Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

hayley reed's picture

Ignorance Is Bliss

I continue to enjoy Dennett's discussion of culture and in particular I was struck by what he said about the value of culture in today's society. He wrote, "We cannot preserve all the features of the cultural world in which these treasures flourished. We wouldn't want to." Pg. 514 I found this idea very interesting and I think it is especially true in my own life. I always wonder what about my life will be remembered in 100 years or if I will even be remembered in 100 years. The truth of the matter is I just don't know and I actually wouldn't want to have everything about my life preserved forever. I can't even imagine every detail about my life being pasted into history books for everyone to read. Some things are just better left unsaid and in some cases we don't want to hear about every detail or experience.

Ignorance really is "a necessary condition for many excellent things" and it takes ignorance to realize how essential something is to our culture. The magic of the easter bunny was not as special when I realized that the easter bunny did not exist. But, it took ignorance for me to believe in the beauty of the myth. Ignorance really is bliss!

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
14 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.