliefs, and media will be the downfall of our misunderstood world. Ignorance often defines and influences our morals and social dramatic instances. We let our ego control our actions by only doing things if will be amusing or influential to our piers. This kind of thinking causes us to avoid seeing as things as they really are, instead we just agree with the majority’s view. The reason we think in this sense is because of our fear of the unknown. It is a fear that is not necessarily scary and normally we don’t even realize its existence, but when our ignorance begins to fade, we see how corrupt and self-centered our world is becoming. Ignorance mainly grows from our media that often solely influences our minds. For example, what we consider entertainment is drama, comedy, and reality shows on television. The drama people see usually effects how they think and how they look at others, though most people never take time to realize that all television drama is staged and made out to be the...
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...Is ignorance bliss, or is honesty the best policy? This question could be up for debate after reading Irwin Shaw’s The Girls in Their Summer Dresses. Michael and Frances, the two characters in the story, are a married couple walking hand in hand along a New York City street. “Look out,” Frances said. “You’ll break your neck”, she said, insinuating that Michael was looking at another woman. What kind of person doesn’t look at other people as they pass? As the story evolves, we see that the couple is isolated. She wants to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see a French film, and “have a nice Sunday.” He makes no objection, but for other reasons. “Let’s not see anybody all day,” she said. “Let’s just hang around with each other. You and me. We’re always up to our neck in people, drinking their Scotch or drinking our Scotch; we only see each other in bed. I want to go out with my husband all day long. I want him to talk only to me and listen only to me.” “What’s to stop us?” Michael asked. What is stopping Michael is his infatuation with other women. When Michael stares at other women, it drives Frances crazy. “—say, are you listening to me?” Frances said. “Sure,” he said. He took his eyes off the hatless girl with the dark hair, cut dancer-style like a helmet, who was walking past him. “That’s the program for the day,” Frances said flatly. “Or maybe you’d just rather walk up and down Fifth Avenue.” “No,” Michael said. “Not at all.” “You always look at other women...
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...Gokulnath Govindan Dr. Aratrika Das ENG 104 August 26, Tuesday 2014 What implication does denial have in our understanding of the world? “Ignorance is Bliss!!” In this chapter “Silencing”, from his book, A Language Older Than Words, Derrick Jensen seeks to understand the barbarity that humans inflict upon each other as well as the world in which they live. He fails to understand the fact that “if our behaviour is not making us happy, why do we act this way“ (15)? Jensen uses the help of terms such as Denial and Silencing in order to answer this question. We can safely interpret from the essay that in this particular context, silencing and denial coexist and more often act as synonyms. Therefore, the fact that denial is not explicitly mentioned in Jensen’s essay does not mean that he is ignoring it. Although we shall be looking at what denial is and how understanding it helps the author in answering his central question, the primary aim of this paper is to look at the implications denial has in our understanding of the world. This is so because if there were no implications of denial, other questions of what it is or why it occurs could be rendered completely pointless. According to Oxford English Dictionary, Denial is defined as “asserting (of anything ) to be untrue or untenable”. Jensen talks of three forms of denial in his essay. The first form mentioned is self-denial or in this context, the victim’s denial. Jensen’s own experience with childhood...
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...In Fahrenheit 451, there is a struggle between knowledge and ignorance, and the novel shows how people cope when faced with this struggle. It can be debated, but the pursuit of knowledge is key, and ignorance is not always bliss. The pursuit of knowledge is crucial for Guy Montag, the society as a whole, as well the sanity of everybody. Montag is lost, depressed, and lonely because he felt as if a part of his life was missing. He would wander through the streets at night crying, wondering what was wrong with him, screaming to the skies about the constant weight on his shoulders. Over time, he began to stash books in his vents and pursue reading more. After this, he changed. He seemed lighter, happier, and overall more content with his life. The mere presence of books brought him such a great happiness and began to fulfill his need for knowledge. Clarisse McClellan also struggled with her desperation for knowledge. By the government, she was deemed “different” and “strange” due to the fact she adored reading, writing, and reading. People crossed streets to avoid her, students at school tormented her, and even parts of her own family disowned her. All these actions were a result of her need for knowledge. Ultimately, she ended up taking her own life because she felt so unwanted, she could not express her love for knowledge, and she felt as peculiar as a violin in a marching band. Citizens were burned and were willing to be burned alive if it meant that they were going to lose...
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...Sight in Oedipus The phrase “ignorance is bliss” is a common one used in situations where a person is better off not knowing something. A similar phrase is used by Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles that says, “Oblivion – what a blessing… / for the mind to dwell a world away from pain.” (lines 1522-1523) Both of these statements explain how the absence of knowledge can shield a person from feeling pain. In this screwball, Greek tale, knowledge is attained by having sight of either the physical or the mystical world. Before Oedipus spears needles through his eyes, he further expresses his grievances by saying, “I, with my eyes, / how could I look my father in the eyes / when I go down to death? Or mother, so abused… / I have done such things to the two of them, / crimes too huge for hanging. / Worse yet, / the sight of my children, born as they were born, / how could I long to look into their eyes? / No, not with these eyes of mine, never. / ”( lines 1501-1507) Literally, Oedipus is saying he cannot look into his children’s’ eyes without remembering the horrendous things of which he has done. Diving even deeper, he is saying that he is blinded by guilt and shame for he...
