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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Reincarnation On Trial
| Aristotle asserted that man by nature desires to know; further, that we take delight in our senses which offer to us information about the world. Experience is a form of knowledge, and so we naturally desire it. However, we lead ourselves astray by ascribing benefits to experience and knowledge which lie outside their domain of blessing. |
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Our desire for knowledge, said Socrates, is a “real” not merely “apparent good”. Subsuming this proclivity is a human being’s essential nature which seeks to grow and expand.
I’d like to recommend that you read Dr. Mortimer Adler’s discussion concerning real and apparent goods, as these relate to Aristotle’s dictum concerning “men by nature desire knowledge and delight in their senses” which offer us information about the world.
We are hard-wired, so to speak, to seek for knowledge; a pleasure to us. And therefore, as experience is a form of knowledge, we readily gravitate toward it. However, while knowledge and experience offer many benefits, the awakening and the enlivening of the soul remain untouched by the knowledge and experience we gain at the surface of life. It's easy to confuse the issue, lending too much importance, as our desire for knowledge and experience is very compelling.
See Adler’s writing, a chapter from his book, “Six Great Ideas” for a more complete discussion of knowledge as a “real good” and a natural desire of humans.
Socrates spoke of “real” versus “apparent goods.” Real goods are what we ought to desire whether we do in fact desire them or not.
“Right desire” is a phrase employed by Aristotle suggesting that there are desires inherent in human nature, rooted in potentialities or capacities, that drive or tend toward fulfillment. These are the desires that we ought to have.
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