“Experience is knowledge of the individual, and art is knowledge of the general ... knowledge and understanding are more related to art than to experience, and we consider those who own some kind of art to be wiser than those who have experience, for everyone’s wisdom depends more on knowledge, and this is because that the former know the cause, while the latter do not…those who have experience know the “what” but do not know the “why”; those who know the art know “why”, that is, they know the reason ... Thus, mentors are wiser not because of the ability to act, but because they have abstract knowledge and know the reasons ... art is more knowledge than experience, because those who know the art are able to teach but those who have experience are not capable.

2.2. What assessment did Aristotle give to generally accepted ideas of wisdom?

Aristotle said that "wisdom is the science of certain causes and beginnings." He emphasized the following opinions about wisdom:

"The wise, as far as possible, knows everything, although he does not have knowledge of each subject separately,"

“we consider wise the one who is able to know the difficult and not easily comprehensible for a person”,

"the wiser is the one who is more accurate and more able to teach the identification of causes",

“of the sciences, wisdom is more that which is desirable for its own sake and for knowledge, than that which is desirable for the sake of the benefit derived from it,”

“of the sciences, to a greater extent, wisdom is the one that dominates - to a greater extent than auxiliary, for the wise should not receive instruction, but instruct, and he should not obey another, but he who is less wise ... ".

2.3. What type of knowledge did Aristotle refer to as the realm of wisdom?

Aristotle divides all knowledge into 3 types, 3 groups: practical, creative and theoretical knowledge.

Practical knowledge includes ethics, economics and politics, that is, it implies the ability to act, to live in this world. Ethics is the ability to deal with others.

The knowledge of an artisan is already creative knowledge.

Theory is contemplative knowledge that has no vital value, but this is the paradox that for a true philosopher theoretical knowledge is of great value because it is the knowledge of a free man. It is most valuable because it is free, because practical and creative knowledge exists for a purpose. And theoretical knowledge is for the sake of knowledge itself, therefore it is the highest, most valuable, free. This type of knowledge can be attributed to the realm of wisdom.

2.4. Why doesn't "knowledge for profit" lead to wisdom?

Aristotle believed that “knowledge for the sake of profit” does not lead to wisdom, since people began to philosophize in order to get rid of ignorance, that is, they began to strive for knowledge for the sake of understanding, and not for the sake of any benefit.

2.5. What state of man opens the way to knowledge?

Aristotle said that perception by senses is characteristic of everyone, and therefore it is easy and there is nothing wise in it. The most difficult thing for a person to know is the most general, since it is the furthest from sensory perceptions. That is, when a person perceives everything through feelings, he cognizes this “everything”.

What would you like to strive for - knowledge or understanding? Many people do not see the difference in these two concepts, but sometimes it is quite obvious. For example, remember those situations when you read a book, and then eventually forgot what it was written about. Think of a time when you didn't forget what an article in the February issue of your favorite magazine was about, or what a movie was about. In the first case, you have gained knowledge, and in the second, understanding.

The education system is designed in such a way that it gives children knowledge, but does not teach them to understand this knowledge. That is why many of the knowledge that you received in your school years were quickly forgotten, causing only bewilderment: “Where did they go?”.

Knowing and understanding are two different things. You can know without understanding. But it is impossible to understand without knowing. Understanding is the end result when knowledge turns into deep and solid conclusions that become part of his mind. To know is to have superficial information about something. Knowledgeable person operates with those concepts that were given to him, and the one who understands is guided by his own judgments. Naturally, knowledge can be forgotten over time, and the conclusions made on the basis of a person's understanding of information remain for life.

Moreover, it was noticed that until a person tries the knowledge given to him in practice, they will be superfluous information in his memory. That is why it is necessary not only to study something, but also to use the information received in life, and then analyze, reflect and make your own judgments about what you received in real life.

In almost every one of his lectures, Gurdjieff returned to a topic that he obviously considered extremely important, but which many of us found difficult to grasp.
-Human development follows two lines, - he said, - lines of knowledge and lines of being. With proper evolution, the lines of knowledge and being develop simultaneously, parallel to each other, helping one another. But if the line of knowledge is too far ahead of the line of being, or the line of being is too far ahead of the line of knowledge, the development of man will go on the wrong path and sooner or later will stop.

"People understand what 'knowledge' is. They also understand the possibility of existence of different levels of knowledge, they understand that knowledge can be more or less. However, they do not understand that being, or existence, can also have different levels or categories. Let's take, for example, the being of a mineral and a plant - these are different levels of being. Being an animal is different from being a human. But even the existence of two people can differ from each other more than the existence of a mineral from the existence of an animal. And this is exactly what people don't understand.
Nor do they understand that knowledge depends on being, and not only do they not understand, but they definitely do not want to understand.

In particular, Western culture is convinced that a person can have great knowledge, be, for example, a capable scientist, make discoveries, advance science, and at the same time remain - and have the right to remain - petty, selfish, picky, low, an envious, vain, naive, distracted person. It seems to be believed here that a professor should always and everywhere forget his umbrella.

"Such is his being; and people think that his knowledge does not depend on his being. People of Western culture highly appreciate the level of knowledge of a person, but do not appreciate the level of his being and are not ashamed low level own being. They don't even understand what this means, they don't understand that the level of a person's knowledge depends on the level of his being.

"If knowledge goes far ahead of being, it becomes theoretical, abstract and inapplicable to life, and in fact - harmful; for instead of serving life and helping people successfully deal with the difficulties that they encounter, it complicates the life of a person, introduces into it new difficulties, sorrows and anxieties that were not there before.

"The reason for this is that knowledge that is not in harmony with being cannot be complete enough to meet the real needs of man. It always remains the knowledge of only one thing, ignoring the other thing, the knowledge of the detail without the knowledge of the whole, the knowledge of the form without the knowledge of the essence.

"Such an advantage of knowledge over being is observed in modern culture. The idea of ​​the value and importance of being and its level is completely forgotten; the fact that the level of knowledge is determined by the level of being is also forgotten. In fact, at this level of being, knowledge limited by known limits is possible. Within the boundaries of this of being, the improvement of the quality of knowledge is absolutely impossible, and there is an accumulation of information of the same nature within the limits of what is already known.Changing the very nature of knowledge is possible only with a change in the nature of being.

"Taken by itself, the being of man has much different parties. The most characteristic modern man this is the absence of unity in him, further - the absence of even traces of those properties that he so loves to attribute to himself: "clear consciousness", "free will", "unshakable I", "capacity for action".

You will be surprised if I say that main feature of the existence of modern man, explaining all his shortcomings, is a dream.

