Can Knowledge Be Harmful

There have been many times in my life when I have heard people use idiomatic expressions such as "some things are better left unsaid" and "what you don't know can't hurt you." I had never thought too much about these statements before, merely assuming them to be random expressions with no debatable meaning. However, several days ago I was talking with one of my friends about dating and she said "the knowledge that he's going out with her is painful enough." This got me thinking. Is it knowledge itself that is harmful and that we should not seek/know, or is knowledge impartial and it is the person that is harmful or construes the knowledge as harmful? In order to answer this question, I first asked myself: what is knowledge? While the question is remarkably broad, I simply took a simple definition and considered it: knowledge is a body of truths or facts gained over time through experience and the understanding of concepts and ideas. With this in mind, I then contemplated: is knowledge harmful?

In my opinion, no knowledge is inherently evil or with harmful intent. In fact, I believe that knowledge is neither good nor evil, but simply impartial with no will of its own. I believe it is the people that interpret knowledge that put a negative or positive spin on it. Hitler's autobiographical-political book, Mein Kampf, is banned in some bookstores and libraries because some fear people will become influenced by it and adopt Hitler's ideology. If someone were to begin trying to exterminate Jews, it would be because of their malicious intent, not because of the knowledge the book itself contained. In a different example, biological science studies were intended to benefit mankind, by researching bacteria and viruses so that cures and medical vaccines could be created to help the sick. However, the same biological studies were used to create weapons for the purpose of biological warfare, intended to infect many victims with deadly diseases. Does this mean that the knowledge of biology itself is evil, as it led to many horrible deaths? If so, then one must be ignoring the fact that biology is also used to benefit mankind medically. Another scientific controversy involving harmful or helpful use of knowledge is stem cell research. Many people argue that stem cell research is evil, believing that embryos are human lives and that the destruction of a laboratory-fertilized egg is the murder of a human life. Others argue that stem cells are used beneficially to develop cures for paralysis and other medical ailments and diseases, and that it is more efficient to make use of an embryo if it is going to be destroyed anyway. The knowledge of stem cells, regardless of controversy, is not evil. It is the ethical viewpoint of the people regarding the issue that perceive stem cell research as harmful or helpful.

The same principle applies to more trivial matters, such as the statement above made by my friend that peaked my interest: "the knowledge that he's going out with her is painful enough." It is not the knowledge that a boy you like is going out with another girl that hurts you; it is what the act means. The knowledge that makes you feel bad inside could also make someone else, say, someone who doesn't like you and wants you to be miserable for eternity, feel ecstatic. My friend does not feel bad because of the knowledge that the boy she likes is going out with someone else. Rather, she feels badly because of what that knowledge implies: that the boy in question has no romantic feelings for her, which then makes her feel bad. This means that the knowledge itself has no ill intent. Another statement, "what you don't know can't hurt you," follows this trend. Nothing that you don't know can hurt you. It is how you interpret the knowledge you gain that can hurt you. If you do not like schoolwork, and you find out you have a test tomorrow which you were previously oblivious to, then you don't become angry or upset due to the knowledge of the test; you become angry and upset because you interpret the knowledge of having a test to mean that you have to study and work hard, which are cumbersome prospects to you. Since you have applied a negative aspect