We usually consider knowledge to be the cure for ignorance: where knowledge increases, ignorance decreases. In fact, a celebrated Upanishadic quote implies these opposing attributes of knowledge and ignorance when it urges us to go from ignorance to knowledge.

Yet, the Bhagavad-gita (18.22) contains a curious concept that points in the opposite direction: the concept of knowledge in the mode of ignorance, wherein our very knowledge becomes the cause of our ignorance.

Suppose a person learns something negative about one member of a group of people and then presumes that everyone in that group has similar negative characteristics. Such generalization is what we usually call prejudice. Those with prejudices rarely believe that they are prejudiced: they believe that their conceptions are based on reality, and they may indeed be based on their own real experiences or as happens more often experiences of those connected with them. The problem is that they have made invalid inferences from those specific experiences, and they are blind to their error. Thus, it is that their very knowledge becomes the cause of their ignorance – their very experiences of reality blind them to experiencing the complete reality.

What is the cause of knowledge in ignorance? Beyond or rather beneath the aforementioned intellectual error of erroneous extrapolation lies a more foundational error: hubris. Due to arrogance, we believe that our knowledge is not just correct, but also complete and conclusive. That conceit locks us in our tunnel vision of reality, wherein we viscerally reject or laboriously rationalize everything that contradicts our conceptions.

Thankfully, humility can correct this inversion of the normal process of cognitive growth. By cultivating the humility to re-examine and refine our conceptions, we can continuously progress from ignorance toward knowledge and from knowledge toward greater knowledge.

One-sentence summary:

Knowledge cures ignorance when accompanied by humility, but causes ignorance when accompanied by arrogance.

Think it over:

  • What intellectual error makes knowledge the cause of ignorance?
  • What is the foundational cause of knowledge in the mode of ignorance?
  • How can our knowledge cure our ignorance?

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18.22: And that knowledge by which one is attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge of the truth, and which is very meager, is said to be in the mode of darkness.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image