Virtual exhibition

"Knowledge is power, power is knowledge"

to the 455th anniversary of the birth of Francis Bacon

The Library and Information Complex (LIC) presents a virtual exhibition dedicated to the 455th anniversary of the birth of Francis Bacon.

Francis Bacon (January 22, 1561 - April 9, 1626) - English philosopher, historian, politician, founder of empiricism.

In 1584 he was elected to parliament. From 1617 Lord Privy Seal, then Lord Chancellor; Baron of Verulam and Viscount of St. Albany. In 1621 he was put on trial on charges of bribery, convicted and removed from all positions. He was later pardoned by the king, but did not return to public service and last years devoted his life to scientific and literary work.

Francis Bacon began his professional life as a lawyer, but later became widely known as a lawyer-philosopher and defender of the scientific revolution. His works are the foundation and popularization of the inductive methodology of scientific inquiry, often called Bacon's method.

Bacon outlined his approach to the problems of science in the treatise “New Organon”, published in 1620. In this treatise, he declared the goal of science to be increasing man's power over nature. Induction gains knowledge from the world around us through experiment, observation, and testing hypotheses. In the context of their time, such methods were used by alchemists.

Scientific knowledge

In general, Bacon considered the great dignity of science almost self-evident and expressed this in his famous aphorism “Knowledge is power.” However, many attacks have been made on science. After analyzing them, Bacon came to the conclusion that God did not prohibit the knowledge of nature, as, for example, theologians claim. On the contrary, He gave man a mind that thirsts for knowledge of the Universe.

People just need to understand that there are two types of knowledge: 1) knowledge of good and evil, 2) knowledge of things created by God. The knowledge of good and evil is forbidden to people. God gives it to them through the Bible. And man, on the contrary, must cognize created things with the help of his mind. This means that science must take its rightful place in the “kingdom of man.” The purpose of science is to increase the strength and power of people, to provide them with a rich and dignified life.

Method of cognition

Pointing to the deplorable state of science, Bacon said that until now discoveries had been made by chance, not methodically. There would be many more of them if researchers were armed with the right method. Method is the path, the main means of research. Even a lame man walking along the road will overtake normal person running off-road. The research method, developed by Francis Bacon, is an early precursor to the scientific method. The method was proposed in Bacon's Novum Organum (New Organon) and was intended to replace the methods that were proposed in Aristotle's Organum almost 2 millennia ago.

According to Bacon, scientific knowledge should be based on induction and experiment. Induction can be complete (perfect) or incomplete. Complete induction means the regular repetition and exhaustibility of any property of an object in the experience under consideration. Inductive generalizations start from the assumption that this will be the case in all similar cases. In this garden, all lilacs are white - a conclusion from annual observations during their flowering period. Incomplete induction includes generalizations made on the basis of studying not all cases, but only some (conclusion by analogy), because, as a rule, the number of all cases is practically unlimited, and theoretically it is impossible to prove their infinite number: all swans are white for us reliably until we will not see a black individual. This conclusion is always probable.

Trying to create a “true induction,” Bacon looked not only for facts that confirmed a certain conclusion, but also for facts that refuted it. He thus armed natural science with two means of investigation: enumeration and exclusion. Moreover, it is the exceptions that matter most.

Using his method, Bacon, for example, established that the “form” of heat is the movement of the smallest particles of the body. So, in his theory of knowledge, Bacon strictly pursued the idea that true knowledge comes from experience. This philosophical position is called empiricism. Bacon was not only its founder, but also the most consistent empiricist.

Obstacles on the path of knowledge

Francis Bacon divided the sources of human errors that stand in the way of knowledge into four groups, which he called “ghosts” (“idols”, Latin idola). These are “ghosts of the family”, “ghosts of the cave”, “ghosts of the square” and “ghosts of the theater”. "Ghosts of the family" stem from the very human nature, they do not depend either on culture or on the individuality of a person.

“The human mind is like an uneven mirror, which, mixing its nature with the nature of things, reflects things in a distorted and disfigured form.” “Ghosts of the Cave” are individual errors of perception, both congenital and acquired. “After all, in addition to the errors inherent in the human race, everyone has their own special cave, which weakens and distorts the light of nature.”

“Ghosts of the Square” are a consequence of the social nature of man - communication and the use of language in communication. “People unite through speech. Words are set according to the understanding of the crowd. Therefore, a bad and absurd statement of words besieges the mind in a surprising way.”

“Ghosts of the theater” are things that a person learns from other people. misconceptions about the structure of reality. “At the same time, we mean here not only general philosophical teachings, but also numerous principles and axioms of the sciences, which received force as a result of tradition, faith and carelessness.”

Followers of Francis Bacon

The most significant followers of the empirical line in modern philosophy: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume - in England; Etienne Condillac, Claude Helvetius, Paul Holbach, Denis Diderot - in France.

In his books “Experiments” (1597), “New Organon” (1620), Bacon acted as an apologist for experienced, experimental knowledge serving the conquest of nature and the improvement of man. Developing a classification of sciences, he proceeded from the position that religion and science form independent areas. This deistic view is also characteristic of Bacon’s approach to the soul. By distinguishing the divinely inspired and bodily souls, he endows them with different properties(sensation, movement - for the bodily one, thinking, will - for the divinely inspired one), considering that the ideal, divinely inspired soul is the object of theology, while the object of science is the properties of the bodily soul and the problems arising from their study.

Arguing that the basis of all knowledge lies in human experience, Bacon warned against hasty conclusions drawn from sensory data. Bacon called errors of knowledge associated with the mental organization of man idols, and his “doctrine of idols” is one of the most important parts of his methodology. If, in order to obtain reliable data based on sensory experience, it is necessary to verify the data of sensations by experiment, then to confirm and verify conclusions it is necessary to use the method of induction developed by Bacon.

Correct induction, careful generalization and comparison of facts that support the conclusion with those that refute them, makes it possible to avoid the errors inherent in reason. The principles of the study of mental life, the approach to the subject of psychological research, laid down by Bacon, were further developed in the psychology of modern times.

Life path and works of F. Bacon

Dushin A.V. The idea of ​​education in the empirical philosophy of Francis Bacon // Problems and prospects for the development of education in Russia. - 2013. - No. 18.

Kondratyev S.V. Natural philosophical and political arguments in the unionist discourse of Francis Bacon / Kondratiev S.V., Kondratieva T.N. //Bulletin of Tyumen State University.-2014.-No. 10.

Poletukhin Yu.A. Materialistic justification of law in the concept of Francis Bacon // Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Series: Law.-2006.-No. 5.

Smagin Yu.E. Knowledge as power in the philosophy of F. Bacon // Bulletin of the Leningrad State University. A.S. Pushkin.-2012.-T.2, No. 1.

Humanity is replenishing its knowledge bank every second, and the development of technology has led to the fact that any of us, if desired, can immediately find out about it. A huge flow of information falls on us from everywhere, which our brain, as recent research shows, still does not assimilate: the volume of information entering the brain from the five senses is truly colossal - it is approximately 400 billion bits per second; our consciousness cannot cope with this volume; we perceive an insignificant part of it - about 2000 bits per second.

How a person can carry out knowledge of the world: lying on the sofa in front of the TV, absorbing information junk from it, or consciously making a choice among sources of knowledge and filtering incoming information - this is up to each of us. In this article I would like to make some arguments in favor of the latter.

Also in late XVII century, the English philosopher Francis Bacon formulated his famous aphorism: “ Knowledge itself is power"(lat. Scientia potentia est), in translation - " Knowledge itself is power».

At all times, people have strived to master this power, but do we need to take part in this race recklessly?

“Whoever owns the information owns the world,” we hear from everywhere, but is this true?

