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on knowledge

"We are a scientific civilization" declared Jacob Bronowski in The Ascent of Man (1973). "That means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a Latin word for knowledge. ... Knowledge is our destiny." We became heavily dependent on our brain capabil- ities. We are unlike to survive as species if we do not make full and advanced use of our human intelligence.

However, question, was our evolution determined in that direction? In the last chapter of The Ascent of Man Bronowski is saddened to find himself "suddenly surrounded in the West by a sense of terrible loss of nerve, a retreat from knowledge". Then, question, is it just a cry of an old intellectual or a valuable warning of a resurgent interest in mystical and occult doctrines (including a variety of religions) and pseudoscience?

The skepticism related to the human knowledge is not new, of course. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), after a lusty and intellectually inventive young manhood, withdrew from the world of sense and intellect and advised others to do likewise: "There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. ... It is this which drives us on to try to discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which men should not wish to learn. ... I no longer dream of the stars."

 2011-07-03 

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