Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Knowledge, Power, Wisdom, Truth, and The LikeEveryone has heard the parlance? cognition is power. ? In fact, it has become a clich? in our civilization. But is this statement true? What precisely is the relationship between cognition and power? Are the two independent of each other? Or are they reciprocally sole? Are at that place times when 1 must postpone to the other, doing one of them superior to the other? Or, possibly, is wisdom a more of import property than cognition? Aside from the issue of cognition and power is the issue of truth and power. Is at that place a difference between something being held as true and the existent truth? Is there merely one truth, or are at that place many beliing truths? In order for something to be true, must it be accepted by those in power? Conversely, must those in power acknowledge the truth in order to stay in power? No 1 knows for sure who foremost coined the phrase? cognition is power? , but one can say that it was person who greatly valued instruction and acquisition. It can besides be imagined that this individual was a pupil of the universe around him, as he noticed that although nescient people came into power by lineage or some other affair, it was intelligent people who would wrest the power off from the ignorant and be more likely to retain it. He noticed that the association between cognition and power is really closely related. If one was to seek to derive power by taking it from person else, cognition was a necessary tool. The individual trying to derive power must be knowing of the fortunes environing him or her, and he or she must hold the cognition of how to correctly respond to alterations in the environing political environment. Shrewdness is frequently an indispensable component involved in a individual twisting power off from the leader. Since astuteness is defined as being? intelligent, worldly-wise and clever, ? it is evidently uneffective without cognition. Once power is obtained, cognition is non cast aside. Rather, it must be improved upon invariably in order to retain the power. It can be said that one does non necessitate much knowledge to posses power, nevertheless, it would be errant to province that 1 does non necessitate cognition in order to derive or retain power.Although the relationship between cognition and power is so closely intertwined, are at that place fortunes in which either cognition or power must postpone to the other? Well, a expression back at history serves as the best usher to this inquiry. Throughout history there have been legion occasions in which cognition has deferred to power. This chiefly occurs when the powers that be have an absolute control, as Machiavelli describes in his book The Prince. For illustration, when the Roman Catholic Church ruled the known universe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, they censored and suppressed cognition invariably. They were able to make so because their power was all embracing. They controlled the spiritual facet of the people? s lives, and they besides ran every aspect of the local authoritiess. Because they controlled everything, they had the power to transfuse fear into the people. As a consequence of this unimpaired power, the people had nowhere to turn for justness. Although cognition has succumbed to power on many an juncture, one would be hard pressed to happen an case of power giving in to knowledge. I know I certain had a awful clip seeking to happen an illustration of this. Then it occurred to me why I couldn? t discovery such an happening: power will ne’er be volitionally relinquished because of cognition ; instead, it will merely be surrendered to a more physically superior power. After all, if the point of power is to be in control, so the entity in power won? T give up the desirable power unless physical injury is at hand. Ideas and cognition are the get downing footfalls in subverting a power, but these entirely are ne’er enough.This impression of thoughts and cognition being used to obtain power brings up another really of import construct. Is knowledge the lone thing needed, or is it merely the get downing point? I believe that wisdom is merely every bit, if non more of import than the existent cognition. The dictionary defines wisdom as? holding the ability to do a right determination or judgement by using intelligent idea to a broad scope of experience and cognition, with prudence. ? Traveling by this definition, I think that one can easy see the point I am seeking to do. Wisdom acts likewise to a chemical accelerator in a chemical science experiment. K

nowledge just sits and gathers dust until it is combined with wisdom, at which time it becomes a useful tool in everyday situations, not just in gaining power. It does not matter how much or how little knowledge one has. Being able to put it to use in the right manner is necessary. In light of this, I believe that the clich? stated earlier is misstated. In my opinion, it should read ?wisdom is power.?Another element that often becomes entangled with power is that of truth. In order to understand the relationship between truth and power, one must first have an understanding of truth. The dictionary has several different meanings for the word true. The ones most suited for this use of the word, however, are ?something in agreement with fact,? ?something accurate or correct,? and ?something which is not contradicted.? Earlier, the question was put forth whether or not there is a difference between something believed to be true and the actual truth. Without even using this definition, one can see that it is plainly possible, just by taking a look at the history of science. People used to believe that the earth was the center of the universe, yet we know today that that belief is erroneous. Although we know that the earth is round, it was once a common belief that the earth was flat. Basically, just because something is held to be true doesn?t make it true.This brings up my next point. Is truth some ambiguous creature with many faces, or are there certain things that are true? There are many situations which one might encounter in our world today, in which the phrase ?Well, it?s true for me? might be heard. Is this a correct statement? Or is it just a way for people to rationalize their actions? Is it be possible for there to be more than one truth in one situation? According to the definition given earlier, there can only be one truth. Since one of the definitions of truth is ?something which is not contradicted,? it is impossible for two contradicting ideas on the same subject to be true.There are some who believe that in order for something to be true, it must be held to be true by those in power. I find this statement very inaccurate, and also an extremely dangerous belief. If this idea were true, then all of the tyrannical governments in history have been preaching the truth. It would mean that Adolf Hitler was right in attempting to commit genocide on the Jewish race because he was in power, and that was ?his truth.? I dare say that everyone in the world that saw what was going on believed his actions to be wrong, and I think that they were right. These people who saw what was happening and believed the truth that ?genocide is wrong? were not in power, but does that make their belief any less true? On the opposite side of things, does the fact that Hitler was in power make his belief that ?Jews need to be exterminated? any more true?On a final note, does the truth need to be acknowledged by those in power in order for them to retain their power? Truth and power do have a relationship, but it is not a hand-in-hand relationship like knowledge and power have. Suppose that those in power are promoting a false truth. When the real truth is brought to their attention, then there are only two possible choices in order to retain their power. The first is to realize the error of their beliefs and follow the truth. The second is to control the spread of the real truth and continue to spread the false truth. Yet, if the real truth is never known, then there is no way for those in power to acknowledge it, so truth will not be a cause of any loss of power.The relationship between knowledge and power is seen in many instances, and through logic and deduction, its relationship is made clear. Furthermore, one can see how important wisdom is to knowledge, and along those same lines, how important it is to the gaining and retention of power. Wisdom is more important than just power, though. Wisdom provides the proper means with which to deal with situations that arise in everyday life, through experience. Relating with knowledge is the issue of truth. Truth, being defined as ?something which is not contradicted,? means that there can only be one truth for each subject. When two supposed truths contradict, then there is no way that they can both be true. These issues of knowledge, wisdom, and truth are applicable in daily life, and are all very important in surviving the day to day trials which arise in life.