Another good example that l would like to bring up is the study of nuclear energy. As we all know nuclear energy provides humanity with huge amounts of energy, so why would it be harmful for people to know about this type of knowledge? The answer is simple; because it led to production of weapons of mass destruction, used in the Second World War in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Here again, knowledge useful and harmful to humankind.
The study of mathematics, physics and other sciences sound like useful knowledge to develop technology in order to make our life simpler. However, technology is not only used to make our life simpler, but new weapons, smart bombs, and nuclear submarines are being developed in order to again destruction.
Since all knowledge can have the potential to be either beneficial or harmful, there is no category of knowledge which should be avoided because of its association with harm. It is not the knowledge that is harmful but the people who miss use them.
The study of cloning is very common in the modern word. Despite the fact that it could be extremely beneficial to human kind, governments are already creating laws against it. In fact, in some countries it is strictly forbidden to study cloning. Why do you think this is? Governments can already see that some of us will use cloning in the wrong way and will make money out of it. It can be a huge business in the future. How awesome would it be to create another Einstein or Stalin? Government therefore want to avoid this in the future and ban cloning.
I believe that there should be no knowledge at all which we should not seek, because knowledge itself is neutral, it does not harm anyone. The problems only start to come when we start using them in the wrong way. Some people’s religions for example disagree with certain types of knowledge. It is really a matter of opinion of each individual of what type of knowledge we should or should not seek.
Going back to the middle-ages, the Christian churches forbid the study of science. At the time hundreds and thousands were killed who claimed that the earth was round. That knowledge was simply forbidden to keep the majority under control, under the control of religion, although a little later everybody knew that in fact the earth is round.
Although I said that all knowledge can help human kind and seeking for answers is part of the human nature, there are some kinds of knowledge that are useless and should not be looked at. For example the number of decimals there are in π is irrelevant, and although some people are interested, l believe this would still count as useless knowledge.
Most people would agree that private knowledge is another on of those types of knowledge that we should not seek, like a person’s secret diary for example. It is simply not a polite thing to do; you shouldn’t violate other’s privacy because it may hurt them in a way. But then again some historians used famous people’s letters or diary’s to find out about their past and history so this might be a little contradictive that some people might argue about.
I think that knowledge we do not have the cultural background for, can be harmful to humans. More knowledge came with the development of our world, starting from the Renaissance period when much knowledge started to develop in Italy and then spread throughout Europe, Asia and so on. People therefore gradually gained knowledge with time. More and more learned how to write, read, and used that knowledge well. Therefore knowledge was gradually built up in people. If lets say we would know about future technology, we could miss use it. This case could be applied today’s world as well; lets say we give the knowledge of nuclear fission to an African developing poor country, the chances that they miss use it is quite high. This is because they did not go through those changes that for example France and Germany have. Knowledge that we do not understand or see no purpose for it should simply not be known about. It is at this point that we humans commit errors and knowledge becomes harmful to everyone.
I also question why humans have to knowledge to destroy everything. We are in fact destroying our planet by not using knowledge well, and we are well-aware of it. We are destroying other life so that we survive. By cutting down rainforests and releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere creating global warming we are at the same time wiping out entire species of animals and plants and at the same times we are harmful to ourselves.
So I assume that again, possessing knowledge itself does not harm anyone, nor benefit anyone. Knowledge from a harmful person can be passed on to a good person without the result of any harm. The second person still has the choice of whether to use the knowledge for good or harmful purposes. This, l think is the most important point that we should consider when tackling the question, is there knowledge we should not seek?
Therefore to the other question, is all knowledge inherently a good thing and can only people are harmful, l would say that yes only people can be harmful, knowledge itself cannot help anyone nor harm anyone in any possible way at all. If someone is harmed, that is the result of the people not the knowledge itself which we can say was miss used in this case, it is the people’s decisions how to use there knowledge after all. Since knowledge itself is neither good nor harmful, there is no reason to avoid certain categories of knowledge. Every type of knowledge equally has the potential to develop daily life, and interfere with it.
