The Purpose of Knowledge and Its Proper Use

Knowledge is often seen as manifesting itself into virtue and morally good actions. Not only is this vague, it’s unrealistic. Failing to reconcile with inaction of the individual, offering a case that because someone knows better, they naturally do better. Increased knowledge holds increased accountability, not manifesting good on its own. I believe the purpose of knowledge holds its value through the individual actions, ultimately leading to the pursuit of living in accordance with God.

Augustine of Hippo holds similar beliefs, believing the purpose of knowledge living in accordance with God through actions, stating knowledge alone does not improve individuals. Diving further into Augustine, he argued that the purpose of knowledge was to guide the soul toward truth and rightly ordered love (ordo amoris). Augustine stated that the more you know, the more morally accountable you become. Where ignorance can excuse, knowledge cannot. In his book Confessions, he condemns himself repeatedly not for ignorance, but for knowing how to act and refusing to.

Aristotle as well influenced my belief on the purpose of knowledge, specifically on the application of knowledge. Aristotle enforces the belief that knowledge has a goal, with the goal being rightful living. He states multiple points clarifying how to and how not to reach this goal. Aristotle rejects the premise that moral knowledge alone creates a good person, believing that you can understand virtue and still fail to achieve being virtuous. That virtue is provided through consistent morally good actions, spreading the idea that knowledge without actions fails its purpose.

I contest knowledge to be a two part process; first you learn, and then you apply. Unfortunately, most individuals are still on part one, containing powerful knowledge with minute action. Starting the right mindset for the purpose of knowledge sets up the foundation; the challenging part is now following through. Moving forward in the essay, the attention will be directed on how to correctly apply action to our knowledge, focusing on aligning with God.

Trying to improve our action with knowledge starts with looking back on our lives and seeing the knowledge that we understand we ought to do, yet still avoid putting into action. A question needed to be asked in pursuit of improving action: if we lived wholeheartedly the advice we know, how much different would our lives be? If we did live wholeheartedly the advice we know, I contend that our lives would be drastically different for many of us. This can be seen from the huge presence of smokers, drinkers, and drug addicts who continue to harm themselves even with the knowledge of what they ought not to do. Everyone, from little to substantially, is disconnected from the knowledge they have and the actions they commit or lack thereof. A next course of action is to understand, then remove, what causes the disconnect as much as possible.

The disconnect between knowledge and action is mainly due to lack of discipline, with emotion and desire overriding logic. Many individuals understand the path that leads to living in accordance with God, but fail to apply this knowledge when faced with temptation, discomfort, or habitual behavior. The lack of willpower causes undisciplined mindsets that lead to sinful complicity, rather than disciplined action. Ultimately leading to underachieving, sinful lifestyles that cause harm rather than improvement.

Replacing inaction with action takes more than just gaining knowledge; it is by a deliberate shift in character through discipline, effort, and focus. The mindset to increase morally good action is by focusing on what you ought to do, rather than fixating on what you ought not to do. For example, if an individual constantly reminds himself not to fall back into his addiction, his addiction is centered in his mind the entire time, causing him to be tempered and likely fall back into that addiction. Now instead, if this individual focused on living in accordance with what he should do, his energy is directed towards greater action, decreasing focus and temptations towards that problem. This mindset increases the most action and focus in accordance with what he ought to do. While simultaneously decreasing time, energy, and attention towards any individual problems and addictions.

Overall, learning knowledge doesn’t make you walk the path towards good; it simply outlines it for you. Realizing the hard truth that gaining knowledge doesn’t make the path easier, only clearer, helps with executing better actions. The learning of knowledge and the application of it go hand in hand. Failure to execute either piece leads to less alignment with what we ought to do. Finally, to decrease problems and increase the good of our actions, we must focus on consistent, disciplined actions we know we should produce, not be fixated on obstacles that only weaken and distract.