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...Arrogance Proverbs 8:5, 10-12 NRSV "O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it. . . . Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. I, wisdom, live with prudence, and I attain knowledge and discretion." It's cool these days to be ignorant. You see it everywhere. People talking, writing, acting without knowledge and with no desire to get knowledge. They want to "make" their own culture, their own language, their own sense. I think it's probably a consequence of evolution (as Dr. Henry Morris predicted). If the physical world is evolving (and there is nothing there that is solidified in essence), then it follows that the social world is evolving, leaving us with the quagmire of no right or wrong, nothing that is fixed outside of us. Everything around us is what we want to perceive, what we want to make of it. On the surface, I think that many Christians might reject that . . . at first. But as I talk to people on the Internet, with those who call themselves believers, I find that many believe that it is okay to have behaviors, standards that are different from one another, not because each is in a different place of spiritual maturity, but because we cannot tell each other what is right or wrong. And so I see many people doing things that they obviously shouldn't be doing. Oh, I not talking about whether or not they attend a certain church...
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...In our world today, ignorance is a fluent trait in our population. People live through their lives in an ignorant bliss because they do not take time to look into reasoning beyond a normal perspective. Ignorance doesn’t necessarily refer to one’s knowledge in an academic sense but more so is one’s understanding of our surroundings and the world. It cannot be seen with a blind eye, but when looked at on a large scale, our population’s ignorance from our entertainment, inaccurate beliefs, and media will be the downfall of our misunderstood world. Ignorance often defines and influences our morals and social dramatic instances. We let our ego control our actions by only doing things if will be amusing or influential to our piers. This kind of thinking causes us to avoid seeing as things as they really are, instead we just agree with the majority’s view. The reason we think in this sense is because of our fear of the unknown. It is a fear that is not necessarily scary and normally we don’t even realize its existence, but when our ignorance begins to fade, we see how corrupt and self-centered our world is becoming. Ignorance mainly grows from our media that often solely influences our minds. For example, what we consider entertainment is drama, comedy, and reality shows on television. The drama people see usually effects how they think and how they look at others, though most people never take time to realize that all television drama is staged and made out to be...
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...Katherine Mansfield Excels “in expressing a child’s sense of things” (MacCarthy). How does Mansfield present childhood in “Sun and Moon” and “Prelude”? Mansfield presents childhood as a time where everything in the world is fascinating and as a time where one is allowed to be ignorant and innocent, as well as a time during which many things can seem violent or intimidating. One way in which Mansfield presents childhood is as a fairy-tale. For example, in the story “Sun and Moon”, Sun is fascinated by the beauty of the dinner table, when it turns out to be like a mask hiding the ugly truth. He is particularly taken with the ice-house: “Oh! Oh! Oh! It was a little house.” This house resembles the house from Hansel and Gretel, and this fairy-tale is about a pair of innocent children being captured by a witch; slightly sinister. At the end of the story, Sun is taken into the dining room by his parents and the ice-house is all smashed: “broken – broken – half melted away.” This is upsetting for Sun, but what is more upsetting is when his sister, Moon, eats the little nut that is the door handle, because he was so enthralled by it earlier on. What this tells us about the way Mansfield is trying to represent childhood is as a time when everything seems overwhelming, and that parents do not always understand their children, because Sun is sent to his room by his father for being upset about the events. Mansfield also presents childhood as mysterious and exciting. For instance, in “Prelude”...
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...Ignorance is Bliss Many people believe that more knowledge leads to more happiness. However, the well-known saying "Ignorance is bliss" may be more credible than people think. Many times, people are hurt by the truth. Therefore, more knowledge does not make one happier because the truth can be devastating and have a negative impact on one's life. When you are ignorant, you choose to not recognize that there is wrong in the world or that wrong is being done to you. This proverb can be clearly illustrated in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ and the story of ‘Oedipus the King’. In the story of ‘Oedipus the king’, it is prophesized that Oedipus would kill his father and marries his mother. If Oedipus had remained oblivious of the ancient prophecy he would not have ultimately stabbed out his own eyes. And imposed on himself the penalty of exile. He was so desperate for knowledge and to find out the truth that in the end he caused pain to himself. If he would remain ignorant, he would not have gone through much pain. His thirst of knowing the truth was the road through his tragic end. For Oedipus, ignorance would have been bliss. In the case of Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’, once the prisoner is released he is forced to look upon the fire and objects that were his reality. He realizes these new images in front of him are now the accepted forms of reality. Plato describes the vision of the real truth in one way to the prisoners. Thus, they do not realize that they are looking at...