“Modern man lives in a dream; he is born in a dream and dies in a dream. We will talk about the dream itself and its role and significance in life later; and now I ask you to think about only one thing: what kind of knowledge can a person immersed in sleep If you think about it, remembering that sleep is the main feature of our being, it will immediately become clear to you that if a person truly desires knowledge, he must first of all think about how to wake up, how to change his being.

"The external signs of human existence are many-sided: activity and passivity, truthfulness and deceit, sincerity and insincerity, courage and cowardice, self-control and licentiousness, irritability, selfishness, readiness for self-sacrifice, pride, vanity, deceit, zeal, laziness, morality, depravity - these are and many other things constitute the being of man.

"But all these qualities in a man are completely mechanical. If he lies, this means that he is incapable of not lying. If he tells the truth, this means that he is incapable of not telling the truth. And so it is with everything. Everything happens; man can do nothing - neither inside nor outside itself.

"But, of course, there are boundaries, there are limits. Generally speaking, the being of modern man is of a very low quality. However, this quality can be so bad that no change is possible with it. This should always be remembered; happy are people whose being can still be change. And there are other people, definitely sick, broken machines that you can't do anything about. And those are the majority. If you think about it, you will understand why only a few are able to gain true knowledge: the rest are hindered by their level of being.

"Generally speaking, the balance between knowledge and being is more important than the development of one or the other of them separately. In any case separate development knowledge or being is undesirable. But it is this one-sided development that people often find particularly attractive.

"If knowledge takes precedence over being, a person knows, but cannot do. This is useless knowledge. If being takes precedence over knowledge, the person is able to do, but does not know. In other words, he can do something, but he does not know what exactly to do. The being he has achieved becomes aimless, the efforts expended turn out to be useless.

"In the history of mankind, numerous examples are known when, due to the preponderance of knowledge over being or being over knowledge, entire civilizations perished."

Knowledge and understanding - difference of concepts leading to illusion

In order to understand this, in order to understand in general the nature of knowledge and being, as well as their relationship, it is necessary to understand how knowledge and being relate to "understanding".

"Knowledge is one thing, understanding is another.
"People often confuse these concepts and do not clearly see the difference between them.
“Knowledge by itself does not give understanding; and understanding does not increase through the growth of knowledge alone.
Understanding depends on the relationship of knowledge to being, it is the resultant of knowledge and being.
And knowledge must not depart too far from being, otherwise understanding will be too far from both.
At the same time, the relationship between knowledge and being does not change due to the simple growth of knowledge.
They change only when being and knowledge grow together.
In other words, understanding increases only with an increase in the level of being.

"In ordinary thinking, people do not distinguish understanding from knowledge. They think that greater understanding depends on greater knowledge. Therefore, they accumulate knowledge - or what is called knowledge - but they do not know how to accumulate understanding; and the very question of them is not worries.

"Nevertheless, a person accustomed to self-observation knows that at different periods of his life he understood the same thought, the same idea in completely different ways. It often seems strange to him how he could understand so wrongly what is now , in his opinion, understands correctly. At the same time, it is clear to him that his knowledge has not changed, that earlier he knew as much about the subject as he knows now. What then has changed?
His life has changed. And since it has become different, its understanding has become different.

“The difference between knowledge and understanding will become clear when we see that knowledge can be a function of one center; but understanding is a function of three centers. Thus, the thinking apparatus can know something.
But understanding appears only when a person feels and feels everything connected with it.

"Earlier, we talked about mechanicalness. A person cannot say that he understands the idea of ​​mechanicalness, if he only knows it with his mind. He must feel it with his whole body, with his whole being - and then he will understand ...

"In the field of practical activity, people are very aware of the difference between simple knowledge and understanding. They see that just knowing and knowing how to do something are two different things. Knowing how to do something is not created by knowledge alone. But beyond In practical life, people do not understand what "understanding" is.

"As a rule, people see that they do not understand some thing - and then they try to find a name for what they" do not understand ". And when they find some name for this, they say that they "understood."
But "find the name" does not mean "understand".
Unfortunately, people are usually content with words. A person who knows a lot of names, i.e. a lot of words, is considered to have great understanding. But this happens, of course, again outside of practical activity, where his ignorance is revealed very quickly.

Knowledge and understanding do not come without effort

"He who wishes to acquire knowledge must himself make the first effort to find its source and approach it, using the help and indications that are given to everyone, but which people, as a rule, do not want to see and recognize.

Knowledge cannot come to people by itself, unless they make an effort on their part.They understand it very well when we are talking about ordinary knowledge, but in the case of great knowledge, if they admit at all
its existence, they prefer to expect something quite different. Everyone knows well that if a person wants, for example, to learn Chinese, it will take several years of hard work; everyone knows that it takes five years to master the basics of medicine, and twice as much to study music or painting. And yet there are theories that claim that knowledge can come to a person without much effort on his part, that he can acquire it even in a dream.

The very existence of such theories explains why knowledge cannot come to people. At the same time, it is important to understand that an individual's independent efforts to achieve something along these lines may also fail. A person acquires knowledge only with the help of those who have it - this must be understood from the very beginning. You have to learn from someone who knows."

What is understanding?

Try to ask yourself this question, and you will see that the answer is no. You have always confused understanding with knowledge or having information. But knowing and understanding are two completely different things, and you need to learn to distinguish between them.

To understand a thing, you need to consider its connections to some larger subject, a larger whole, and the possible consequences of such a connection. Understanding is always understanding a smaller problem in relation to a larger problem.

People often think that understanding means discovering a name, a word, a title, a label for a new or unexpected phenomenon. Such a search or invention of words for unknown things has nothing to do with understanding. On the contrary, if we could get rid of half of our words, our chances of gaining understanding would increase.

If we ask ourselves what it means to understand or not understand a person, then we must first consider whether we can speak with him in his language. Naturally, two people without a common language cannot understand each other. It must be there, or they must agree on some signs or symbols by which they will designate things. But suppose that during a conversation you come to a disagreement about the meaning of certain signs or symbols; then you again do not understand each other.

From this follows the principle that you cannot understand and disagree. In ordinary conversation we very often say: "I understand him, but I cannot agree with him." From the point of view of the system we are studying, this is impossible. If you understand another person, you agree with him; If you don't agree, then you don't understand.

This idea is difficult to accept: that means it is difficult to understand.

As I have just said, man has two sides which must develop in the normal course of his evolution: knowledge and being. But neither knowledge nor being can remain in the same state. If any of them does not get bigger and stronger, it gets smaller and weaker.