I really liked the opinion on this issue Napoleon Hill, which was reflected in his famous bestseller "Think and get rich"‒ a book first published in 1937 and reprinted 42 times in the US (and that’s just in the US, not counting the rest of the world):

Education - this is your own image created by you. A person finds it himself necessary knowledge. Follow a simple plan and you won't start from scratch.

There are two types of knowledge - fundamental knowledge And special knowledge. Fundamental, that is, general knowledge, no matter how deep or varied it is, you will hardly need to save money. The largest universities collectively possess almost all types of fundamental knowledge available to civilization. However, most professors are not among the richest people on earth. They specialize in teaching knowledge, but no one can say that they specialize in the problem of using knowledge.

Reminding this simple thing leads to millions of people continuing to believe in the common misconception that “ knowledge is power».

Nothing like this!

Knowledge is just potential power!

It becomes a real force only if it is processed into a clear plan of action and aimed at the final result.

This “missing link” in the educational system is especially noticeable in the futile attempts of all kinds of educational institutions to teach students to organize and use the knowledge they have already acquired. People make the mistake of thinking that Henry Ford was not an “educated” man because he spent very little time in school.

Those who think in this way completely do not understand the true meaning of the word “ education"(English - education). To understand its meaning, it is enough to refer to the etymology of this word. It comes from the Latin root " educo", i.e. “develop from within.”

Think about it: education means identifying internal, that is, hidden, abilities and DEVELOPING THESE ABILITIES.

An educated person is not necessarily stuffed with knowledge, whether fundamental or special.

Educated person - this is someone who has developed the abilities of his mind, who can perceive and acquire everything he wants, everything he seems to need, without violating the rights of other people.

But really: knowledge is just potential power! A person can accumulate this power all his life, but never use it! The question is then asked: “ Why do we need her like this?».

You can consciously or unconsciously cram knowledge of certain things into your consciousness as much as you like, but if this knowledge is not used, then in the end it is worthless.

By the wisdom of the Almighty, this knowledge is conveyed to believers in the text of the Holy Quran:

Those who were instructed to adhere to the Taurat (Torah) and who did not adhere to it are like a donkey carrying many books. How bad is the comparison with people who consider the signs of Allah to be lies! Allah does not guide unjust people. [The People of the Book failed to fulfill their assigned mission and, as a result, lost all honor and praise. They are like a donkey laden with wise books. But can a donkey benefit from the books he carries on his back? Does this do him credit? Isn't it his destiny to just carry a heavy load? The same can be said about learned Jews and Christians who do not follow the commandments of the Torah, the greatest of which is the command to follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and believe in the Holy Quran brought by him. Such disregard for the Torah and its covenants will bring them nothing but damage and disappointment, for they will be deprived of any justification for their unbelief. Indeed, the image of a donkey laden with books suits them perfectly. How nasty it is to compare people who reject the signs of Allah, each of which testifies to the sincerity of the Messenger and the truthfulness of his teachings. Verily, Allah does not lead the wicked on a straight path, does not direct them to what will bring them real benefit, until they themselves renounce injustice and cease to persist in disbelief].*

Holy Quran, 62:5

How accurate is this analogy with a donkey loaded with books! What's the use of having so many smart books?! Why thoughtlessly acquire knowledge and then not apply it?

Taking into account the Russian mentality, the answer to this question could be formulated as follows: “ In reserve, maybe it will come in handy" But it’s one thing to gain basic school knowledge in all subjects in order to have an idea of ​​the universe and then, based on this knowledge, develop in the direction in which a person sees himself. And it’s completely different, for example, to read the tabloids or watch programs like “Dom-2” and then only think about who, whom, where and how.

How many people get higher education only in order to receive the coveted diploma, and then not work in the specialty at all, because Are they not interested? How much knowledge did they learn during their studies that, unfortunately, they will never apply in life?! And how much benefit could these people bring if they immediately studied what they like and what will be useful to them later in life?!

I know from myself that much of what I studied at the university has been “safely” forgotten by me... On the other hand, how brilliantly the Creator created our brain, that knowledge that is not used in life is soon forgotten, otherwise we would simply go crazy from it excess.

It is necessary with early years give children the opportunity in various areas of our lives and mark for themselves those areas that are interesting and like them, and when determining certain areas of study in adolescence, facilitate their choice, and not force them to study in areas that are priority for you, making them unhappy , at least for the period of study.

Consider also this continuation of Hill’s thought, formulated in the same “Think and Grow Rich”:

Knowledge in itself has no value. But once knowledge is obtained, it needs to be systematized and made suitable for use to achieve a specific goal. And for this you need, as you remember, a plan of practical action.

If you are considering the possibility of obtaining additional education, first determine why you need it, and then find out where you can do it.

People who succeed in any type of activity never cease to be interested in specialized literature related to their business or profession. Vice versa. There is a common mistake that most losers make, naively believing that they have already received all the knowledge at school. In fact, the education system only shows the way in which a person can acquire the knowledge he needs, including practical knowledge.

That is, you need to constantly develop and improve! Life does not stand still and the knowledge gained yesterday may become outdated tomorrow. Therefore, in the area in which you have determined for yourself that you are interested and doing this, in addition to earning a living, also gives you pleasure and joy, then in this area you must become a professional and continuously acquire specialized knowledge.

REMEMBER that only he becomes the best who has worked hard for at least 10,000-12,000 hours to achieve his goal!

Also in “Think and Grow Rich” there is an interesting idea that free education relaxes and to some extent hinders human development: when a person pays for his education, he has an incentive to learn and gain knowledge in return for the money spent.

So, to summarize all of the above, knowledge is only a potential power, and without practical application in our lives it is difficult to call it necessary.

Verily, the guidance and knowledge with which Allah Almighty and Great sent me [to people] are like rain falling on the earth. Part of this land was [fertile], absorbed water and gave birth to many [all sorts of] plants and herbs. [Another part] of it was dense and retained water, but Allah turned it to the benefit of people who began to use this water for drinking, watering [livestock with it] and using it for irrigation. [Rain] also fell on another part of the earth, which was a plain, which did not retain water and did not give rise to [any] plants. [These parts of the earth] are similar to the one who comprehended the religion of Allah, who turned to his benefit what He sent me with, [thanks to which the person] himself acquired knowledge and passed it on [to others], and to the one who did not turn to it himself and did not accept the guidance of Allah with which I was sent.

Hadith from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari,

Holy Hadith of Muslim (1540)

Pay attention to " acquired knowledge himself and passed it on"! In this hadith, according to theologians, what is meant is the practical application of acquired knowledge and the transfer of it to others. For a better understanding, I will cite another hadith:

May Allah please (that) person who hears something from us and conveys it (to another) exactly as he heard it, because it may happen that the one to whom (something) is conveyed will understand (it) better than the one who heard it.

Hadith from Ibn Mas'ud,

Holy Hadith of at-Tirmidhi

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) taught that the deeds and actions of believers in practice should not diverge from their words and knowledge. It is preferable before the Lord to constantly use one thing rather than to know about many things but not use anything in life:

No one will be able to move on the Day of Judgment until he is asked about his life - how he spent it; about his knowledge - how he used it ; about his wealth - how he earned it and what he spent it on; and about his body - how he used it.

Hadith from Abu Barzakh, St. hadiths of at-Tirmidhi

For example, We all know that, but there are not many who use it when meeting!!!

May Allah Almighty help us in comprehending true, valuable knowledge for us, which we will apply and pass on to others!!!

Rinat Mallyamov

Mahalla No. 1

*With comments by Sh. Alyautdinov

This material will not answer questions about truth, since it is beyond words. Here the issues that interest me in this life will be discussed, and possible options You can give answers in the comments below. This topic is very voluminous and, by its nature, affects many aspects of human existence, so somewhere, in general reflections, I may seem inconsistent to you, but I will try to come to useful conclusions. So, the words “knowledge is power”, what do they really mean?

