Tag: act

The characterization "educated-uneducated" is seemingly contradictory, as someone who is educated cannot be uneducated at the same time. First of all, what we can all agree on is that knowledge acquires value when it is put into practice. Today we are in an era where knowledge is given generously. Anyone can have access to almost any information. The use of the Internet has skyrocketed this possibility. This ease of possessing knowledge, in relation to the bombardment of information that we receive, has slowly brought us to a deification of knowledge (intellect). Knowledge is an essential element in the development of all. It is as essential as water in the human body. Just as water must enter the body to help us, that is, we must drink it, so too knowledge must be applied to help us. Once, Hegesias persistently asked Diogenes to lend him some of his writings, in order to better understand a topic that concerned him and to enrich his knowledge. Diogenes generally resisted, but at some point the time came for them to discuss the matter. Then Diogenes told Hegesias what was the reason for not giving him the writings. “You are a fool, Hegesias. You do not want the painted figs, you prefer the real ones, but you neglect the real exercise and turn to that which is written.” Illiteracy, as the word suggests, denotes complete ignorance of writing and reading, as far as this may be the case in our time, while functional illiteracy denotes a lack of greater or lesser ability for the individual to use the knowledge provided by social life and to handle it. That is, to utilize the knowledge acquired through the written and oral recording of speech and through this information that he possesses. Based on the definition of UNESCO (1978) accepted by the European Commission (1987), "functional illiteracy is defined as the loss of the ability of a person, who has attended compulsory education, to adequately understand oral and written speech, to clearly articulate his thoughts, to make abstract associations, to develop critical thinking, to take advantage of opportunities to improve his cognitive skills". In recent centuries, we have divided man into two parts. We separated man's knowledge from his essence, from his values, from his transcendental interests. Knowledge was isolated, limited to a special container called the brain. This container has come to be seen as a toolbox: we take out this or that tool to do a specific job. There is no longer a unity between man and his knowledge. There are only specialized tools for specialized tasks. At this point, knowledge becomes simple information. Especially in an era when knowledge seems to have been completely divorced from life. If appropriate knowledge is essential for the coherence of a person's life, it follows that depriving people of such knowledge can become a source of confusion and disorganization in their lives. One does not have to be a keen observer to realize that this is exactly what is happening today. Young people (and not only them) are lost, confused and alienated because they do not have the appropriate knowledge to guide them, they have no compass, they do not have the feeling that there is a center that would give meaning to the world around them. Instead, they are provided with standardized information and dry data, with an expertise that they often find to be inadequate knowledge. Sensory knowledge and logical knowledge differ qualitatively, but they are not cut off from each other, but are united on the basis of practice. What we have perceived with our senses, we cannot understand immediately, and only what we have understood, we can understand in a deeper way. Sensory perception can only solve the problem of the external aspects of phenomena; the problem of essence can only be solved by theory. The solution of these problems can in no way be achieved outside of practice. No phenomenon can be known by man unless he comes into contact with it, that is, without living (surrendering to practice) in the very space in which this phenomenon manifests itself. If we want to acquire knowledge, we must take part in the practice that transforms reality. Anyone who wants to know what a banana tastes like, just eat a banana. The source of all knowledge is found in the stimuli that the sensory organs of man receive from the objective external world, through the senses, direct experiences and experiences. The Chinese have an old proverb: “If we do not enter the tiger’s den, how will we be able to catch her cubs?” This proverb applies to human practice and to the same extent, to the theory of knowledge. Knowledge separated from practice is unthinkable. Alexios Vandoros ……………. The article was published on the blog of ApohasiZO > https://goo.gl/MFD9aQ