Understanding can be compared to the arithmetic mean between knowledge and being. It shows the necessity of the simultaneous growth of knowledge and being. An increase in only one and a decrease in the other will not change the arithmetic mean.

This also explains why "to understand" means to agree. People who understand each other must not only have equal knowledge, they must have the same being. Only then is mutual understanding possible.

Another common - especially in our time - false idea is that understanding can be different, that people can, and therefore have the right to understand the same thing in different ways.

From the point of view of the system, this is completely wrong. Understanding cannot be different. There can be only one understanding, everything else is misunderstanding or imperfect understanding.

But people often assume that they understand things differently. We see examples every day. How can this seeming contradiction be explained?

In reality, there are no contradictions. Understanding means understanding a part in relation to the whole. But the idea of ​​the whole may differ among men according to their being and knowledge. That is why the system is needed again. People learn to understand by understanding the system and everything else in relation to the system.

But as long as we are talking about the usual level, without any idea of ​​a school or system, here we must admit that there is as much understanding as there are people. Everyone understands everything in his own way or in accordance with this or that mechanical skill or habit, but all this is a subjective and relative understanding. The path to objective understanding lies through school systems and change of life.

To explain this, I need to go back to subdividing into seven categories.

There is a huge difference between people No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, on the one hand, and people of higher categories, on the other. The real difference is even greater than we can imagine. It is so great that all life from this point of view can be divided into two concentric circles - the inner circle and the outer circle of humanity.

People No. 5, 6 and 7 belong to the inner circle, people No. 1, 2 and 3 belong to the outer circle. People No. 4 stand on the threshold of the inner circle or are between two circles.

The inner circle, in turn, is divided into three concentric circles: the deepest, to which people No. 7 belong, the middle one, to which people No. 6 belong, and the outer inner circle, to which people No. 5 belong.

This division does not concern us at the moment, for us the three inner circles form one.

The outer circle in which we live has several names denoting its various features. It is called mechanical because everything happens in it, everything in it is mechanical, and the people who live in it are machines. It is also called the circle of mixing languages, since the people living in this circle speak all different languages ​​​​and never understand each other. Everyone understands everything differently.

We have come to a very interesting definition of understanding. It belongs to the inner circle of humanity and does not belong to us at all.

If the people of the outer circle are aware that they do not understand each other, and if they feel the need for understanding, they should strive to penetrate into the inner circle, for understanding between people is possible only there.

If you formulate your goal in terms of understanding other people, then the school principle is this: you can understand others exactly as much as you understand yourself and only at the level of your own being.

This means that you can judge other people's knowledge, but not their being. You see in them exactly as much as you have yourself. It is a constant mistake to think that one can judge the being of others. In fact, to meet and understand people higher levels development, it is necessary to work for the purpose of changing one's own being.

What does lie mean?

In ordinary language, a lie is a distortion or, in some cases, a concealment of the truth (or what people think is the truth). Lies of this kind play a very important role in life, but there are much worse forms of lying, when people themselves do not know that they are lying. In the last lecture, I said that in our present state the truth is unknown to us and that truth can be known only in the state of objective consciousness. How then is a lie possible? It seems that there is a contradiction, but in reality there is none. We cannot know the truth, but we can claim to know. And this is a lie. Lies fill our whole life. People pretend to know about all sorts of things: about God, the future life, the universe, about the origin of man, about evolution, about everything, but in reality they know nothing, not even about themselves. And whenever they talk about something they don't know, as if they know it, they are lying. Consequently, the study of lies becomes the most important matter of psychology.

Lies are inevitable in mechanical life. No one can escape it, and the more someone thinks that he is free from lies, the more he is mired in it. Life, as such, does not exist without lies. But psychologically lies have a different meaning. It means a statement about what you do not know and cannot know, as if you know and can know.

You must understand that I am not speaking from any moral point of view. We have not gotten to the question of what is good and what is bad, per se. I speak from a practical point of view - what is useful and what is harmful for self-knowledge and self-development.

Starting with this, a person very soon learns to distinguish signs by which he can know his harmful manifestations. He discovers that the more he controls this or that manifestation, the less harmful it is, and the less he controls it, the more mechanical and harmful it can be.

When a person understands this, he begins to fear lies., and not on moral grounds, but because he does not control his lie, that this lie establishes control over him, i.e. over all his other functions.

The second dangerous trait he finds in himself is imagination. Very often, starting to observe himself, he comes to the conclusion that the main obstacle to observation is imagination. He wants to observe something, but instead he starts imagining about this very thing, and he forgets about watching. Very soon he comes to realize that people attribute to the word "imagination" a completely artificial and undeserved meaning of creative or selective faculty. He is aware that imagination is a destructive faculty, that he will never be able to control it, that it always takes him away from his most conscious decisions and pushes him where he did not intend to go. Imagination is almost as bad as falsehood; in fact, it is a lie to itself. A person begins to imagine something in order to please himself, and very soon he begins to believe what he imagines, at least partially.

Further, or even before that, many very dangerous consequences of the expression of negative emotions are revealed. The term "negative emotions" means any kind of emotion of violence or depression: self-pity, anger, suspicion, fear, annoyance, boredom, distrust, jealousy, etc. Usually this expression of negative emotions is accepted as something quite natural and even necessary. People often call it "sincerity". Of course, it has nothing to do with sincerity: it's just a sign of a person's weakness, bad temper and inability to keep his grievances to himself. This is realized when a person tries to resist these emotions. And thus he learns another lesson. He realizes that it is not enough to observe mechanical manifestations, that they must be resisted, because without resistance it is impossible to observe them. They happen so quickly, so habitually, and so imperceptibly, that they cannot be seen unless efforts are made to obstruct them.

Following the expression of negative emotions, a person notices in himself and in other people one curious mechanical trait. These are conversations. There is nothing wrong with nicks in and of themselves. But for some people, especially those who notice it last, talking becomes a real vice. These people chat all the time, everywhere, while working, traveling, even in their sleep. They don't stop talking to anyone as long as they have someone to talk to, and even when there is no one to talk to, they talk to themselves.

All this also should not only be observed, but chatter should be resisted as far as possible. As long as there is no resistance to it, no observation is possible, and all the results of observations immediately evaporate in conversations.

The difficulties that arise in the course of observing these four manifestations - lies, imagination, the expression of negative emotions and unnecessary speech - show a person his absolute mechanicalness and even the impossibility of fighting against burdens without help, i.e. without new knowledge and real assistance. For even if a person has received some material, he forgets to use it, he forgets to observe himself. In other words, he falls asleep again and needs to be awakened all the time.

