A library was recently torched in Tripoli. This is not the first time I am reading about the burning of library texts. I have two thoughts I want to share with future kin about this matter.
First, that knowledge is manifested through the actions of mankind should be regarded as fact. That is, knowledge has physical implications. For example, the knowledge of how to build a car is manifested in the building of a car; the car is proof that a systemic plan (which includes its corresponding theories and all the experimentation around those theories to prove them as true) was executed. But knowledge itself is not physical. It exists first in the mind.
Second, whatever mankind's opinion, knowledge ought to be preserved. Even for "bad knowledge", future generations ought to understand the prevailing interests of past times. Otherwise, if knowledge from different points in time or communities is erased, then history is obscured. Using the example of building a car, how would the most efficient car of the time be built without evidence of past trials and errors around car-building attempts before? History is never written with an absolute 0 bias, but history is enriched with more information on the direction in which the bias slants.
By torching libraries, we burn not just ourselves but also the understanding people of the future will have of us.
First, that knowledge is manifested through the actions of mankind should be regarded as fact. That is, knowledge has physical implications. For example, the knowledge of how to build a car is manifested in the building of a car; the car is proof that a systemic plan (which includes its corresponding theories and all the experimentation around those theories to prove them as true) was executed. But knowledge itself is not physical. It exists first in the mind.
Second, whatever mankind's opinion, knowledge ought to be preserved. Even for "bad knowledge", future generations ought to understand the prevailing interests of past times. Otherwise, if knowledge from different points in time or communities is erased, then history is obscured. Using the example of building a car, how would the most efficient car of the time be built without evidence of past trials and errors around car-building attempts before? History is never written with an absolute 0 bias, but history is enriched with more information on the direction in which the bias slants.
By torching libraries, we burn not just ourselves but also the understanding people of the future will have of us.
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