Lately in class we have learned a lot about Socrates and Plato and how they think. One thing that seems to have stood out to me was how intrigued these philosophers were with learning about knowledge and wisdom. The actual definition of philosophy that we learned in class is "the love of knowledge or wisdom" and that philosophy "aims to uncover the truth of things". There are many famous quotes about these topics such as "Knowledge is power" and "The truth will set you free", but is knowing the truth always what is best?
There have been many times in my life where I was faced with the moral dilemma of whether to tell someone the truth or not. Many times the truth is beneficial and people would appreciate knowing it, but there are also many times when the truth does more harm than good. If you hear a friend talking bad about another friend, do you tell them the truth knowing that it will hurt their feelings? If you tell the truth, then you could be saving someone from harm and disloyalty. But if you didn't, then you could be saving someone from unnecessary pain and heartache. I find that often people withhold information so they don't have to be the "bearer of bad news". Is this morally right? If knowing the truth of something will not have long term negative effects on someone, then maybe withholding information or telling a "white lie" is the better thing to do. Then again, dishonesty is not morally right either. There have been many times in my life where I found out about something that I later wished I hadn't learned or heard. People were just trying to be honest with me, but as the saying goes, the truth hurts.
Socrates and Plato only wanted to know the truth. But as for me, I often find that "ignorance is bliss".
I have to disagree with the feeling that ignorance is bliss. I have always found that telling someone the truth is the best way of handling any situation. For example if you were going to get your results from a doctor, the doctor would have the choice of either not telling the truth and telling the person that they had an easily treatable disease or telling the truth letting the person know that they had something very hard to treat. The doctor would have a hard time telling the patient that they had a very bad disease but if the doctor didn't the patient could possibly get worse or die from the choice of the doctor of taking the easy way out. Therefore in many situations the best way of handling the situation, even if it is a hard, would be to tell someone the truth.
ReplyDeleteI like to believe that ignorance is bliss in many situations, but honestly it is not always possible to live by that saying, at least not in my personal life. Knowing the truth does often hurt one, but it is always better to be honest. By telling the truth, in most cases, the truth will set you free because you would not have to deal with a dirty conscious. It is a very slippery slope when one is put in the situation of being honest because you would not want the person to "shoot the messenger," but honesty is the best policy.
ReplyDeleteGreat points! Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteThere is truth in the passage, but it is important to also think about if the other person that the being talked about. Dose that person really need to know that there are others that are criticizing his/her or does it really matter? Everyone at least have their own thoughts about other people, which I believe that it is normal or most, but is it necessary for everyone to know what everyone thinks of one another? I think that people only need to hear what they need to know so they themselves can become better or be aware of some things.
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