This "falling asleep" has its own specific features, which are unknown, or. at least not registered or named in conventional psychology. These features require special study.

The sciences feed young men,
They give joy to the old,
Decorate in a happy life
Save in case of an accident.

(M. V. Lomonosov)

An educated person is not just a person who has a diploma of completed education. This concept is many-sided and multifaceted, it consists of many criteria that are formed throughout the life of an individual.

History pages

What does an educated person mean? Surely many of us sooner or later asked this question. To answer it, we must turn to history. Namely, to those days when humanity began to make progress in the development of civilization.

Everything was created and done gradually. Nothing appears at once, at the wave of the mighty hand of the Creator. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God." Communication, gestures, signs, sounds were born. It is from these times that the concept of education should be considered. People have got mutual language, the original knowledge base they passed on to children from generation to generation. Man made efforts to develop writing and speech. Drawing from these sources, the river of time has brought us to the present. There were many meanders in the channel of this river, incredible work was invested and colossal work was done. Yet this river brought us into the life we ​​see it now. Books have preserved and conveyed to us everything that man has created over the centuries. We draw knowledge from these sources and become educated people.

Educated person: concept, criteria, aspects

The interpretation of this term is ambiguous, researchers offer many definitions and variations. Some believe that an educated person is an individual who has graduated from an educational institution and has undergone comprehensive training in a certain field of knowledge. For example, these are doctors, teachers, professors, cooks, builders, archaeologists, managers and other specialists. Others argue that, in addition to state-commercial education, a person must also have social, life experience gained in travel, trips, in communication with people of different ethnic groups, classes and levels. However, such an interpretation is incomplete, since an educated person is a person of certain moral principles who has managed to achieve something in his life thanks to his knowledge, erudition, culture and determination. From all this, we conclude that an educated person is not only the most intelligent person, but also a person with a capital letter. Therefore, most researchers give a more accurate description of this term. They believe that an educated person is an individual who is offered by civilization itself. He has cultural and life experience, historically accumulated in the process of development and formation of culture, industry, industry, etc.

The image of an educated person is made up of many criteria and personality traits:

• Having an education.
• Language proficiency.
• Culture of behavior.
• Expanded horizons.
• Erudition.
• Wide vocabulary.
• Erudition.
• Sociability.
• Thirst for knowledge.
• Eloquence.
• Mind flexibility.
• The ability to analyze.
• Striving for self-improvement.
• Purposefulness.
• Literacy.
• upbringing.
• Tolerance.

The role of education in human life

An educated person seeks knowledge for orientation in the world. It is not so important for him to know how many elements are in the periodic table, but he needs to have general idea about chemistry. In each area of ​​knowledge, such a person is guided easily and naturally, realizing that single accuracy is absolutely impossible in everything. This allows you to see the world from a different angle, navigate in space, makes life bright, rich and interesting. On the other hand, education acts as enlightenment for everyone, endowing with knowledge to be able to distinguish reality from imposed opinion. An educated person is not influenced by sectarians, advertising tricks, as he constantly analyzes what he sees and hears, forming the only correct decision about the reality of what is happening. With the help of education, the individual achieves his goals, improves himself and expresses himself. Thanks to reading, an erudite person listens to his inner world, finds important answers, subtly feels the world, becomes wise, erudite.

The Importance of School Education

The first stage in the formation of each individual as an "educated person" is the initial educational institution, namely the school. There we get the basics of knowledge: we learn to read, write, draw, think in detail. And our future development, as a full-fledged representative of society, largely depends on how much we assimilate this initial information. From birth, parents develop a craving for knowledge in the child, explaining the importance of education in life. Thanks to the school, the abilities of each student are revealed, a love of reading is instilled, and the foundations are laid in society.

The school is the foundation for the formation of every educated person. It solves a number of important tasks.

1. Primary education of a person, the transfer of social, life, scientific experience in significant areas historically accumulated by civilization.
2. Spiritual and moral education and personal development (patriotism, religious beliefs, family values, culture of behavior, understanding of art, etc.).
3. Preservation and strengthening of health, both physical and mental, without which a person will not be able to fulfill himself.

Self-education and social, life experience is not enough to become educated, so the role of the school in the life of a modern individual is invaluable, irreplaceable.

The role of books in education

Currently, teachers perceive the image of an intellectual as an ideal of an educated person, to which every student, student, and adult should strive. However, this quality is not a priority or mandatory.

How do we imagine an educated person

Each of us has our own on this topic. For some, an educated person is someone who has finished school. For others, these are people who have received a specialty in a particular field. Still others consider all smart people, scientists, researchers, those who read a lot and educate themselves, to be educated. But education is the basis of all definitions. It radically changed life on Earth, gave a chance to fulfill oneself and prove to oneself that everything depends on a person. Education gives a chance to take a step into another world.

At each stage of personality formation, a person perceives the concept of education in different ways. Children and students are sure that this is just the smartest person who knows and reads a lot. Students look at this concept from the point of view of education, believing that after graduating from an educational institution, they will become educated people. The older generation perceives this image more broadly and thoughtfully, realizing that, in addition to learning, such a person must have his own store of knowledge, social experience, be erudite, well-read. As we can see, everyone has their own idea of ​​what an educated person should know.

Self-realization

When a person graduates from school, he experiences extraordinary joy, positive emotions, accepts congratulations and wishes to become a worthy person in the future. Having received a certificate, each graduate embarks on a new life path to self-realization, independence. Now you need to take an important step - choose an educational institution and a future profession. Many choose the difficult path to achieve cherished dream. Perhaps this is the most important moment in a person's life - to choose professional activity according to the soul, interests, abilities and talents. The self-realization of the individual in society, his further happy life depends on this. After all, an educated person is, among other things, a person who has achieved success in one area or another.

The importance of education in our time

The concept of "education" includes the words - "to form", "to form", which means the formation of a person as a person. Forms it internally "I". Both in front of himself in the first place, and in front of the society in which he lives, is engaged in his field of activity, works and just pleasantly spends his free time. Undoubtedly a good education in our time is simply irreplaceable. It is a decent education that opens all the doors for the individual, makes it possible to get into "high society", get a first-class job with decent wages and achieve universal recognition and respect. After all, knowledge is never enough. With every day we live, we learn something new, we get a certain portion of information.

Unfortunately, in our twenty-first century, the age of digital technologies, communications and the Internet, such a thing as "education" is gradually fading into the background. On the one hand, it would seem that it should be the other way around. Internet, bottomless source useful information where everything is available. There is no need to once again run around libraries, fellow students in search of a missed lecture, etc. However, along with useful information, the Internet contains great amount useless, unnecessary and even harmful information that clogs the human brain, kills the ability to think adequately in it, and leads a person astray. Often low-quality resources, useless social media humanity is much more attracted than information from libraries useful for self-development.

