July 23, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

陳榮吉 編譯

7.   Some Comments on Learning 論學習

   Gray L. Dorsey

       All animals live. But only man has any control over how he lives. Man lives according to his understanding of the meaning of life. Therefore, to be ignorant is to remain an animal, and not become a man. Ignorance is not the lack of a high school or college diploma. It is the lack of understanding of the meaning of life.

       Understanding cannot be transmitted from one person to another. It has to be born and nourished in each separate individual. All that can be transmitted is knowledge. Knowledge consists of facts about earth and air, the seas and the heavens, man and nature. These facts can be transmitted, and in the formal places of instruction, the schools, this is done. What facts are available about how man understands can also be transmitted. But understanding itself cannot be transmitted.

       To reach understanding you must “digest” the facts you have accumulated and adjust them into a pattern so that all the facts fit together and none seem to contradict each other. Understanding is the process of “making sense” out of what you know. You much acquire facts before you can fit them together, so you need to acquire knowledge. You may even acquire the clue of how to fit the pieces of the puzzle of life together, by studying what others have believed. But you must accept or reject these clues that come to you and make your own decision about the meaning of life. This is understanding.

       If you do not press on to this personal decision you remain ignorant. You are no different from the dog who learns to run through the passages of a maze to get the meat that awaits him if he takes the right turnings. You can acquire the specialized knowledge of a lawyer, an economist, an engineer, or a doctor and use it successfully enough to support yourself and your family. But this is the animal’s reward for having acquired the “conditioned reflexes” that will guide him through the maze.

       To look up from the maze and contemplate the mountains and the seas and the distant stars, to know man’s place in all this, and feel at home – this is the way of the human animal. This way requires understanding.

       If you do not want to merely run through a maze all your life you must sit back and digest the knowledge you acquire. So much comes at you so quickly when you are a student that it sometimes threatens to swamp you. This is the most dangerous time. You must weigh and judge for yourself. This is more difficult now but it is the only way to become wise, the only way to realize what it means to be a human being.