I am interested in disinterested knowledge

Disinterested knowledge is the energy bunny. It generates the energy for exploration and for overcoming some of the inhibitions consciousness places on the unconscious.

Disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term 'disinterested knowledge' as similar to 'pure research', as compared to 'applied research'. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

Studying disinterested knowledge is like taking off a month every year to visit a strange new land. Curiosity is reinvigorated and new meaning is created.

Knowledge is like a jigsaw puzzle. We have created many puzzles in coping with reality and when we receive a new piece of knowledge that does not fit our present puzzles we forgetaboutit (Italian word for ‘forget about it’). However, if through disinterested knowledge we have created new puzzles within which the new knowledge might fit we might find a whole new meaning in life.

Our mind is constantly working for us and when we do not give it a worthwhile project, i.e. a new puzzle, it will just waste away in boredom or worry.

Instrumental knowledge is interested knowledge. Instrumental knowledge is the life blood of a value system that places the maximizing of production and consumption as “Number One”.

Disinterested knowledge is the un-knowledge, it is the non-instrumental knowledge. Disinterested knowledge is an alien and clumsy word in a society that places maximum value on production and consumption. Disinterested knowledge is not a catalyst of production and consumption but it is the catalyst of creativity. Disinterested knowledge is the mixing bowl of creativity.

Creativity is the synthesis of the known into a model of the unknown. The value of the unknown is yet to be determined. Creativity requires a comfort with the unknown.

Disinterested knowledge is a means to defragment your brain.

Have you ever studied disinterested knowledge?

Do you think it is important to love to learn?

Don't you really mean, disconnected knowledge, or knowledge for its own sake. Knowledge can't be disinterested. As soon as you look for it you are exhibiting an interest.

Frogger

Disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term 'disinterested knowledge' as similar to 'pure research', as compared to 'applied research'. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

Have you ever studied disinterested knowledge?
Can you give some examples?

Disinterested knowledge, it seems to me, is paramount, in that it is objective rather than subjective. Subjective intellectual endeavors always entail the risk of the lower self (for lack of a better term) injecting itself into the process, thus polluting the results. Yet disinterested knowledge is more difficult than it might appear, because the lower self is sneaky. It will try to find a way to inject it's own "interested interests" into the process, while trying to make it seem as though it's not.

Still, it's a worthy goal.

I still contend that any knowledge you are interested enough in to pursue cannot be disinterested knowledge. The term as used is an oxymoron .

I still contend that any knowledge you are interested enough in to pursue cannot be disinterested knowledge. The term as used is an oxymoron .

Agreed

Can you give some examples?

Almost every post I make is the result of disinterested knowledge. I have been doing this for 25 years. My particular interest in the last year has been psychology.

Disinterested knowledge, it seems to me, is paramount, in that it is objective rather than subjective. Subjective intellectual endeavors always entail the risk of the lower self (for lack of a better term) injecting itself into the process, thus polluting the results. Yet disinterested knowledge is more difficult than it might appear, because the lower self is sneaky. It will try to find a way to inject it's own "interested interests" into the process, while trying to make it seem as though it's not.

Still, it's a worthy goal.

I have been engaged in this hobby off and on for 25 years. It is the best thing that I have done. It is a treasure that I stumbled across accidently long ago.

Assume Fred is a health nut who exercises constantly and is always advising others to start a strict exercise routine for their health. Fred is well liked but most people on the island think that he over emphasizes the value of exercise.

One day after pursuing a specific exercises routine Fred become conscious of color. He is shocked and frightened and discontinues the exercise. Many weeks later curiosity gets the best of him and he returns to the exercise routine and there again appears the perception of color.

Fred experiments with this matter and concludes that when he performs the afore mentioned exercise routine he can perceive color constantly.

If you were Fred would you inform your friends and acquaintances of this occurrence?

How would you explain this perception to others?

How would others respond to your efforts to explain what happened?

Picture me as Fred in this little fantasy. Picture that my inspiration is not color but an intellectual life. Twenty-five years ago I stumbled upon what I now call the self-actualizing self-learning hobby. I accidentally discovered the power and importance of self-learning and my message to all who will listen is ‘get a life—get an intellectual life’.

Socrates is my ideal here. I am asking everyone who will listen that they become critically self-conscious. I claim that if society does not become more intellectually sophisticated our species will not make it for another two hundred years.

I still contend that any knowledge you are interested enough in to pursue cannot be disinterested knowledge. The term as used is an oxymoron .


It is unfortunate that everyone gets tied up in semantic quibbles. What is important is the search for new knowledge.

If we wonder off the beaten path we can discover what we have not ‘seen’ before. If we only study that which enhances our present state then we will never know what we don’t know.