What does ignorance lead to?

An uneducated person is under the delusion that he knows everything and has nothing more to learn. While an educated person will be sure until the end of his life that his education is not completed. He will always strive to know what will make his life even better. If a person does not strive for knowledge of the world and self-development, then in the end he comes to everyday life, a routine where work does not bring either pleasure or sufficient income. Of course, ignorance does not mean a complete lack of any knowledge, certificates. A person can have several educations, but be illiterate. And vice versa, there are quite educated, well-read people who do not have a diploma, but have high intelligence, erudition due to independent study of the world around them, sciences, and society.

It is more difficult for uneducated people to fulfill themselves, to achieve what they want, to find something to their liking. Of course, remembering our grandparents, who at one time worked more than studied, we understand that it is possible to go through life without education. However, you will have to overcome a difficult road, work hard physically, spoiling both mental and physical health. Ignorance can be imagined as an isolated cube in which a person lives, not wanting to go beyond its boundaries. A raging life will boil and rush around, with magnificent colors, filled with vivid emotions, understanding, awareness of reality. And whether it is worth going beyond the edge of the cube in order to enjoy the true, fresh air of knowledge - only the person himself has to decide.

Summing up

An educated person is not only one who has finished school, an educational institution well and has a highly paid job in his specialty. This image is unusually multifaceted, includes a culture of behavior, intelligence, good breeding.

The main qualities of an educated person:

• education;
• literacy;
• the ability to communicate and express one's thoughts correctly;
• politeness;
• purposefulness;
• culture;
• the ability to keep oneself in society;
• erudition;
• desire for self-realization and self-improvement;
• the ability to subtly feel the world;
• nobility;
• generosity;
• excerpt;
• diligence;
• sense of humor;
• determination;
• wit;
• observation;
• ingenuity;
• decency.

The concept of "an educated person" is interpreted in different ways, but the main thing in all definitions is the presence of education obtained in various ways: with the help of school, university, self-education, books, life experience. Thanks to knowledge, each of us can reach any heights, become a successful, self-fulfilled personality, a full-fledged unit of society, perceiving this world in a special way.

At present, it is difficult to do without education, because any field of activity requires certain skills and abilities. And to live in the world, knowing nothing about it, is like primitive man, absolutely meaningless.

Finally

In the article, we examined the main criteria, definitions of an educated person, answered the question of what it means to be a cultured person. Each of us regards and looks at things according to his social status and ability to perceive the world around him. Some don't even realize that intelligent person bad to say offensive things to the interlocutor. Some learned this truth from an early age. Indeed, the worldview of a person is primarily influenced by the education of people who put certain information into it, were guides to this life.

We also found out that a well-read person is an individual who reads not only special, educational literature, but also works of the classics. Much in this world is interconnected, but it is education that plays the main and decisive role. Therefore, it is worth taking it with all seriousness, desire and understanding. We are the masters of our lives. We are the creators of our own destiny. And how we live this life depends entirely on us. Despite the difficulties, political or military, our ancestors created excellent conditions for our life. And it is in our hands to make these conditions even better for our descendants. We need education in order to arrange our lives according to our own desire and become a happy person.

Raising the level of your education through the Internet is difficult. In order to become an erudite person, one must not forget to visit the library and read the books of an educated person. We bring to your attention popular publications that every educated person must read, this will make you an interesting, well-read, cultural interlocutor.

1. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K. A. Activity and psychology of personality.
2. Afanasiev VG Society: consistency, knowledge and management.
3. Brauner J. Psychology of knowledge.

Francis Bacon

Many have heard and know that knowledge is power. However, not all people make enough efforts to acquire some useful knowledge for them. Therefore, I believe that this topic should be considered in more detail, so that each of you, dear readers, clearly understand what exactly is the great power of knowledge and what needs to be done in order to gain this power. On the one hand, it seems to be clear that one needs to study, gain knowledge by all available methods in order to know a lot and, therefore, be able to do a lot. But on the other hand, it is not always and not clear to everyone about what kind of knowledge you need to receive and how best to do it, and most importantly, how to use it later in your life. Therefore, this point definitely needs to be dealt with properly. And we will do it with you. We will take a detailed look at this topic and learn everything there is to know about knowledge.

What is knowledge?

Knowledge is information that, firstly, has been verified by practice, and secondly, and this is the most important thing, gives a person the most complete picture of reality. This is the fundamental difference between knowledge and ordinary information, which allows us to have only a partial idea of ​​certain things. Knowledge can still be compared with instructions for something, and information with ordinary advice. The knowledge that a person possesses is very well deposited in his memory, due to the fact that he repeatedly applied it in his life, consolidating this knowledge in practice and confirming its truth with his own experience. Over time, knowledge becomes an unconscious skill.

Types of knowledge

Knowledge is different. For example, there is superficial knowledge, but there is deep knowledge. Superficial knowledge is such knowledge that is based on visible relationships between individual events and facts in a certain subject area. For superficial knowledge, a good memory is enough - I read, heard, saw and remembered the information received, without thinking about why it was this way and not another. And you seem to know something. Superficial knowledge is often based on two, maximum three links in the causal chain. The reasoning model of a person with superficial knowledge will be quite simple. It usually looks like this: "If [condition], then [action]". More complex mental constructions in this scheme, as you understand, are impossible.

It is quite another thing, deep knowledge, they already use a more complex structure of reflections and reasoning. Deep knowledge is abstractions, complex diagrams and deep analogies that reflect the structure and processes in the subject area. Deep knowledge is based not only on memory, but also on thinking. Moreover, they are not limited to the construction and analysis of cause-and-effect chains, but represent a complex web of reflections / reasoning, in which many facts and processes are interconnected. In this case, any single cause may have several effects, and one specific effect may follow from different causes. Deep knowledge reflects the integral structure and nature of the existing processes and relationships that take place in the subject area. This knowledge allows us to analyze and predict the behavior of objects in detail.

Knowledge can also be explicit or implicit. Explicit Knowledge- this is the accumulated experience, highlighted and presented in the form of instructions, methods, guidelines, plans and recommendations for action. Explicit knowledge has a clear and precise structure; it is formulated and fixed both in the human memory and on various media. Implicit knowledge is such knowledge that is difficult or difficult to formalize, that is, to highlight with their help the most important characteristics of the subject of study, discussion. This is intuitive knowledge, personal impressions, sensations, opinions, guesses. They are not always easy to explain, to convey to other people. They look like loosely connected pieces of information, rather than a complete and clear picture of reality.

