"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." -- Socrates
I was watching some science fiction film the other day with a classic good against evil struggle, but more morally ambiguous than most. Characters in the film were picking sides and the audience was tempted to make judgments about who were the "good" guys and who were the "bad" guys. I thought of my own religious beliefs that include "good" and "bad" as concepts, but more in the sense that everything has its opposite. Maybe because I've been trained to think this way from childhood or maybe it's because my brain works differently than most but I rarely have normative takes on morally "good" or "bad" issues. However, reading this quote reminded me that I do take a negative normative stance on ignorance, particularly willful ignorance of the self-deception variety.
I was watching some science fiction film the other day with a classic good against evil struggle, but more morally ambiguous than most. Characters in the film were picking sides and the audience was tempted to make judgments about who were the "good" guys and who were the "bad" guys. I thought of my own religious beliefs that include "good" and "bad" as concepts, but more in the sense that everything has its opposite. Maybe because I've been trained to think this way from childhood or maybe it's because my brain works differently than most but I rarely have normative takes on morally "good" or "bad" issues. However, reading this quote reminded me that I do take a negative normative stance on ignorance, particularly willful ignorance of the self-deception variety.