Ignorance: Life-Long Questions
For students growing up, education is seen as the requirement for a future career and if some enjoyment happens along the way then that is a bonus. I too have been taught that education is all about preparing for “someday”. What was not developed was that of questions and ignorance in everything and how well facts and equations can be regurgitated on a test or a quiz. Rather, with Ignorance: How it Drives Science by Stuart Firestein, the progress comes from ignorance.
Ignorance for many, including myself prior to reading this book, is a scary word. I want to appear like I know what I am doing and that I am smart. While I would like to say that I am intelligent I clearly do not know everything because otherwise further education would be useless and I am still fascinated by what I learn each day.
Each day provides an opportunity to ask a new question or look at a previous question in a new light. One of the questions that I, along with others, have long since pondered is why there is war? I had the general assumptions: power hungry leaders, marginalized groups of individuals, and mental illness. It was not until recently that my understanding was broadened but I still realize that the answer to why there is war may be unattainable.
One of the ways the answer may be unattainable is because war often comes with histories that can both be long and complicated. This can be seen with multiple conflicts that are occurring in the Middle East. Since this is the case it makes studying some of the oldest wars extremely difficult from lack of information on the history and details that go with war.
Another reason of what causes war comes from the various groups involved. By studying world religions I was able to get a brief overview in one of my classes that shows how there can be clashes with one religious group living in the area of a different religious group, even if the smaller group is a branch of the majority. I was able to gain more insight from a political science class which showed different groups can become a minority when land is divided and given new borders that were not the original borders.
The two classes mentioned above have allowed me to see how much ignorance there is around us. When I first started these two classes I only knew the smallest fraction of information on these two broad subjects but they allowed me to get two different perspectives on this one question because I was open to new information. I was also able to take what was learned in one class and apply it to the other class in a way to make meaningful connections such as using data gathered in an experiment; while they do not give the answer they can give new insight into a question.
After this book a question like why there is war still seems like such a broad question. That is okay, however, because in the quest to discover more about war new questions have the ability to expose themselves for the first time and old questions may be given a new perspective. This is also useful to recognize that in life, each day, we can learn more about ourselves and the world around us than ever thought possible. So, with this in mind, I will be a life-long learner looking for more questions rather than answers that could be changed even tomorrow.
Education in all areas of life will give me some tools to tackle the questions of tomorrow regardless of how large or small they are. As W.E. Yeats says, “education is not the filling of the pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