Still knowledge can be worldly and scientific. Everyday knowledge is specific knowledge about something, which is based on random reflections and spontaneous observations. They are often intuitive in nature and can be highly dependent on the opinions of others. This knowledge is often irrational, that is, not amenable to explanation and full understanding. They cannot be applied to all situations, despite the fact that a person has received this knowledge through his experience, because this experience is incomplete, it only partially reflects the patterns of certain situations. And here scientific knowledge- this is already more generalized, rational, well-thought-out and justified by professional observation and experiments of knowledge. They are accurate, universal, structured and systematized, they are easier to analyze, thanks to their systemic nature, to understand and convey to other people. Therefore, it is necessary to strive for precisely such knowledge in order to have a more complete and accurate idea of ​​various things in this world. There are many other types of knowledge, but we will not consider them all now, we will leave this matter for future articles. Instead, let's move on to more important issues for us.

Why is knowledge needed?

In order for a person's craving for knowledge to be especially strong and constant, he must clearly understand why knowledge is needed. Still, their value is not always obvious, since many people do not chase them as much as, say, money. Some values ​​are more understandable to us, because we use them constantly and openly, and see what they are good for. The same money is a value that we all feel, due to the fact that money can buy a lot. Or, if we talk about what we are willing to spend our money on, then again, such things as “bread and butter” or a roof over our heads seem to us quite obvious values, since we need these things and cannot do without them. But the usefulness of knowledge is somehow not quite and not always visible to the naked eye. But in fact, it is on what kind of knowledge a person has that depends on whether he has money, and bread and butter, that is, food on the table, and clothes, and housing, and many other important and useful things for life. Knowledge helps people to come to all this. And the more a person knows and the better his knowledge is, the easier it is for him to come to the material and spiritual values ​​he needs. After all, the same money can be earned in different ways - you can do very hard, dirty and unhealthy work for them, or you can just make the right decisions, give the necessary orders, make several calls a day and earn more in two or three hours than many people earn from hard work in a month and even a year. And it's not about labor productivity, it's about the ability to do such work that many other people cannot do, as well as the ability to outmaneuver other people in the struggle for a place in the sun. And all this is facilitated by high-quality and extensive knowledge. So knowledge opens the door to a beautiful, happy, rich and bright life for a person. And if you are interested in such a life, if you need it, then you also need knowledge. But not all knowledge is needed, but only those that can be applied in life for the benefit of oneself. Let's see what this knowledge is.

What knowledge is needed?

As much as some of us would like to have all the knowledge that exists in the world in order to be very smart, it is quite obvious that this is impossible. We cannot know everything, because even the knowledge that is known to mankind is so much that it will take several lifetimes just to get acquainted with it. And if we also take into account the fact that people do not know a lot about this world, then it becomes completely clear that knowledge must be obtained selectively. But this choice is not easy to make. To do this, a person must decide what kind of life he wants to live, what goals he plans to achieve and what is valuable to him in this life. His fate will depend on this choice. It is no coincidence that we cannot know everything, because we do not need it. We need to know well the most important thing for us, on what our destiny will depend. And this main thing must first be distinguished from everything else. And to do this, it is useful to turn to someone else's experience. There are a lot of people around us who have already passed the nth part. life path and by their example one can see what knowledge turned out to be useful for them and what was not. A life different people shows us what knowledge can lead to what.

Here we are living today in a time when there is a lot of various knowledge everywhere. The Internet alone is worth something, in which a lot of interesting and useful things can be found. But such an abundance of information and knowledge prevents a person from understanding what he really needs. I don't think that this is such a serious problem, like, say, the problem of lack of knowledge, limited access to information, censorship, lack of opportunity to get an education, and so on. But still, we must recognize that the abundance of information requires us to take a serious approach to its selection. And the lives of other people, which I suggest you focus on, is the best way to understand what knowledge is important and what is not. All the mistakes you can make have already been made by someone else. All the successes that you want and can achieve have already been achieved by someone in one form or another. Therefore, the experience of other people is invaluable. Study it, and you will be able to understand what knowledge you should strive for. At the same time, you should not just believe what other people say, even if they are very successful people. It is better to look at what and how they live, where, how and what they studied and study, what books they read, what they do, what they strive for. Actions are more honest than words. Also keep in mind that successful people show through their experience what knowledge can be useful in life, so it is worth striving for. But the losers, on the contrary, can show with their lives what kind of knowledge is meaningless and useless, and sometimes harmful. This is not an exact indicator, but you can focus on it.

Knowledge and information

Let's see, friends, how knowledge differs from information. Still, we receive this or that information every day, but knowledge is far from always. There are several opinions on this matter. Usually they write and say that knowledge differs from information in that they are part of a person's experience. That is, knowledge is the information verified by experience that a person possesses. This is a good definition, but in my opinion not complete. If knowledge were only part of our own experience, then we would not use such a phrase as “gaining knowledge”, we would talk about obtaining information that can become knowledge only when we verify it with our own experience. But we, nevertheless, use such a phrase as “gaining knowledge”, that is, already something ready that you can use without checking it on your own experience. Therefore, in my understanding, knowledge is a more complete, better, more structured and systematized information that reflects a complete and complete picture of a particular subject area as close to reality as possible. That is, it is more harmonious, accurate and quite extensive information. But simply information is pieces of knowledge, so to speak, elements of a puzzle, from which you still need to make a more complete and clear picture of something. So knowledge is a picture of reality already composed of various information, or, one might say, an instruction for life that we can use. If, for example, I tell you that some specific instinct is responsible for some specific human behavior, then this will be information, because with this piece of knowledge about a person, much will remain incomprehensible. If I tell you everything I know about instincts, how they work, how they are interconnected, how they control human behavior, and so on and so forth, then this will already be the knowledge that I will pass on to you. That is, it will be a more holistic picture of human nature or an instruction for a person, which will allow you to learn a lot about him, understand a lot, and most importantly, it will allow you to work competently with people and yourself. Information can also be used, but its range of possibilities is much lower.

