Sunday, December 09, 2007

Curiosity killed... the blogger?

From St. Thomas's treatment of curiosity:

Fourthly, when a man studies to know the truth above the capacity of his own intelligence, since by so doing men easily fall into error: wherefore it is written (Sirach 3:22): "Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability . . . and in many of His works be not curious," and further on (Sirach 3:26), "For . . . the suspicion of them hath deceived many, and hath detained their minds in vanity."
This is one of the root dangers of "independent study"--how many bloggers would be better off submitting themselves to a master and not advancing any opinion or initiating a discussion online until they have gained a proper mastery of the science?

As an "intellectual" resource I find the Internet to be limited. Alas we don't have a Socrates or Plato (or Aristotle) to write a biting dialogue criticizing those who would seek to teach and learn through the Internet.

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