How understanding makes knowledge valuable
Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (4):591-609 (2010)
| Abstract | Many have suggested that understanding is a worthier goal for theoretical reflection than is propositional knowledge.1 Some have even claimed that, unlike knowledge, understanding is always intrinsically valuable.2 In this essay, I aim only to show that there is a basic value in understanding and that when knowledge conduces to understanding, it gets this basic value extrinsically from understanding. After distinguishing two kinds of understanding, namely, teleological and non-teleological understanding, I will conclude that teleological understanding has more of this basic value than does non-teleological understanding.Let me first turn to the most convincing arguments against the intrinsic value of knowledge. .. | |||||||||
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