Knowledge is power, Francis Bacon wrote in 1597, using a quill and the Elizabethans’ distinctive “secretary hand.” Thomas Hobbes, who started out as Bacon’s secretary, agreed: Scientia potentia est, Hobbes wrote in the 1668 edition of “Leviathan.” Generations of spymasters, dictators and tax inspectors concurred, and so, as the rubble of the Humanities confirms, did the French theorist Michel Foucault. Yet knowledge is no longer power.
Grab a Copy
Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
Harper
432 pages
We may earn a commission when you buy products through the links on our site.
Today digital information is power. The quantity of information debases its value: The printed newspaper is dematerializing before our eyes. The smartphone offers more than a different physical experience from its predecessors, the tablet, scroll, manuscript and printed book. It carries the entire history of information. Writing, Socrates warns in Plato’s “Phaedrus,” “will implant forgetfulness.” If we “cease to exercise memory,” we will be “calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.” When we outsource the storage of information, we outsource our knowledge of the world and ourselves.
Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Already a subscriber? Sign In
- Office Depot & OfficeMax:
One Link, All Office Depot Coupons - VistaPrint:
25% off first purchase with VistaPrint promo code - Walmart:
20% off your order with Walmart promo code - TurboTax:
Save up to $15 with TurboTax coupon May 2023 - The Motley Fool:
Epic Bundle - 3x Expert Stock Recommendations - H&R Block Tax:
15% Off DIY Online Tax Filing Services | H&R Block Coupon Code