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...Being Well Educated Febraury 13, 2010 Patricia Ricks-Armstead In exploring what it means to be educated one must take a closer look at how we seek and acquire knowledge beyond the traditional sense. If you take a closer look you will discover that there is an evolution of how knowledge has been shared and obtained throughout human history. And it is with this discovery that we will learn that acquisition of knowledge is not a “one-size-fits-all” process that has dominated most educational institutions in the recent decades. Being well educated does not always mean that you know everything all the time. If that was the case, we would all be perfect. I feel that everyone has a bit of ignorance in them. To define ignorance so no one will be offended; it is the lack of knowledge: lack of knowledge or education, unawareness: unawareness of something, often of something important. Synonyms are the state of unawareness, inexperience, illiteracy, unfamiliarity, obliviousness, witlessness. Now if you look at this, I don’t know how to fly a plane so therefore I am ignorant to that fact but it definitely does not mean that I am not well educated. Some people would argue the ignorant factor asuming that this is a way of calling them stupid. Like it says in the "What does it mean to be well educated story", the husband talks about how his wife is very knowledgable when it comes to medicine and anthropology; she freezes up when you ask her what eight times seven is. (Kohn...
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...From the frail, homeless veteran less than a mile from their front door, holding out his trembling hands and pleading with eyes full of pain, they turn away. People turn away and ignore the most excruciating truths of the world to avoid the discomfort and responsibility that comes with acknowledging reality. Whether it is used by individuals and villages as coping mechanisms or by countries that remain negligent to their neighbors’ problems, ignorance can be a deadly vice. Although Ishmael Beah’s survival in the war was dependent on withdrawing from reality and losing himself, both his and Mariatu Kamara’s memoirs prove that willful ignorance is a temporary solution to a...
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...In the movie “Crimson Tide” the two main characters, the Executive Officer and the Captain, both possess ignorance on what should be the right thing to do for SS Alabama. The captain possesses invincible ignorance and the executive officer possesses vincible ignorance which afterwards shifted to invincible ignorance. The captain’s duty as the chief of SS Alabama is to carry out whatever mission given to him by the command post. He should carry out his mission at all cost even if he needs to make his subordinate undergo very strict measures. As the chief of SS Alabama, everyone depends on him that he shouldn’t perform mistakes in delivering protocols for if he committed a mistake he might risk the lives of the crew of the submarine. Because of this, the captain becomes ignorant of what is the proper thing to do. He has always remained true to his duty as the chief of the submarine which blinded him of the truth. His ignorance is invincible because his doings are based on his responsibility as the captain. He need to execute every protocol to him because it is his duty to do so, it will be hard for him to dispel this because there are lives that would be risked if he failed to accomplish his duty. He also need to response quickly on protocols for the sake of Alabama, he is not aware that he needed enlightenment. On the other hand Executive Officer possesses vincible ignorance. His duty was to repeat the duty of the captain in order to concur the protocols. At the movie he seemed...
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...WRITTEN REPORT IN ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES Submitted by: Balani, Alyssa Marie Bautista, Louies Angelo Dela Torre, Allyssa Dizon, Princess Dianne Oracion, Jason Pagdanganan, Reginauld Yves The Modifiers of Human Act I. Ignorance - The absence of knowledge which a person ought to possess. * Vincible Ignorance- one which can easily corrected. * Affected Ignorance- A vincible ignorance which is intentionally kept in an effort to escape responsibilities. * Invincible Ignorance- one which is not easily remedied, because the person is either not aware of is ignorance or being aware of it, does not have the means to rectify such ignorance. II. Passions - They are either Tendencies towards desirable objects or Tendencies away from undesirable objects. * Antecedent Passion- comes as a natural reaction to an object or stimulus * Consequent Passion- the result of an act which causes it to be aroused III. Fear - The disturbance of the mind of a person who is confronted by a danger to himself or loved ones. * Actions that which are difficult or dangerous are done with fear. * Acting out of fear is when fear causes a person to act. IV. Violence - Any physical force exerted on a person by a free agent V. Habits - Something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way. The Ends of Human Act -It is said that a man doesn’t act aimlessly. His action is done...
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...advertisements that exhibit any of the following fallacies: equivocation, false authority, ad hominem, appeal to ignorance, or bandwagon. Post the videos in the discussion. Next, identify the fallacy used in the selected advertisements, discuss the primary reasons why you believe that the advertisers have used the fallacy in question, and examine whether or not their use of this type of fallacy is effective. From part 1 of this discussion, consider alternate strategies that the advertisers could have used in order to develop a more sound and persuasive argument. Explain the main reasons why you believe consumers ignore these errors in reasoning. “False Authority “ Tom Cruise Calls Psychiatric a pseudo science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y7CpS0gtlk The advertisers uses this holly wood actor because he is famous, while claiming to do his research a holly wood actor is not an Authority on the subject of psychology This type of fallacy is very effective. Consumers tend to connect with people in the media. A more sound and persuasive argument would have been if the information being presented came from a psychologist. Consumers ignore these reasons in reasoning because they think if a famous actor is presenting the information then it must be true. “Appeal To Ignorance” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ra8_gyY9R8 The argument from ignorance, (“appeal to ignorance”) which means, argument by lack of imagination, or negative evidence, is a logical fallacy in which it is claimed...
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