Hobbies are ways in which many individuals express their individuality. Those matters that excite an individual interest and curiosity are those very things that allow the individual him or her to self-understanding and also for others to understand them. Interests define individuality and help to provide meaning to life. We all look for some ideology, philosophy or religion to provide meaning to life.

When examining psychosis the psychiatrist advises either the establishment of an interpersonal evolvement or for finding interests and perhaps new patterns of thought.

None of us have discovered our full potentialities or have fully explored in depth those we have discovered. Self-development and self-expression are relatively new ideas in human history. The arts are one means for this self-expression. The artist may find drawing or constructing sculptures as a means for self-discovery. The self-learner may find essay writing of equal importance. Consciousness of individuality was first become a possibility in the middle Ages. The Renaissance and further the Reformation enhanced the development of individual identification.

As technology developed there grew a further enhancement of the perception of the individual. It was in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1674 that the word “self” took on the present modern meaning of “a permanent subject of successive and varying states of consciousness”. “Self” as an instance of compounds with other words appeared over this period of time. Self-knowledge (1613), self-examination (1647). Self-interest (1649).

The word “individual” moved from the indivisible and collective to the divisible and distinctive. In this we see the development of an understanding of self-consciousness thus illustrating the dramatic change taking place in our developing understanding of the self as a distinct subject not just a cipher in a community. This was part of the Renaissance.

I recommend that each of us develop the hobby of an intellectual life. We could add to our regular routine the development of an invigorating intellectual life wherein we sought disinterested knowledge; knowledge that is not for the purpose of some immediate need but something that stirs our curiosity, which we seek to understand for the simple reason that we feel a need to understand a particular domain of knowledge.


I think that the world is full of things that have interest for me only because I wish to know and hopefully understand. Disinterested knowledge is non utilitarian knowledge that I acquire in the quest for self-understanding. Seeking knowledge based upon curiosity is, I think, an excellent means for self-actualization.


I think that the world is full of things that have interest for me only because I wish to know and hopefully understand. Disinterested knowledge is non utilitarian knowledge that I acquire in the quest for self-understanding. Seeking knowledge based upon curiosity is, I think, an excellent means for self-actualization.

Its good for self-actualization by self-learning. It opens up new horizons for intellectual development. It is to add spice and meaning to life.

Bingo! That is exactly what I mean. Follow your curiosity. To help in this quest I suggest that you acquire a "Friends of the Library" card from a local college. With this card, which will be a fee of about $25 per year, you will have access to all the books you might want when following your curiosity.

I am a retired engineer and have been doing math for years. Only recently have I begun to understand math. I have also been studying cognitive science and this has opened a whole new world of understanding. It is a real shame that our educational system has left us so intellectually handicapped and with such negative attitudes toward learning.

So, does clicking "random article" button on a digital/online encyclopedia and read whatever comes up count as disinterested knowledge? I do this all the time.

There's a difference between disinterested and uninterested. One of the definitions of disinterested is "not interested by considerations of a personal advantage".

There's a difference between disinterested and uninterested. One of the definitions of disinterested is "not interested by considerations of a personal advantage".
Here the deliberation is further hinged on how you define "personal advantage".

So, does clicking "random article" button on a digital/online encyclopedia and read whatever comes up count as disinterested knowledge? I do this all the time.


Are you talking about Wikipedia, Dio? I do that all the time too, lol. I do it because maybe something of interest will pop up and I will want to know more about it, and it will lead me on to other things. It's happened before. However most of the time something comes up that I have absolutely no interest in. So in that case what would you call it when you go in search of something, yet you set out not knowing what you're looking for in the first place? When it comes to knowledge in this case.

Coberst,

If you are talking about learning for learning's sake and not for some general purpose like job advancement, etc., I think you will find a lot of us do that. I know Rendova and Dark Fantasy read history books just for the love of learning history and not for any other reasons. Lots of us study things that willl have no earthly part in increasing our wealth or allowing us to move into new jobs. We learn new things simply for the love of learning new things.

I like to read encyclopedia. I will start at A and work my way through the books. What I read isn't going to increase my earning potential but it does provide me enjoyment. I read fairly erudite history books, books written for historians, not the general layman. I read them not for any reason other than I enjoy learning new things about history.

There are people who read math treatises for fun, or take an evening course in psychology or stained glass production simply for the pure enjoyment of learning something new.

From posting with the people here in Allforums I have come to the conclusion that quite a few of them love learning for learning's sake.

Yeah, Frogger. We're all dorks, lol. If I'm not learning something I feel I'm just wasting my time usually.

Jocks make the big bucks but dorks rule the world.

Jocks make the big bucks but dorks rule the world.

Mr. Frogger are you refuring to Cobest. Inquiring minds want to know.

tuck