The acquisition of knowledge

It is very important to be able to properly acquire knowledge in order to acquire the maximum of necessary and useful knowledge with a minimum of time and effort spent. Here, a very important role is played by the way of reporting, and, consequently, of obtaining information, even with the help of books, even with the help of any other sources. Emphasis should be placed on understanding, through which a person does not lose interest in what he learns. For not many people have sufficient willpower necessary for a serious understanding of the subject being studied, while interest in something, fueled, among other things, by the clarity of the information being studied, can be an excellent motivation for learning. A person will eagerly acquire new knowledge if it is understandable to him and, in his opinion, useful. Here, a quality education differs from a low-quality one, including in the way teachers present knowledge to their students, and not only in what kind of knowledge they give them. A good teacher is a teacher who is able to explain material to students not only in complex scientific language but also in the language ordinary people. You could even say that the teacher should be able to explain the material in the language of a five-year-old child so that everyone can understand it. If knowledge is presented in an understandable language, then people will be interested in it, and if it is interesting, then there will be more attention to it. If, however, knowledge is presented to people in a language they do not understand, then interest in it will be minimal, if any, and many will simply turn away from it, no matter how useful this knowledge is.

Knowledge quality

It is impossible not to say about such an important thing as the quality of knowledge, on which their effectiveness depends. Still, we receive knowledge mainly for the sake of using it in our lives, and not just for the sake of knowing something. Therefore, knowledge must be practical and effective. Let's think about how to determine the quality of knowledge that we can receive from various sources. Here, I believe, priority should be given to understanding the knowledge we receive. As I wrote above, understandable knowledge is not only interesting and one wants to delve into it, but it is also well absorbed, and what is especially important, it is easier to check it. In addition, knowledge must be understandable so that a person can not only remember it, but also develop this knowledge and draw their own conclusions based on it, that is, generate new knowledge with their help. Then, of course, it is important that the knowledge be complete, and not abrupt and not in the form of dry facts, which, again, you only need to remember, but in the form of a whole system in which the connection between the facts should be visible, so that it is clear why something is arranged or works this way and not otherwise. And from this follows the next criterion of qualitative knowledge - this is their reliability. Why exactly is it leaking? Because knowledge that is presented in the form of mostly facts, and not in the form of that system of reasoning, consisting of a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that leads to these facts and helps to connect them together, is quite difficult to verify for reliability. You will only have to believe in such knowledge, which consists solely of facts, if you yourself were not an eyewitness of these facts. The fact is, you either have it or you don't. But how do you know if a fact really exists? What is the strongest evidence for its existence? Of course, one can verify certain facts and the knowledge based on them on one's own experience, so to speak, conduct an experiment, as is done in science. But this will require a lot of time and effort from you. In addition, if you have received low-quality and even harmful knowledge, then you risk making serious mistakes when checking them, which will not be easy to correct. Therefore, it is important to see those chains of reasoning that allow us to verify the truth of certain facts, at least at the level of theory, with the help of logical reflections. And if possible, you can transfer this theory to a more or less similar experience from your life in order to use this transfer to determine the probability of the truth of this or that fact, and at the same time all the knowledge that we receive.

Often, for effective learning, we need the help of other people who help us learn certain knowledge, connecting it with the experience that we have been and are witnessing. That is why we need teachers who explain to us what is written in books and what we see around us. They help us to put together in our heads a complete picture of something, supplementing with their explanations the knowledge that we receive from books. However, good books can also explain a lot, so self-study can be as effective, if not more effective, than learning with the help of teachers. But provided that the books and other sources of information that a person learns from are really of high quality.

Knowledge is power

Now let's think about why knowledge is power. We have already touched on this issue above, but now we will consider it in more detail, so that you have a powerful motivation to gain new knowledge, regardless of any obstacles. The power of knowledge lies in the fact that it allows a person to bring his plans to life, with the help of the necessary sequence of actions. To put it simply, knowledge helps us avoid unnecessary mistakes when realizing our desires. Thanks to them, we are easier to navigate in this world and can influence a lot in it. Knowing something allows us to control it. But when we do not know something, we are limited in our capabilities and then we can already be controlled by those who know more than us.

Knowledge also makes us more courageous and self-confident people. And courage and confidence allow people to succeed in many things. Let's say, if you want to do something, then you need to think not about whether it can be done or not, but about how you can do it, what actions you need to take for this. And before that, you need to think about where and what knowledge you need to get in order to perform the necessary actions [sequence of actions] and do the work you need. That is, knowledge is the key to success in any business. Having necessary knowledge you can turn any idea you have into reality. And this ability to make reality the way we want it to be gives us strength. Let's ask ourselves this question: is it possible to build a time machine? What will be your answer? Think about it. If you think that a time machine cannot be built, then you are not aware of the power that knowledge has. You proceed from the knowledge that you have at the moment, and they do not allow you to admit the possibility that such a thing as a time machine can be built. Although for this it is simply necessary to obtain other knowledge that is currently unknown to mankind. But if you are a thinking person and understand one simple but very important truth that we humans still don’t know much about this world, then you can easily admit the possibility of creating a time machine and any other unusual device that can greatly change our lives . In this case, you will have only one single question: how to do it? So the power of knowledge is that with its help we can make the impossible possible.

The power of knowledge is also very clearly manifested in those cases when a person does not receive, but distributes knowledge. The fact is that people are driven not only by their instincts that determine their needs, but also by ideas, beliefs, and faith. And people are infected with ideas from the outside world, in which someone creates and distributes them. And it is the one who infects the minds of most people with his ideas that gets supreme power above them. It is a great power that no other power can compare to. No violence and no fear can compare with the power of ideas, with the power of persuasion, and ultimately with the power of people's belief in something. Because such a force controls people from the inside, not from the outside. So, in order to infect people with your ideas, you need to create them and distribute them in society. This is a very difficult task, which is why there are so few great ideologists in the world who decide the fate of millions. If you only receive knowledge, then this, of course, is also very good. With knowledge, you will know a lot and be able to do a lot. But at the same time, you yourself run the risk of becoming infected with other people's ideas and, in a sense, becoming their hostage. This is not always a bad thing, but keep in mind that the highest manifestation of the power of knowledge is precisely the ability to create and distribute it, and not receive and apply it.

The price of knowledge

This is perhaps one of the most important questions that everyone should know the answer to. How much does knowledge that is good in every sense cost? Do not rush to answer this question, think better. Many of us know and understand that knowledge is needed, knowledge is important, knowledge is useful. But good, high-quality knowledge, which a person will not just receive with the help of some source or in some educational institution, and which will be explained to him in the most detailed way, so that he learns them well, have their price. The price may be different, but it is important to understand the main thing - good knowledge is priceless! You are well aware that a good education is expensive, but at the same time you must understand that good knowledge, necessary knowledge, useful knowledge that can be obtained through quality education always pays for itself, always. Therefore, investing money and time in obtaining good knowledge is an ideal investment. In general, I believe that in this life one should never spare money for such things as health and education, everything else is secondary. After all, it is quite obvious that any person needs good health without it there would be no normal life. To do this, he must eat well, rest the right amount of time, use high-quality medicine and, if possible, not work in hazardous work. Pro bad habits I'm not even saying - they are unequivocally unacceptable. And having good health, a person must take care of the contents of his head in order to take a worthy place in this life. Therefore, health and knowledge should never be spared, neither money nor time. These are not things you can bargain on.

