Caring is Necessary for Understanding

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Caring is Necessary for Understanding

I have for some time been interested in trying to understand what ?'understand' means. I have reached the conclusion that ?'curiosity then caring' is the first steps toward understanding. Without curiosity we care for nothing. Once curiosity is in place then caring becomes necessary for understanding.

Often I discover that the person involved in organizing some action is a person who has had a personal experience leading her to this action. Some person who has a family member afflicted by a disease becomes very active in helping support research in that disease, for example.

I suspect our first experience with ?'understanding' may be our first friendship. I think that this first friendship may be an example of what Carl Sagan meant by "Understanding is a kind of ecstasy".

I also suspect that the boy who falls in love with automobiles and learns everything he can about repairing the junk car he bought has discovered ?'understanding'.

I suspect many people go their complete life and never have an intellectual experience that culminates in the "ecstasy of understanding". How can this be true? I think that our educational system is designed primarily for filling heads with knowledge and hasn't time to waste on ?'understanding'.

Understanding an intellectual matter must come in the adult years if it is to ever come to many of us. I think that it is very important for an adult to find something intellectual that will excite his or her curiosity and concern sufficiently so as to motivate the effort necessary to understand.

Understanding does not come easily but it can be "a kind of ecstasy".

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In matters regarding knowing and understanding we are faced with the ubiquity of ambiguity. I think that understanding is generally associated with disinterested knowledge. How many people have every had experience with disinterested knowledge?

Understanding is a step beyond knowing and is seldom required or measured by schooling.

Understanding is generally of disinterested knowledge, i.e. disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term ?'disinterested knowledge' as similar to ?'pure research', as compared to ?'applied research'. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

Understanding is often difficult and time consuming and the justification is not extrinsic but intrinsic.

We are motivated into action by the force of reason or emotion also pain I guess. But reason and emotion are both required for action I think. Just as reason informs us that the hurrican victims need help we will probably do little without the emotion of caring.

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coberst wrote:

... But reason and emotion are both required for action I think. Just as reason informs us that the hurrican victims need help we will probably do little without the emotion of caring.

You aren't particularly familiar with sanctimonious do-gooders are you? Those lovely folk who talk a good game about how we must all help all the suffering people and then walk right by the bleeding homeless person or the frail elderly person who has fallen and is unable to get up again on their own. Do-gooders are a fun lot of fakes...as long as the camera is rolling or the reporter is trailing along they do nice things all over the place. As soon as they are not being watched, boy howdy, they won't even lift a finger to help anyone.

So what it boils down to is emotion is only a part of it, and for some it is almost not a part at all. Technically it (emotion) is a part for the do-gooders since they are doing it in order to look good in the eyes of others, thus making themselves feel their self-righteous best.

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coberst, I agree with you. But there is also such a thing as caring and yet not being able to show care. Like when someone you love is sick and away. And then there are people who will show empathy but with no sympathy inside them. They just make a show of caring. Anyway, I really loved the jist of your post. I never realized before that, 'if you grasp an understanding of something, its origins can lie in caring.'

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Caring is Necessary for Understanding

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