Are we talking about knowledge of numerous facts or the future, by calculating the options of events? Which knowledge is more valuable, practical, scientific or spiritual?

What is the nature and purpose of the existence of the human race? Do people reproduce to consume resources and occupy more and more territories for their needs, like mold? Or should we develop intellectually and spiritually? If so, then why does one become a humane and pious person not thanks to society, the education system and means mass media, but only in spite of them?

It is believed that strong man has an advantage over the weak, so does this mean that the one who has acquired knowledge gains an advantage and has greater strength? Why does a person need strength at all? To trample on those who are weaker, to impose your will on them and take away resources, or to protect yourself from this? Maybe to gain strength, you need to quit the gym and start reading? Let's figure it out, as these are undoubtedly interesting questions.

Monks and hermits who have received knowledge of the eternal are considered enlightened people and inevitably take the path of non-violence. The very philosophy of renunciation from suffering leads them to begin to fast in order not to allow such evil into themselves. They see the killing of animals as disgusting and wrong, and they also relate to human suffering. Such people try to live in such a way as not to cause pain to themselves and others. Possessing a lot of knowledge, they could subjugate their environment, but they do not. This begs the question, if knowledge is power, then what is the point of it without using it?

A conscious monk knows that the pain of any living being is equal to the pain of a person and puts himself on the same spiritual level with him, so he can rightly call animals lesser brothers. He sees God in all manifestations of life. This step is the real embodiment of mercy, which everyone only talks about, but continues to encourage violence. If we talk about the power of knowledge, will a person be more advanced spiritually and intellectually, stronger in material life?

knowledge is power? What is the superiority of some people over others?

Does a hermit monk stand a chance in a dark alley against a robber with a knife? The criminal in this situation will have an advantage if the monk does not know martial arts. On the other side, man of sense will not walk at night in such places. It turns out that superiority and strength are determined only by the situation and specific skills to turn it to your advantage. It turns out that the key importance in acquiring knowledge is its practical use for obtaining benefits and advantages over others? It’s not clear... For example, an outstanding physicist knows how to assemble a hydrogen bomb and kill billions of people, but will be defenseless against one single boxer.

They say: knowledge is power, but no one says that power is knowledge...

There is an opinion that the enlightened and a wise man understands the difference between temporary and eternal, but what are the advantages? I have written before about the nature of illusions. Our bodies are just lumps of earth and only because we do not understand the nature of life, we consider someone strong or weak. We call some close and others enemies. We are sad when one lump of earth, called a relative, crumbles and rejoice when another lump, called an enemy, changes shape. The difference exists only in the mind, on the gross physical plane. Christians unanimously insist that they believe in God and the soul, but don’t they often lie to themselves? When the body of their loved one is destroyed, they forget about the eternal spirit with its further transformation and grieve only for its temporary container. With this approach, atheists are at least more honest when they are sad about the loss of loved ones, believing that they have lost them forever.

What is suffering if not a chance for redemption for the soul? Here correct question. The man moved and spoke, but was it he, the immortal spirit? The body is simply a compound of biomass. It moves only by the will of the Almighty, called movement by science. Only the cause of all causes creates time and movement, which means man did not move, God moved. Do you understand now? There really is no advantage and it’s all a hoax. It exists only in an illusion where there are loved ones and enemies.

Only in delusion can one consider oneself stronger than others and cause suffering to others. No matter how hard you try to hurt a renounced monk, you will not succeed. He feels that his physical body is not him. Everything except the true observer, which is the soul, and the external, which is the perception of God, are the pastimes of the Almighty.

Evil and good are human inventions. There is only movement and illusion created by the mind. When I am in a state of enlightenment, I am not angry even at the most disgusting people. How can you be angry about rain, snow or wind? These phenomena are simply elements from the combination of primary substance.

People are also an element. A person is intelligent enough to recognize their constituent elements in others and is able to foresee their actions. Just as an ordinary person, looking out the window at a cloudy sky, is able to foresee rain, you can also use your mind to understand what actions those around you will perform at the next moment in time.

We can say that knowledge has some advantages in the material world, but they are determined only by the degree of illusion in which consciousness resides. Thus, it is believed that being in comfort, we have superiority over those who are in need. But why then do monks and hermits strive for asceticism? They understand that excessive comfort pleases the body, but destroys the soul, so they are content with only what is necessary.

Scientific and spiritual approaches to acquiring knowledge

If you calculate effectively enough, you can predict a situation before it occurs, change the course of events at your discretion, or avoid unpleasant circumstances. Some are so successful in this that they are called seers. Yes, the seer prophetic dreams, is actually like a computer calculating possible situations from the original data. People's actions are like elements, they are inevitable and created by the movement of particles.

If we take into account scientific approach, then physicists have recently discovered the phenomenon of wave-particle duality. In theory, the movements of particles in a limited space have a constant trajectory, and if you have sufficient data, you can calculate any events. The ball falls because a person threw it, he did it because he wanted to, but thoughts are just a collection ready-made templates and wave movements in the cerebral cortex caused by the arrangement of particles.

Is it possible to be angry with a person if he is an inevitable movement of the elements? No, because this is as stupid as being angry at the rain and is evidence of the immaturity of our mind... Does this mean that a person has no choice and fate has absolute power over him? There is complex but compelling evidence to the contrary. The equation of Erwin Schrödinger and Broglie introduced such a thing as a probabilistic factor into the theory of wave dualism. It is impossible to foresee everything, because the smallest particles move not only by inertia, but also have deviations.

So, the smallest particles are actually not so small and not so particles, because they have wave properties. Thanks to scientific knowledge, we are able to distinguish a substance, but not its nature and structure. We can comprehend more with our minds only when we go beyond common sense and classical ideas, and this is how such discoveries are made.

Quantum mechanics has now reached the point that there is no permanent void in space. Particles disappear into oblivion and appear out of nowhere, or move between layers of reality of parallel universes. There is no predetermination, there are only endless options. Isn't this a miracle? Isn't this proof of the existence of transcendental reality and the transcendental?

Atheists are so afraid to admit the existence of the Almighty that they simply decided to call it scientifically the Universe or the noosphere. We have this knowledge, but again, will it give us an advantage and save us from a knife in the hands of a randomly encountered criminal? They will certainly free you from fear, but before death everyone is equal. Whether a person is rich or poor, smart or stupid, death awaits him. It is logical to think that the only one really useful activity in this life, there will be improvement and understanding of our immortal foundation. Atheists claim that there is no God and no soul, which means they have every reason for moral degradation. The spectacle of heavenly beauty is unbearable for those who reject miracles...

the monkey thinks about what the words mean: knowledge is power? What is the superiority of some people over others?

I have seen enough evidence of the existence of the transcendental and beyond to give these questions due attention. What should an atheist do if he has no basis for spiritual development? Either devote your life to the search for meaning and let miracles into it, even scientific ones, or accept the fact of posthumous transformation into fertilizer and live your life in ignorance. The second entails a meaningless and sad life, but there is no difference, because almost nothing depends on a person in his bodily form on a global and universal scale. Moreover, his life beliefs are an insignificant factor.

You can also turn to understanding the latest scientific research and gain spiritual knowledge by replacing all mystical terms with scientific ones. Intellectual development is a spiritual search and improvement. You don’t have to go to church to pray to discover your soul, you just need to open your eyes to the amazing and endless world.

