Question

Essay on "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge."

Answer 1

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

It is unquestionably true the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. Two great men are credited to have said this famous aphorism. One is Daniel J. Boorstin, the renowned American Hostorian; and the other, Stephen Hawking, the great English cosmologist. Both of them cited the aphorism to caution mankind to beware of the flaw of the illusion of knowledge. The illusion of knowledge can be likened to the maxim ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.’ Rather it is much more dangerous than a little knowledge.

Let’s first try to understand what this ‘illusion of knowledge is’ and how is it dangerous? Well, illusion of knowledge is one’s faulty, subjective, unscientific, unproven, vague, and dubious assumption about a thing, fact, or information. Let’s further understand with an example. Imagine there is an unscrupulous doctor. A patient comes to him with high fever, shivering, and body ache. Assuming the symptoms for an ordinary fever, he gives him antibiotics and other strong medicines without scientifically ascertaining and diagnosis of the patient’s pathological condition. This illusion of the disease’s knowledge may jeopardize the patient’s life!

Actually all human beings suffer from this flaw of illusion of knowledge. Our failures are the indicators of our illusion of knowledge of the goal we strive for. Getting rid of this flaw is a must for perfect success and achievement. All great personalities who are role-models of mankind, personalities such as Jesus, Lincoln, Shakespeare, Dickens, Ramanujjam, Einstein, Addison, Graham Bell, Louis Pasteur, Yoganada, Vivekananda, etc, were the personages who overcame this flaw of illusion of knowledge; they saw the things in their totality; they had complete perception about the challenges they were striving to overcome. They did thorough analysis after ascertaining the minute details of the problems they were aiming to solve.

So, we must also be thorough and perfect in all our endeavours and while doing our duties. We must have complete knowledge of our goals, responsibilities, and aspirations. The service we provide to others must be complete, thorough, and flawless. It should not only solve the problem but also give the receivers complete joy and satisfaction. You may be a teacher, a doctor, a scientist, a cop, a soldier, or a cab driver, always remember illusion of knowledge about your field may cause problems, difficulties, and inconvenience to others. So always remember both ignorance and illusion of knowledge are dangerous to not only you, but others also. Hope this helps!