Knowledge is Power: But for Whom?
Many say that knowledge is a tool for liberation, a valuable tool for resistance against the unfair deeds. I would like to challenge this notion, and show that knowledge in general and the existence of “the others” restrict a man’s free will and divinity.
Before looking at how one’s free will is influenced by knowledge or the others, we should first review over on the concept of power. Power is a subject’s ability to control and objectify other entities. It includes physical and intellectual influence that one person or a group executes over others. In such sense, it can be said that knowledge is an effective tool of power. Common sense and the crux of mainstream philosophy have been constantly shifting throughout history. The important aspect of this phenomenon would be that at any time of history when an ideology or specific form of knowledge thrived, it definitely benefited the prosperity of a group, in many cases the ruling class. The nobles and priests in the Middle Age, bourgeois and petit-bourgeois nowadays are initial examples.
Let us explore the example of bourgeois and their execution of knowledge. As the power control shifted from the nobles, they started to practice a different strategy of control upon other classes. The nobles used gaudy and ritualistic performances to boast their power and influence. One example of this strategy would be public execution, which openly shows the strength of the nobles. However, the bourgeois employed a strategy diametrical to that of the nobles’. Instead of being seen, they utilized the power of seeing. By gazing upon the common people, they were able to take control over the statesmen.
As a result, the academics regarding the subjects of optics, Cartesian coordinates and statistics began to advance. Cartesian coordinate system was used to identify the location of objects and enable the overseers to acknowledge the path of moving objects. This discovery was the very beginning of urban planning, which greatly helped the taxation of statesmen. Statistics was used in classification of information, extracting meaning from otherwise meaningless numbers. Well-sorted and analyzed numbers showed visible meanings, helping governments efficiently reign over its citizens. Nonetheless, the word origin of statistic is “status”, possibly implying that statistic is a crucial knowledge for ruling a nation.
Is knowledge an effective tool for liberation and enlightenment? Knowledge is more of a repressive structure that constricts free will from human beings. As long as there are more than an individual, power relation will always exist, influencing the knowledge created within a society, small or big. We should be more ignorant, more independent, and thus become free.
Ko, Hae Uk: "Then do you promote going back to zero-base, when we still lived in huts? Should we try to find out every piece of knowledge through experience?"
Jung, Yoon Jo: "I read it through about 80%, and you seem to know a heck of a lot about philosophical issues. But what is the Cartesian coordinate? Who is Foucault? I could not understand this. But the first page was really good and persuasive. Good!"
Kim, Sol: "I get where you're trying to say, but won't we need some more explanation? I think you lack enough explanation. The last statement of yours sounds like we should go back to the primitive stage.... personally one question: then should human be apart from the society? You wrote about something too big to write in 20 minutes!"
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