No matter how much a person prays, without understanding the world order and without realizing God within himself, he will remain blind, and his soul will not develop. Some believe that the favor of the Almighty can be achieved only by repentance and reading prayer, but this is not enough, you also need to be useful. Finding true meaning requires understanding and service, and its quality is determined by the skills and knowledge possessed by the servant. More miracles will always go to the best quality servants. So improve your skills and continue to learn throughout your life.

A person who sees the difference between the eternal and the temporary has no advantage. He's just no longer in the rat race of life. He does not gain power, but he gains God and goes beyond value judgments. For such a person, everything becomes the movement of the Almighty and he lives not in pursuit of benefits and pleasures, but simply because he was born in this world and must follow a certain Path.

Strength in a person is rather the ability to correctly accumulate and use energy in the most optimal way. Given that energy is distributed differently in people, knowledge is not everything. Indeed, it allows you to act more efficiently than others and achieve greater results, but only the distributor and fate have the final meaning. Each person receives from birth those qualities that he will need to fulfill his destiny and follow the path, and only this is truly important. A person without a goal is spiritually dead or at least seriously ill.

How to find your purpose?

To act within one's function one must simply listen and develop one's conscience. A person who causes pain to other living beings drowns out his conscience. This affects the soul in such a way that he loses the ability to distinguish bad from good. Some people, when they see a cow or a pig, see neither a friend nor a smaller brother, but only proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Such people are simply spiritually disabled and their only salvation will be physical and spiritual death in the flow of consumption.

When a person refuses to follow the path or dharma, then conscience turns on - the voice of God. She tries to return him to the path, but he, muffling his conscience, acts against her and, accordingly, against the Almighty. As a result, he will bring suffering to himself and the world. How does it happen that a person is a part or movement of the Almighty and goes against him? Can a hand go against its own body? When a cramp occurs in the hand, it causes pain throughout the body. Also evil is actually like a disease. Many people think that God completely controls all processes and, accordingly, everything bad happens according to his will...

Visible reality is like a dream of the Almighty. We are able to control the events of a dream by engaging in lucid dreaming practices, but delving deeper, beyond the visible script, we encounter our subconscious mind acting independently. Truly, a dream is a shadow of reality and allows us to imagine a picture of the world. We are only able to control the events that come to our attention. The Almighty works in a similar way. For him there is no evil and good, there is only movement and illusions of the mind.

It is a mistake to believe that practical knowledge about the temporary, more valuable than the spiritual about the eternal. Of course, there is a certain power in practical knowledge, and for a person it is important where it will be directed, but happiness, peace and harmony are achieved through spiritual self-knowledge.

The body is doomed to decay and trying with all your might to gain physical superiority over other bodies when they are doomed to disappear in the next moment is stupid, to say the least. It is more important to polish your spirit, because it will be with us constantly and the formation of the next physical vessel will depend on it. A beautiful and great soul is like a gem to the Almighty and has great value compared to others. But you don’t need to become a fanatic either. Our bodies and everything around us are temporary, only God and the soul created in his likeness are eternal. Understanding the eternal matters for the soul, and the temporary for the body. Stay in the middle and think about all this...

Plato and Bacon: a dispute through the centuries. The greatest paradox of the phenomenon of knowledge is that, being ideal in its nature, in its essence, in our time it has turned into a powerful material force, the economic force of society. Indeed, knowledge is an ideal product. They are not directly perceptible to the senses; they cannot be touched, seen, or heard, but they can be possessed. And to those who own them, they give power, not only intellectual, but also material. The conclusion seems obvious. Humanity comprehended this seemingly simple truth very difficultly and for a long time.
During the period of formation of capitalist relations in Europe, the famous English philosopher Francis Bacon, who lived at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, proclaimed: “Knowledge is power.” For us now, such a statement is something very familiar and, as it were, taken for granted. In our country, the all-Union youth magazine “Knowledge is Power” has been published for several decades.
However, when this formula was proclaimed, it became a fundamentally new word in the very understanding of the goals of knowledge, the tasks of science, the essence of human knowledge and its role in society. It was an innovative, revolutionary vision. We can confidently say that Bacon’s predecessors simply could not understand how knowledge, invisible, inaudible, can become “power”? By whose power?

The fact is that ancient thinkers looked at knowledge and its role in society completely differently. Knowledge, for example, for the largest ancient Greek philosopher Plato is, first of all, the result of contemplation of the external world, discussions and conversations on high topics, one of the manifestations of human wisdom, an element of his spiritual, internal perfection.
Plato, for example, did not raise the question at all about the tasks of transforming nature on the basis of its knowledge, nor did he raise the question about facilitating people’s work and improving their lives through knowledge and transformation of nature. He connected knowledge with a person’s abilities for a correct, purposeful, moral life. Knowledge is, first of all, the source of wisdom and high morality both for an individual person (of course, a free person, not a slave), and for an entire state.
And Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, proclaims that “man is the servant and interpreter of nature. He can do and know as much as he has comprehended in its order by deed or reflection, and beyond this he does not know and cannot.” And further: “Knowledge and human power coincide.” The true task of the sciences “cannot be other than to endow human life with new discoveries and benefits.” But, he added bitterly, “the vast majority of people in science don’t understand anything about this. This majority are only teachers and doctrinaires, and only sometimes it happens that a master with a sharper mind, desiring glory, rushes to some new discovery. He does this almost at a loss to his property.”
Notice how modern Bacon's words sound. But they were first published in 1620, that is, almost 370 years ago. Bacon called for new thinking for his time, substantiated the deepest reform of the sciences, human knowledge, which

the swarm should be built not on speculative deductions or on divine revelation, but on the basis of an experimental study of real things and processes, on the basis of experiment.
Knowledge, science and technology are designed to empower human life new discoveries and benefits, to ease and improve the situation of people, and the truth -
this is the daughter of time, not authority - such was his credo. Bacon's ideas became one of the greatest intellectual achievements of mankind.
Knowledge is important and valuable not only and not so much in itself. And first of all, because it can and should be embodied, transformed into material force. It must serve man in all his practical activities, primarily in transforming nature - this is the philosophical, spiritual premise of the material-transformative practice of people, which became dominant in Europe, and then in other parts of the world, actually starting with Bacon.
Invisible, inaudible, intangible knowledge, it turned out, can be turned into a powerful material force. Knowledge of the laws of mechanics can be used in the creation of various types of machines, ranging from a steam boiler, steam locomotive, steamship to the most modern machines and machine tools. Knowledge of the laws of electricity can be used in the creation of a mass of material objects and things that facilitate human work, giving him more comfortable living conditions - electric light, electric motors, all kinds of devices both in everyday life and in production * Knowledge of chemical laws has even made it possible to create materials that are not found in nature in their natural form, materials with predetermined, desired properties - all kinds of plastics, etc.
In short, the entire development of science, technology, and industry in subsequent centuries served as an excellent illustration of this Baconian idea that knowledge can and should be transformed into material power.
The embodied power of knowledge. However, the most comprehensive, deep and consistent production
The powerful power of knowledge was revealed by K. Marx, F. Engels and V. I. Lenin. First of all, the views of K. Marx are very indicative in this regard.
Summarizing the experience of the industrial revolution in Europe at the end of the 18th century - early XIX century and predicting further trends in scientific, technical and economic development, K. Marx formulated the idea that knowledge in a developing industrial society becomes a productive force. Bacon's formula that knowledge is power was more ideological, general philosophical in nature. Marx poses the question primarily as an economist, examining the main factors of the capitalist production process. K. Marx wrote: “Nature builds neither machines, nor locomotives, nor railways, nor the electric telegraph, nor self-acting factories, etc. All these are products of human labor, natural material transformed into organs.” human will ruling over nature, or human activity in nature. All this is the organs of the human brain created by a human hand, the embodied power of knowledge.” And he goes on to point out that the development of these products of human labor “is an indicator of the extent to which general social knowledge (Wissen, Knowledge) has become a direct productive force...”
First of all, note that Marx chooses surprisingly capacious, precise and at the same time non-standard expressions. At first, his idea seems obvious. Cars, roads, electricity, and now we would add a lot more to this list - cars, various machine tools, automatic machines, aviation, etc. - all these are creations of human hands. They are, as it were, a multiplication of a person’s physical strength, an extension of his arms, legs, and his entire body. A lot of
multiply his production capabilities, the productive power of his labor. All this is very understandable and familiar.
However, Marx does not stop there and expresses a number of unusual, innovative thoughts. He says that the products of human labor are the embodied power of human knowledge. How should this be understood?
But the whole point is that the products of human labor are not just things, objects, or anything material in general. This is at the same time knowledge, as if frozen, if you like, solidified knowledge. They embodied, materialized the energy of knowledge, the power of knowledge. Knowledge embodied in machines, in technology, becomes a material productive force. It is embodied in this technique, “works” in it. And not only knowledge in the literal sense of the word, but also a person’s practical skills, his will, even his temperament. It is no coincidence that Marx emphasizes that the products of human labor turn into organs of human will.
How much human knowledge and will (and not just physical effort, physical labor) is concentrated in any machine - from a steam locomotive to an airliner and space rocket! And the more of them are embodied in technology, in technology, the more developed the productive forces of society become, the higher the technical level of production and its efficiency. It is not difficult to see that in modern automatic factory lines more knowledge is embodied than in Watt's steam boiler and the machines driven by it, in a modern ocean liner - more than in a sailing ship, in an airliner - more than in hot-air balloon, etc.
One of the most important features of the modern scientific and technological revolution is that