How to get knowledge?

To get good knowledge, it is necessary first of all to determine the priority of those methods of obtaining them that are available to a particular person. And then use these methods in the appropriate sequence. In my opinion, the best way to gain knowledge is to get it from other people and with the help of other people. Only the point here is not that someone will decide for you what and how you need to learn, but that you will use another person, other people, as your teachers to learn the things you need. That is, it is you who needs to determine the plan of your training, as in the case of self-education - the most the best way education. But at the same time, you need to use other people as assistants, mentors, advisers, so that they tell you what and how it is useful to learn. After all, let's say, if you are still very young and know little about this world, then it will be difficult for you to figure out what is important and valuable in it and what is not. You need to listen to the advice of other people who are smarter and more experienced, but the responsibility for the knowledge you receive should lie with you. People are a source of knowledge that is very convenient to use. When a person explains to you what and how it works in this world, when you can ask him questions about things you don’t understand, you can ask him again, clarify, argue, you can correct your mistakes in the learning process with his help - this is just a great way to learn something , and fast enough.

Books also play a very important role in the process of obtaining knowledge - this, from my point of view, is the most preferable way of learning without the help of living people. Not video, not audio, but books, that is, gaining knowledge with the help of printed text, with the help of signs, symbols, that's what is useful. The text, no matter whether it is on paper or on the monitor screen, is the material with which you need to work. Not just to look at it like pictures, but to work with it - to ponder over written thoughts, words, ideas, laws, analyze them, compare, evaluate, verify. The text is always in front of your eyes, it can always be broken down into separate sentences, phrases, words in order to study it in the most thorough way. In some cases, it is more useful to read not books, but articles, including scientific ones. They are useful in that they convey knowledge in a compressed form, they do not have as much unnecessary writing as in most books. Still, we all have limited time, so it may simply not be enough to read huge books. But an article can, although not always complete, but rather quickly and accurately convey to you the very essence of certain patterns from which our knowledge is formed. And then you will decide for yourself what you need to delve into and in which direction to expand your knowledge by finding Additional materials on the topic you are interested in.

And one more good way gaining knowledge, let's consider it the third most important - this is the observation of what is happening. We all have some kind of experience, and continue to receive it daily, which can teach us a lot. Moreover, this is a teacher who will never deceive. But in order for us to learn something from our own experience, it is necessary to be extremely attentive to everything that surrounds us and what happens to us. Many people do not learn anything from their experience just because they do not pay due attention to it. They do not observe everything that happens in their lives and therefore a lot of valuable information passes by them; do not attach importance to important little things around them, which can tell a lot. And, of course, they do not analyze well enough all those situations that were in their lives and taught them something. But I believe that a person can and should learn from everything that he sees and hears around him. To do this, you just need to be careful and observant. And everyone can develop these qualities in themselves. Sometimes, with the help of simple observation, you can learn much more than with the help of many good books. Because it can show you details about what's going on that other people may not notice or give them the attention they need. In addition, one's own experience, as a rule, gives more confidence in understanding something than someone else's, the sincerity and correctness of which, for a number of reasons, can always be doubted.

Knowledge and thinking

Knowledge is knowledge, but in our time, the ability of a person to think, including non-standard, creative, flexible, is of particular importance. Thinking allows not only to effectively use the knowledge that a person has, but also to create his own, come up with new interesting ideas that can radically turn his idea of ​​​​something. And this, as you already know, is also very important, and sometimes much more important than the experience already accumulated by mankind. Knowledge, even very good knowledge, is rapidly becoming obsolete today, if not completely, but to a large extent. While thinking is always relevant, it allows you to adapt old knowledge to new conditions and, when necessary, create new knowledge that will help solve the current problem. Therefore, to learn something once, and then rest on your laurels all your life, using your knowledge, while it is still possible, but in the near future it will become impossible for those people who want to live a good, high-quality life. The modern world clearly shows us that we need to learn all our lives. This is the only way to survive and succeed in a highly competitive struggle.

And I personally consider a good life such a life in which a person does what he really loves, even if for little money, and does not work all day long at an unloved and sometimes even hated job, just to earn a piece of bread. Do what you love in modern world without adjusting to the labor market is a great luxury. If you come to this, you will feel happy.

So, friends, thinking must be developed. Without developed thinking, even very good modern knowledge can become dead capital. And no one really needs dead knowledge. And in order to make them alive, you need to adapt them with the help of thinking to solve various urgent tasks and problems. Just imagine a modern medium or large business in which there is a fierce competitive struggle, and in order to win it, you need to give results, and not dig up dusty knowledge in your memory in order to show it to competitors. Therefore, thinking comes to the fore, as it allows us to be more practical. And knowledge today can be obtained very quickly on the Internet, and many of them will be more modern and accurate than the knowledge that a person has in his head.

In general, most of the knowledge is what not only one person has, but also many other people. And than more people know about something, the weaker this knowledge. The power of knowledge is determined, among other things, by its accessibility. If some knowledge is available only to a few people, then there is a lot of power in it, and when most people know about it, they lose their power. Here, let's say someone knows about something useful, while others do not know it, and this someone has an advantage over the rest, thanks to his knowledge, which is available only to him. But as soon as this knowledge spreads, a person will lose his power, since his monopoly on this knowledge will collapse. After all, if everyone knows what you know, then what is your advantage, what is your strength? So, the knowledge that we receive in standard ways, as a rule, is known not only to us, but also to many other people. This means that we do not have a big advantage over these other people, other things being equal. By other things being equal, I mean such things as the willingness and ability of a person to apply his knowledge, as well as perseverance, diligence, and the like. Without them, knowledge is useless.

So it turns out that what we know is often known to some other people, and this, to a certain extent, equates us with them. But good, developed thinking can lead a person to such knowledge that will be known only to him alone. After all, thinking can give birth to absolutely new knowledge, new solutions and new ideas. It can lead a person to insight - insight, enlightenment, awareness, a breakthrough in solving some problem that cannot be solved by standard methods. Thus developed thinking gives a person a serious advantage over other people. So knowledge is definitely power. But together with developed thinking, they become a truly great and absolute force.