The true end of knowledge

Contemplate the fact that the Earth hurtles through space at a velocity of more than sixty thousand miles per hour. Contemplate how easy it is to forget this fact. Man is distinguished from other animals by his understanding. We claim this elevates us above other animals. But if we were really proud of our understanding, wouldn’t we often contemplate the facts that are furthest removed from sensory experience, the facts that require the greatest exertion of reason to discover and comprehend? Of course we must have food and drink and a warm place to sleep like other animals. But if we were proud of our understanding, wouldn’t we take care of the needs we share with other animals as quickly and efficiently as possible, and then devote ourselves to cultivating the mind?

The seventeenth century philosopher Francis Bacon, whom R. W. Church called the “prophet of knowledge,” aptly predicted how modern man would come to use the faculty of understanding in day to day life. The true end of knowledge, says Bacon, is not pleasure or curiosity, or the raising of the spirit, or eloquence or wit. The true end of knowledge is to invest man with “sovereignty and power.” When man learns to call everything in the universe by its true name, says Bacon, he will finally be able to command and control everything in the universe. Knowledge directed to any purpose other than command and control, knowledge we cultivate merely for the satisfaction of knowing, Bacon likens to a courtesan we use “for pleasure, and not for fruit or generation.” In Bacon’s view, the faculty of understanding elevates man above the other animals only because it allows us to perform our animal functions more efficiently.

The faculty of understanding is now used almost exclusively as an instrument of conquest, whether for conquering nature or conquering men. But, like all victorious causes, the instrumentalization of knowledge has its share of rebellion and dissent. There remains a small minority who have a different answer to the question of how the faculty of understanding is to be used, or for whom the question still remains unanswered.