that technique and technology increasingly depend on the amount of knowledge available in society and on the efficiency of its materialization, the speed of its transfer from the head of the worker into the product of labor.
There is another side to which Marx also draws attention. Knowledge is embodied in everything that a person creates with his labor. But first of all
it is embodied in the person himself. And no matter how it materializes in the products of labor, it is inseparable from man as from its fundamental principle. Here we see one of the brightest manifestations of that remarkable property of any knowledge, which we have already talked about: a person can give his knowledge to other people as much as he likes or materialize it in the products of his labor, but at the same time the stock of his knowledge is in no way depleted. And maybe in some cases it even increases somewhat: by transferring knowledge to other people, a person becomes more aware of it, understands it better. It is not without reason that scientists often say that the best way to master any scientific discipline is to teach it to students.
We should especially think about what Marx means when he says that general social knowledge is transformed into a direct productive force. What does general public knowledge mean?
It is obvious that Marx does not understand knowledge about society by this expression. Public knowledge in in this case this is knowledge that is socially necessary for the creation of this or that object, machine, thing, etc. The productive power of labor depends in general on the level of competence, consciousness, will of the performer, and production experience of the worker. And this applies to all professions, to all specialties - to workers and rural workers, peasants, engineers and builders, managers and scientists, etc. Not only scientific knowledge has productive power, but also practical knowledge, the whole sum of practical skills and abilities. , which are used by the employee in the labor process.
K. Marx’s thoughts on the transformation of universal social knowledge, including science, into a direct productive force constituted an entire era
in understanding the role of science and technology in the progress of modern society. They were supported and further developed by F. Engels and especially V.I. Lenin. Based on their fundamental principles, the policy of the CPSU is being built in the field of scientific and technological progress, transferring the entire national economy to the rails of intensification, accelerating the socio-economic development of the country.
Science as a productive force. Once upon a time, the great French thinker Saint-Simon said: for France, the loss of fifty of its best physicists, mathematicians, mechanics and engineers - the flower of science - would mean remaining a body without a soul.
Although Saint-Simon was a utopian socialist, these words are extremely realistic. Let's fast forward to our time and imagine for a moment what would happen to us, our country, if we did not have, for example, I. V. Kurchatov, S. P. Korolev, M. V. Keldysh, P. JI . Kapitsa, N. N. Semenov, N. I. Vavilov, V. I. Vernadsky, I. P. Pavlov, N. E. Zhukovsky, K. E. Tsiolkovsky.
I named only the names of the ten largest Soviet scientists who, with their scientific works, with their discoveries, their ascetic, heroic work, they contributed to the transformation of our Motherland into a great industrial, scientific and technical power, which very highly raised the level of spirituality of the entire people. What would happen if we didn't have them? You will say - there would be others. Of course, if we consider the issue from the point of view of historical necessity, then there is no doubt that there would be others.
But if you nevertheless imagine, at least for a few moments, that we did not have these scientists and that we could not have acquired the knowledge that they had in any other way, then it is not difficult to see
how much poorer our country would be. We would have neither theoretical nor practical cosmonautics, aircraft manufacturing, the nuclear industry, and many of the most important sections in the chemical industry. We would have a much worse understanding of geological and biological processes. We would not know what conditioned and unconditioned reflexes are in humans and throughout the animal world. In other words, we would be poorer both economically and technically, and in terms of the volume of knowledge, and in the sense of the absence of great personalities who presented the whole world with examples of serving the truth and the people.
This thought experiment is, of course, completely arbitrary. You cannot remove from history what happened. However, this assumption clearly shows the enormous importance of science, scientific knowledge in the life of modern society, in the life of each of us.
The most important thing, perhaps, is that the process of development of production - both industry and industry - depends on scientific knowledge, on its constant, systematic growth. Agriculture, and construction. Science in our time is increasingly revealing itself as a direct productive force of society. Scientific and technological progress is now the main means of increasing production efficiency.
The transformation of science into a direct productive force as a real process has its own history. Its beginning is usually associated with the industrial revolution of the 18th - early 19th centuries, when large-scale machine production began to develop at a rapid pace. Its essence was the transfer of human physical and labor functions to machines. The very manufacture of machines (for example, weaving, drilling, milling machines), the organization of the production process with the help of machines require the application of science. All this
caused the formation of applied branches of natural science, directly serving the needs of production - the formation of technical sciences. Technical schools and colleges are also emerging in which relevant research is carried out and personnel are trained.
From about the middle of the 20th century, with the development of the modern scientific and technological revolution, the use of scientific knowledge in production has become regular, science is paving new paths for technical and economic progress. Almost all new industries are the result of the implementation of scientific ideas, scientific knowledge - the radio industry, automotive industry, aircraft manufacturing, electronics, production of artificial materials, etc. Thus, science has become a direct participant in the production process. Production itself is increasingly becoming a consistent technological application of science. This applies to all modern developed countries of the world.
Perestroika creates particularly favorable conditions for the development of science and its transformation into a direct productive force. The XXVII Congress of the CPSU, subsequent decisions of the CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet government set the task of transferring the economy, the entire national economy of the country, to the path of intensive development.
This means that more final products should be obtained with less input of raw materials, human labor and time. In other words, produce more (products, goods, etc.), and make less various costs.
In principle, such intensification is possible and necessary in every branch of industry, agriculture, and every enterprise. But it is possible only when every production

the process will be built on a scientific basis and constantly absorb the latest scientific achievements. It is possible to obtain 8-10 centners of wheat from 1 hectare, probably, without any science. But to get 30 or more centners is impossible to achieve without the use of scientific knowledge.
This is how the decisive chain of the modern intensive economy develops: science - technology - production. It means that scientific ideas (knowledge) are transformed into technological developments, and these latter are introduced into mass production. Such a chain is easy to observe throughout the modern national economy, in all sectors of the economy. Moreover, the more clearly defined the links in the chain are and the more firmly they are connected to each other, the more developed the production is, the more modern and efficient it is.
It is obvious to everyone that if some link in the chain works poorly or the connection between links is weak, then the entire chain functions poorly. But still, the practice of our country and other developed
countries shows that the leading link in the chain needs to be identified. And that is what science is. It is precisely this that generates new knowledge and ideas, gives impetus to the creation of new technological solutions, new production principles. Continuous renewal of ideas leads to systematic updating of technology and further to an increase in the production of goods, things, machines, and an increase in labor productivity.
If you carefully observe the nature of the activities of our advanced research and production associations, you will find the following. Under other normal conditions, the scientific background, the bank of knowledge, the bank of new ideas that could be recommended for implementation in technological developments with subsequent introduction into mass production. The constant formulation of new ideas becomes the real fundamental basis for the stable work of scientific and production associations, an indispensable condition for maintaining their products at high level. And this suggests a conclusion: highly qualified specialists who are capable of generating new, non-standard, non-trivial ideas, ideas that can be embodied in new technology, should be valued very highly!

