Hands down, today was the best discussion we've had in English class so far. Having the whole class involved was amazing, and everyone's individual perspectives were extremely intriguing. Discussing the differences between information and knowledge opened up my mind to many new ideas and possibilities. I believe the relationship between information and knowledge has a lot to do with the theme of "carrying it forward".
The way I see it is, one is given information; whether it be from a teacher, parent or friend, the information is just fact. It is what it is. To go on and take that information that was given to someone, they would have to strive to really understand what it means. That would mean, either experiencing it or continuing to ask questions about whatever it is. In other words, one has to carry forward that information for it to actually turn into knowledge.
Turning information into knowledge is done in a very interesting way in Jostein Gaarder's novel Sophie's World. For a large portion of the novel thus far, it has been clearly divided into Sophie's narrative and lessons about philosophy. Gaarder makes it obvious to the reader, by teaching philosophy in the letters, and he even goes out of his way to make it clear to the reader by using a different font. There is an underlying theme throughout the whole book that there are two specific parts to each one greater thing. Some examples of that are; the idea of faith and reason, technology and nature, good and evil, and dreams and reality. Juxtaposition can be seen in all of these things, because while they are seemingly opposites, they can also have more similarities than they initially appear to.
Information and knowledge are similar to the previous examples because, like each of them, one can not work without the other. What I'm saying is, life needs a perfect balance, or equillibrium to really work and be the best it can be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment