The Purpose of Knowledge

Yet by going to college, you are seeking knowledge.

Reading a book to find out it's ending is doing something.

I disagree. If I value certain knowledge I pick up, like some guy getting run over and suddenly exploding(play along), then I know its usefulness since I'm remembering this knowledge to tell others about it.

Hmm, I think I see what you mean. Then, it must be our definition of what knowledge is that differ. For me, knowledge isn't a science or so. When reading a book and just finding some amusing fact, you'll remember it without ever thinking about it, but you never intended to learn this fact by reading the book.
Maybe I'm mistaking but knowledge is the unconscious counterpart of culture, no ?
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion about what for me is knowledge.

I see knowledge as information we accumulate using our senses. If I see an animal, I know that there's something alive besides me. If I hear shitty music, I know that the music is shit. If I taste delicious food, I know that it tastes good.
It gets more sophisticated than that since we have to understand that information and then set a value to it.

Then philosophers say shit like, how can you "know"? But that's a whole different topic.

What is necessary is what can prevent or cause something from happening again, that's what I consider important. Everything else is just worthless regurgitation. Such as the fact that obviously the UN has failed a number of times to prevent war, so that idea needs to be ditched. Okay, useful information, now onto useless info, some chick has bigger tits than the other, hot but still useless information. It doesn't prevent wars, and it doesn't further us to a better world.

Its not about how much you know or even what you know, its how you use that knowledge to your advantage that makes it meaningful. To me, all knowledge is equal because it can be useful in various ways. Gaining a lot of knowledge on tv trivia isn't likely to earn you a degree, but it could inspire you to create your own works of entertainment. Hell, it can also help you make new friends since you got something to talk about. There's a saying that we learn something new everyday. The more we think about the knowledge we gather, the more our ideals develop and grow. Sometimes its for the better, other times its for the worse. Which is why how you percieve knowledge you gain plays a crucial part in how you use it (or whether you use it at all).

I think what differ triva and knowledge is knowledge is information that is relevant and applicable to the life of yourself and others around you. That simple I think.

Triva can become knowledge when it becomes relevant or applicable in your or anothers life.

The definition of knowledge (at least that at schools) has changed a bit the last three decades, now when the world has striven to become a modern one. Earlier, knowledge was much more about memory, like, who was that person, what did he do, when, where, much fact and history. Or practical knowledge, that were needed more at physical work. Nowdays, I rather think that knowledge has changed from the remembering of facts to the ability to analyze and debate. There is no right answer to questions anymore, now it's important to be able to find your own answer.

What I'm getting at is that, it's no longer important to be able to memorize the kings and queens (or w/e) in your countrys history. Now, knowledge is the ability to analyze and be creative. Ofc, facts that seems to be of trivial matter can still be of importance, and you should never neglect to learn something while you can.

Ethil I wish I could agree with you about schools changing knowledge. But as a teacher in training, I have to say that you are regretably wrong. Besides things like math that require rememberization, standardize test have forced teachers to teach kids to regurgatate facts that are irrelavent to their success. While teachers themselves want to teach analytical skills and challenge students to think for themselves, government wants to make sure schools are held accountable by placing these test upon them.

I'm not saying who is at fault for this as school DO need to be held accountable (you can't ASSUME that teachers are doing their best), but unfortunately it is still not to that point that you stated.

For Me:

Knowledge Is Knowing The Difference Between Right And Wrong.

I Mean, Knowledge Is Just Knowing What Is Needed To Be Known. No Need To Know Who Killed Who. I Mean Its Not Like People Will Hunt You Down Just Because You Forgot A Certain Date, Place Or Name.

Without knowledge of the past, you don't have knowledge of the future.

Learning of the events of the past let you learn subtle things that may or may not contribute to life. If one remembers a significant event, the event becomes special. Without the memory of the events that happened, it no longer holds significance.

Horrible post, ignore.

In some ways the question is laughable as everything we percive is hypothetically knowledge. Thus we can say that in a broad sense knowledge is how every living thing survives, with more intelligent beings using their greater knowledge base to extend the length of thier existence.

To answer the implied question, we learn (or are taught) so that our minds can hopefully develop to handle more complex concepts, that in our future proffesions we will inevitabley come across. So yes if you honestly think some knowledge is useless because you do not understand it, the yes it is useless. Otherwise of course with so many people in the world I shall point out that there is more 'knowledge' then anyone can ever know, and as such I shall quote an old saying.

In life it is wise to learn everything about something and something about everything.

Simples

I see. Just a quick question, where are you from? Since I think the schools thinking are pretty different in different countrys. I'm from sweden myself, and from what I noticed all my years in school... If you can't talk around it, you can't get high grades. focus lies on "what-do-you-think?" questions, and the ability to gather and process information.

Ofc, math will always require memorization, but the change there is that more focus is laid on how you solve the problem, not the answer you get. Ofc you need to get the right answer, but you can still get points if you just do a mistake.