Francis Bacon

Many people have heard and know that knowledge is power. However, not all people make enough efforts to acquire certain knowledge that is useful to them. Therefore, I believe that this topic should be considered in more detail so that each of you, dear readers, clearly understands what exactly the great power of knowledge is and what needs to be done to gain this power. On the one hand, it seems clear that everyone needs to learn, gain knowledge available methods to know a lot and, therefore, be able to do a lot. But on the other hand, what kind of knowledge needs to be acquired and how best to do it, and most importantly, how to then use it in your life, is not always clear to everyone. Therefore, this point definitely needs to be dealt with properly. And we will do this with you. We will take a closer look this topic and learn everything there is to know about knowledge.

What is knowledge?

Knowledge is information that, firstly, has been tested by practice, and secondly, and this is the most important thing, gives a person the most full picture reality. This is the fundamental difference between knowledge and ordinary information, which allows us to have only a partial understanding of certain things. Knowledge can also be compared to instructions for something, and information to ordinary advice. The knowledge that a person possesses is very well deposited in his memory, thanks to the fact that he repeatedly applied it in his life, consolidating this knowledge in practice and confirming its truth with his own experience. Over time, knowledge becomes an unconscious skill.

Types of knowledge

Knowledge comes in different forms. For example, there is superficial knowledge, and there is deep knowledge. Surface knowledge is knowledge that is based on visible relationships between individual events and facts in a certain subject area. For superficial knowledge, a good memory is enough - I read, heard, saw and remembered the information received, without thinking about why it is this way and not another. And you seem to know something. Superficial knowledge is often based on two, maximum three links in the cause-and-effect chain. The reasoning model of a person with superficial knowledge will be quite simple. It usually looks like this: “If [condition], then [action].” More complex mental constructions in this scheme, as you understand, are impossible.

Deep knowledge is a completely different matter; it already uses a more complex structure of thinking and reasoning. Deep knowledge represents abstractions, complex patterns, and deep analogies that reflect the structure and processes of a subject area. Deep knowledge relies not only on memory, but also on thinking. Moreover, they are not limited to the construction and analysis of cause-and-effect chains, but represent a complex web of thoughts/reasonings in which many facts and processes are interconnected. In this case, one cause may have several consequences, and one specific effect may arise from different causes. Deep knowledge reflects the holistic structure and nature of existing processes and relationships that take place in the subject area. This knowledge allows you to analyze and predict the behavior of objects in detail.

Knowledge can also be explicit or tacit. Explicit knowledge is accumulated experience, identified and presented in the form of instructions, methods, guidelines, plans and recommendations for action. Explicit knowledge has a clear and precise structure; it is formulated and recorded, both in human memory and on various media. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult or difficult to formalize, that is, to highlight with its help the most important characteristics of the subject of study or discussion. This is intuitive knowledge, personal impressions, sensations, opinions, guesses. They are not always easy to explain or convey to other people. They look like poorly connected pieces of information, rather than a complete and clear picture of reality.

Knowledge can also be everyday and scientific. Everyday knowledge is specific knowledge about something, which is based on random reflections and spontaneous observations. They are often intuitive in nature and can be highly dependent on the opinions of others. This knowledge is often irrational, that is, not amenable to explanation and full understanding. They cannot be applied to all situations, despite the fact that a person gained this knowledge through his experience, because this experience is incomplete, it only partially reflects the patterns of certain situations. But scientific knowledge is more generalized, rational, thoughtful and justified by professional observation and experiments. They are accurate, universal, structured and systematized, they are easier to analyze, thanks to their systematic nature, to understand and convey to other people. Therefore, one must strive for precisely such knowledge in order to have a more complete and accurate understanding of various things in this world. There are many other types of knowledge, but we will not consider them all now; we will leave this matter for future articles. Instead, let's move on to issues that are more important to us.

Why is knowledge needed?

For a person’s thirst for knowledge to be particularly strong and constant, he must clearly understand why knowledge is needed. Still, their value is not always obvious, since many people do not pursue them as much as, say, money. Some values ​​are clearer to us because we use them constantly and openly and see the benefits of them. The same money is the value that we all feel, due to the fact that money can buy a lot. Or, if we talk about what we are willing to spend our money on, then again, things like “bread and butter” or a roof over our heads seem to us to be fairly obvious values, since we need these things and cannot do without them. But the usefulness of knowledge is somehow not entirely and not always noticeable to the naked eye. But in fact, it is the knowledge a person has that determines whether he has money, bread and butter, that is, food on the table, clothing, housing, and many other important and useful things for life. Knowledge helps people achieve all this. And the more a person knows and the better his knowledge, the easier it is for him to come to the material and spiritual values ​​he needs. After all, you can earn the same money different ways– you can do very hard, dirty and unhealthy work for them, or you can simply accept right decisions, give the necessary orders, make several calls a day and in two or three hours earn more than many people earn from hard work in a month or even a year. And it’s not about labor productivity, it’s about the ability to do work that many other people cannot do, as well as the ability to outplay other people in the struggle for a place in the sun. And all this is facilitated by high-quality and extensive knowledge. So knowledge opens the door to a beautiful, happy, rich and bright life for a person. And if such a life is interesting to you, if you need it, then you also need knowledge. But not all knowledge is needed, but only that which can be applied in life to benefit oneself. Let's see what this knowledge is.

What knowledge is needed?

As much as some of us would like to have all the knowledge in the world in order to be very smart, it is quite obvious that this is impossible. We cannot know everything, because even the knowledge that is known to humanity is so much that just getting acquainted with it would take several lifetimes. And if we also take into account the fact that people do not know a lot about this world, then it becomes completely clear that knowledge must be acquired selectively. But this choice is not easy to make. To do this, a person must decide what kind of life he wants to live, what goals he plans to achieve and what is valuable to him in this life. His fate will depend on this choice. It is no coincidence that we cannot know everything, because we don’t need it. We need to know well the most important thing for us, on which our fate will depend. And this main thing must first be distinguished from everything else. And to do this, it is useful to turn to the experience of others. There are a lot of people around us who have already passed the nth part of their life’s journey, and from their example we can see what knowledge turned out to be useful for them and what was not. Life different people shows us what knowledge can lead to what.

Today we live in a time when there is a lot of different knowledge everywhere. The Internet alone is worth something, where you can find a lot of interesting and useful things. But such an abundance of information and knowledge prevents a person from understanding what he really needs. I don’t think that this is such a serious problem as, say, the problem of lack of knowledge, limited access to information, censorship, lack of opportunity to receive education and the like. But we still must admit that the abundance of information requires us to take a serious approach to its selection. And the lives of other people, which I suggest you focus on, are the best way to understand what knowledge is important and what is not. All the mistakes that you can make have already been made by someone once. All the successes that you want and can achieve have already been achieved by someone in one form or another. Therefore, other people's experience is invaluable. Study it and you will be able to understand what knowledge you should strive for. At the same time, you shouldn’t just believe what other people say, even if it’s very successful people. Better look at what and how they live, where, how and what they studied and are studying, what books they read, what they do, what they strive for. Deeds are truer than words. Also keep in mind that successful people show through their experience what knowledge can be useful in life, so it is worth striving for. But losers, on the contrary, with their lives can show what knowledge is meaningless and useless, and sometimes harmful. This is not an exact indicator, but you can focus on it.

