Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary

If ignorance is our greatest liability, then knowledge must be our greatest asset. And if knowledge isn’t our greatest asset, neither is ignorance our greatest liability. So did I name them correctly (see my earlier post for context)? I don’t know, but I think so. And this is why.

I think we need both Aristotle and Plato for this, however. Aristotle’s epistemology is empirical, akin to the view of modern science. Learning–knowledge–comes through observation. We begin with nothing and learn bit by bit through observation, from the bottom up. We are very familiar with this understanding. Plato’ epistemology, on the other hand, is very different. Knowledge is primarily a matter of recollection, memory. It is almost divinely imprinted on the soul and is then recalled by what we study empirically, spiritually, or abstractly–almost top down and back up to the top. What if knowledge is both of these? They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, do they? Not just something that that we gain through observation but also something divinely inspired but recalled through study? If it is both, then I think we can say that it is our greatest asset because all things in life and in death then stem from these two epistemologies. (This, perhaps, is how babies believe–they recall through the teaching of the Holy Spirit what has been already divinely given and grasp hold to that knowledge in faith.)

So if knowledge is our greatest asset, what do we gain? That is, what is the goal, the telos, of knowledge? Maybe knowledge’s goal is not eudaimonia, as Aristotle suggested, but eudokia? A result of knowledge might be happiness, but it’s final result is the revelation of God’s good will toward man.