Knowledge and information

Let's, friends, see how knowledge differs from information. Still, we receive this or that information every day, but knowledge is not always there. There are several opinions on this matter. They usually write and say that knowledge differs from information in that they are part of human experience. That is, knowledge is information that a person possesses, verified by experience. This is a good definition, but in my opinion it is not complete. If knowledge were only part of our own experience, then we would not use such a phrase as “gaining knowledge”; we would be talking about obtaining information that can become knowledge only if we verify it with our own experience. But we, nevertheless, use such a phrase as “gaining knowledge,” that is, something already ready that can be used without testing it on our own experience. Therefore, in my understanding, knowledge is more complete, higher quality, more structured and systematized information that reflects a complete and holistic picture of a certain subject area as close as possible to reality. That is, this is more harmonious, accurate and quite extensive information. But simply information is pieces of knowledge, so to speak, elements of a puzzle, from which it is still necessary to create a more complete and clear picture of something. So knowledge is a picture of reality already compiled from various information, or you can also say, instructions for life that we can use. If, for example, I tell you that a certain instinct is responsible for some specific human behavior, then this will be information, because with this piece of knowledge about a person much will remain unclear. If I tell you everything I know about instincts, how they work, how they are interconnected, how they control human behavior, and so on and so forth, then this will already be the knowledge that I will pass on to you. That is, it will be a more holistic picture of human nature or instructions for a person, which will allow you to learn a lot about him, understand a lot, and most importantly, it will allow you to work competently with people and yourself. Information can also be used, but its range of possibilities is much lower.

The acquisition of knowledge

It is very important to be able to acquire knowledge correctly, so that with a minimum of time and effort spent, you can absorb the maximum of necessary and useful knowledge. Here, the method of conveying, and, consequently, receiving information, plays a very important role, be it with the help of books or with the help of any other sources. The emphasis should be on understanding, thanks to which a person does not lose interest in what he learns about. Because not many people have the sufficient willpower necessary to seriously delve into the subject being studied, while interest in something, fueled, among other things, by the clarity of the information being studied, can turn out to be an excellent motivation for learning. A person will greedily receive new knowledge if it is understandable to him and, in his opinion, useful. What differentiates high-quality education from low-quality education is how teachers present knowledge to their students, and not just what kind of knowledge they give them. A good teacher is a teacher who is able to explain material to students not only in complex scientific language, but also in language ordinary people. You could even say that the teacher should be able to explain the material in the language of a five-year-old child so that everyone can understand it. If knowledge is presented in understandable language, then it will be interesting to people, and if it is interesting, then there will be more attention to it. If you present knowledge to people in a language they do not understand, then interest in it will be minimal, if there is any at all, and many will simply turn away from it, no matter how useful this knowledge may be.

Quality of knowledge

One cannot fail to mention such an important thing as the quality of knowledge, on which its effectiveness depends. After all, we acquire knowledge mainly for the sake of using it in our lives, and not for the sake of simply knowing about something. Therefore, knowledge must be practical and effective. Let's think about how to determine the quality of knowledge that we can receive from certain sources. Here, I believe, priority should be given to understanding the knowledge we receive. As I wrote above, understandable knowledge is not only interesting and you want to delve into it, but it is also well absorbed, and what is especially important is that it is easier to test. In addition, knowledge must be understandable so that a person can not only remember it, but also be able to develop this knowledge and draw their own conclusions based on it, that is, generate new knowledge with its help. Then, of course, it is important that the knowledge is complete, and not abrupt and not in the form of dry facts, which, again, you just need to remember, but in the form of a whole system in which the connection between the facts should be visible, so that it is clear why something is arranged or works one way and not another. And from this follows the next criterion of quality knowledge - its reliability. Why exactly is it leaking? Because knowledge that is presented primarily in the form of facts, and not in the form of a system of reasoning consisting of a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that leads to these facts and helps to connect them with each other, is quite difficult to verify for accuracy. You will only have to believe in such knowledge, which consists solely of facts, if you yourself have not witnessed these facts. The fact is that it either exists or it doesn’t. But how do you know if a fact actually exists? What is the most reliable evidence of its existence? Of course, you can test certain facts and knowledge based on them from your own experience, so to speak, conduct an experiment, as is done in science. But this will require a lot of time and effort from you. In addition, if you received low-quality and even harmful knowledge, then you risk making serious errors when checking it, which will not be easy to correct. Therefore, it is important to see those chains of reasoning that allow us to verify the truth of certain facts, at least at the level of theory, using logical thinking. And if possible, you can transfer this theory to more or less similar experiences from your life in order to use this transfer to determine the probability of the truth of this or that fact, and at the same time all the knowledge that we receive.

Often, for effective learning, we need the help of other people who help us assimilate certain knowledge by connecting it with the experience that we have witnessed and are witnessing. That's why we need teachers who explain to us what is written in books and what we see around us. They help us form a complete picture of something in our heads, supplementing with their explanations the knowledge that we receive from books. However, good books can also explain a lot, so independent learning can be no less, or even more effective, than learning with the help of teachers. But provided that the books and other sources of information from which a person studies are truly of high quality.

Knowledge is power

Now let's think about why knowledge is power. We have already touched on this issue above, but now we will look at it in more detail so that you have a powerful motivation to gain new knowledge, regardless of any obstacles. The power of knowledge lies in the fact that it allows a person to bring his plans to life using the necessary sequence of actions. Simply put, knowledge helps us avoid unnecessary mistakes when realizing our desires. Thanks to them, we navigate this world more easily and can influence a lot in it. Knowing something allows us to control it. But when we don’t know something, we are limited in our capabilities and then we can be controlled by those who know more than us.

Knowledge also makes us bolder and more confident people. And courage and confidence allow people to achieve success in many things. Let’s say, if you want to do something, then you need to think not about whether it can be done or not, but about how it can be done, what actions need to be taken for this. Before that, you need to think about where and what knowledge you need to get in order to take the necessary actions [sequence of actions] and do the job you need. That is, knowledge is the key to success in any business. Having necessary knowledge, you can turn any of your ideas into reality. And this ability to make reality the way we want it to be gives us strength. Let's ask ourselves this question: is it possible to build a time machine? What will be your answer? Think about it. If you think that a time machine cannot be built, then you do not realize the power that knowledge has. You are proceeding from the knowledge that you currently have, and it does not allow you to admit the possibility that such a thing as a time machine can be built. Although for this it is simply necessary to obtain other knowledge that is currently unknown to humanity. But if you are a thinking person and understand one simple, but very important truth that we, people, still do not know much about this world, then you can easily admit the possibility of creating a time machine and any other unusual device that can greatly change our lives. In this case, you will be faced with only one single question: how to do this? So the power of knowledge is that with its help we can make the impossible possible.

The power of knowledge is also very clearly manifested in cases where a person does not receive, but disseminates knowledge. The fact is that people are driven not only by their instincts, which determine their needs, but also by ideas, beliefs, and faith. And people are infected with ideas from the world around them, in which someone creates and distributes them. And it is the one who infects the minds of the majority of people with his ideas who receives the highest power over them. This is a great power that no other power can compare to. No violence and no fear can compare with the power of ideas, the power of persuasion and, ultimately, the power of people believing in something. Because such a force controls people from the inside, and not from the outside. So, in order to infect people with your ideas, you need to create them and distribute them in society. This is a very difficult task, which is why there are so few great ideologists in the world who decide the destinies of millions. If you only gain knowledge, then this, of course, is also very good. Thanks to knowledge, you will know a lot and be able to do a lot. But at the same time, you yourself risk becoming infected with other people’s ideas and, in a sense, becoming their hostage. This is not always a bad thing, but keep in mind that the highest manifestation of the power of knowledge is the ability to create and distribute it, and not to receive and apply it.

The price of knowledge

This is perhaps one of the most important issues, the answer to which every person should know. How much does good knowledge in every sense cost? Don't rush to answer this question, think better. Many of us know and understand that knowledge is needed, knowledge is important, knowledge is useful. But good, high-quality knowledge, which a person will not just receive with the help of some source or in some educational institution, but which will be explained to him in great detail so that he understands it well, has its price. The price may vary, but it is important to understand the main thing - good knowledge is priceless! You know very well that a good education is expensive, but at the same time you must understand that good knowledge, necessary knowledge, useful knowledge that can be obtained through quality education always pays for itself, always. Therefore, investing money and time in acquiring good knowledge is an ideal investment. In general, I believe that in this life you should never spare money on such things as health and education, everything else is secondary. After all, it is absolutely obvious that any person needs good health, without it there will be no normal life. To do this, he must eat well, rest for the right amount of time, use quality medicine and, if possible, not work in hazardous work. I’m not even talking about bad habits - they are definitely unacceptable. And having good health, a person must take care of the contents of his head in order to take a worthy place in this life. Therefore, in no case should you spare money or time on health and knowledge. These are not things you can bargain over.

How to gain knowledge?

To obtain good knowledge, you must first decide on the priority of those methods of obtaining it that are available to a particular person. And then use these methods in the appropriate sequence. In my opinion, the best way to gain knowledge is to get it from other people and with the help of other people. Only the point here is not that someone will decide for you what and how you need to learn, but that you will use another person, other people, as your teachers to learn the things you need. That is, it is you who needs to determine your training plan, as in the case of self-education - the most the best way education. But at the same time, you need to use other people as assistants, mentors, advisers, so that they tell you what and how it is useful to learn. After all, let’s say, if you are still very young and know little about this world, then it will be difficult for you to figure out what is important and valuable in it and what is not. You need to listen to the advice of other people, smarter and more experienced, but the responsibility for the knowledge you receive should lie with you. People are a source of knowledge that is very convenient to use. When a person explains to you what and how this world works, when you can ask him questions about points you don’t understand, you can ask again, clarify, argue, you can correct your mistakes in the learning process with his help - this is just a great way to learn something , and quite quickly.

Books also play a very important role in the process of acquiring knowledge - this, from my point of view, is the most preferable way of learning without the help of living people. Not video, not audio, but books, that is, gaining knowledge with the help of printed text, with the help of signs, symbols, that’s what is useful. Text, no matter whether it is on paper or on a monitor screen, is material that needs to be worked with. Don’t just look at it like pictures, but work with it - think about the written thoughts, words, ideas, laws, analyze them, compare, evaluate, check. The text is always before your eyes, it can always be divided into separate sentences, phrases, words in order to study it thoroughly. In some cases, it is more useful to read articles, including scientific ones, rather than books. They are useful because they convey knowledge in a condensed form; they do not contain as much unnecessary writing as in most books. Still, we all have limited time, so it may simply not be enough to read huge books. But the article can, although not always completely, quite quickly and accurately convey to you the very essence of certain patterns from which our knowledge is formed. And then you decide for yourself what you need to delve into and in what direction to expand your knowledge by finding additional materials on the topic that interests you.

And another good way to gain knowledge, let’s consider it the third most important, is to observe what is happening. We all have some kind of experience, and continue to gain it every day, which can teach us a lot. Moreover, this is the kind of teacher who will never deceive. But in order for us to learn something from our own experience, we need to be extremely attentive to everything that surrounds us and what happens to us. Many people don't learn anything from their experiences simply because they don't pay enough attention to them. They do not observe everything that happens in their lives and therefore a lot of valuable information passes them by; They do not attach importance to important little things around them that can tell a lot. And, of course, they do not analyze well enough all those situations that happened in their lives and taught them something. But I believe that a person can and should learn from everything he sees and hears around him. To do this you just need to be attentive and observant. And everyone can develop these qualities. Sometimes you can learn much more with simple observation than with the help of many good books. Because it can show you details in what is happening that other people may not pay attention to or not attach the necessary importance to them. In addition, one’s own experience, as a rule, gives more confidence in understanding something than someone else’s, whose sincerity and correctness can always be doubted for a number of reasons.

Knowledge and thinking

Knowledge is knowledge, but in our time, a person’s ability to think, including outside the box, creatively, and flexibly, is of particular importance. Thinking allows not only to effectively use the knowledge a person has, but also to create his own, to come to new interesting ideas that can radically change his idea of ​​something. And this, as you already know, is also very important, and sometimes much more important than the experience already accumulated by humanity. Knowledge, even very good knowledge, today quickly becomes outdated, albeit not completely, but to a significant extent. While thinking is always relevant, it allows you to adapt old knowledge to new conditions and, when necessary, create new knowledge that will help solve a current problem. Therefore, learning something once, and then resting on your laurels all your life, using your knowledge, while it is still possible, will in the near future become impossible for those people who want to live a good, quality life. The modern world clearly shows us that we need to learn throughout our lives. This is the only way to survive and achieve success in a highly competitive environment.

And I personally consider a good life to be a life in which a person does what he really loves, even for little money, and does not work all day long at an unloved and sometimes even hated job just to earn a piece of bread. Do what you love in modern world, without adapting to the labor market - this is a great luxury. If you come to this, you will feel happy.

So, friends, thinking definitely needs to be developed. Even very good ones without developed thinking modern knowledge may become dead capital. And no one really needs dead knowledge. And in order to make them alive, you need to adapt them with the help of thinking to solve various current problems and problems. Just imagine a modern medium or large business in which there is fierce competition, and in order to win it, you need to produce results, and not dig up dusty knowledge in your memory in order to show it off in front of your competitors. Therefore, thinking comes to the fore, as it allows us to be more practical. And knowledge today can be obtained very quickly on the Internet, and many of it will be more modern and accurate than the knowledge that a person has in his head.

At all, most of knowledge is something that not only one person has, but also many other people. And the more people know about something, the weaker this knowledge is. The power of knowledge is determined, among other things, by its accessibility. If some knowledge is available only to a few people, then it has a lot of power, and when most people know about it, it loses its power. Let's say someone knows about something useful, but others do not know it, and this someone has an advantage over the rest, thanks to his knowledge, which is available only to him. But as soon as this knowledge spreads, a person will lose his power, since his monopoly on this knowledge will collapse. After all, if everyone knows what you know, then what is your advantage, what is your strength? So, the knowledge that we obtain in standard ways is, as a rule, known not only to us, but also to many other people. This means that we don’t have a big advantage over these other people, other things being equal. By other things being equal, I mean such things as a person’s willingness and ability to apply their knowledge, as well as perseverance, hard work and the like. Without them, knowledge is useless.

So it turns out that what we know, some other people often know, and this, to a certain extent, equates us with them. But good, developed thinking can lead a person to knowledge that will be known only to him alone. After all, thinking can give birth to completely new knowledge, new solutions and new ideas. It can lead a person to insight - insight, epiphany, awareness, a breakthrough in solving some problem that cannot be solved by standard methods. Thus, developed thinking gives a person a serious advantage over other people. So knowledge is, of course, power. But together with developed thinking, they become a truly great and absolute force.