What’s the purpose of gaining knowledge? - IELTS reading practice test

A

‘I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any subject' That was the founders motto for Cornell University, and it seems an apt characterization of the different university, also in the USA, where I currently teach philosophy. A student can prepare for a career in resort management, engineering, interior design, accounting, music, law enforcement, you name it. But what would the founders of these two institutions have thought of a course called Arson for Profit’? I kid you not: we have it on the books. Any undergraduates who have met the academic requirements can sign up for the course in our program in 'fire science’.

B

Naturally, the course is intended for prospective arson investigators, who can learn all the tricks of the trade for detecting whether a fire was deliberately phối, discovering who did it, and establishing a chain of evidence for effective prosecution in a court of law. But wouldn’t this also be the perfect course for prospective arsonists to lớn sign up for? My point is not to lớn criticize academic programs in fire science: they are highly welcome as part of the increasing professionalization of this and many other occupations. However, it’s not unknown for a firefighter to lớn torch a building. This example suggests how dishonest and illegal behavior, with the help of higher education, can creep into every aspect of public and business life.

C

I realized this anew when I was invited to lớn speak before a class in marketing, which is another of our degree programs. The regular instructor is a colleague who appreciates the kind of ethical perspective I can bring as a philosopher. There are endless ways I could have approached this assignment, but I took my cue from the title of the course: 'Principles of Marketing’. It made u think to lớn ask the students, 'Is marketing principled?’ After all, a subject matter can have principles in the sense of being codified, having rules, as with football or chess, without being principled in the sense of being ethical. Many of the students immediately assumed that the answer to lớn my question about marketing principles was obvious: no. Just look at the ways in which everything under the sun has been marketed; obviously it need not be done in a principled (=ethical) fashion.

D

Is that obvious? I made the suggestion, which may sound downright crazy in light of the evidence, that perhaps marketing is by definition principled. My inspiration for this judgement is the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who argued that any body toàn thân of knowledge consists of an over (or purpose) and a means.

E

Let us apply both the terms 'means' and ‘end' to lớn marketing. The students have signed up for a course in order to lớn learn how to lớn market effectively. But to lớn what end? There seem to lớn be two main attitudes toward that question. One is that the answer is obvious: the purpose of marketing is to lớn sell things and to lớn make money. The other attitude is that the purpose of marketing is irrelevant: Each person comes to lớn the program and course with his or her own plans, and these need not even concern the acquisition of marketing expertise as such. My proposal, which I believe would also be Kant's, is that neither of these attitudes captures the significance of the over to lớn the means for marketing. A field of knowledge or a professional endeavor is defined by both the means and the end;hence both deserve scrutiny. Students need to lớn study both how to lớn achieve X, and also what X is.

F

It is at this point that ‘Arson for Profit’ becomes supremely relevant. That course is presumably all about means: how to lớn detect and prosecute criminal activity. It is therefore assumed that the over is good in an ethical sense. When I ask fire science students to lớn articulate the over, or purpose, of their field, they eventually generalize to lớn something lượt thích, ‘The safety and welfare of society,’ which seems right. As we have seen, someone could use the very same knowledge of means to lớn achieve a much less noble over, such as personal profit via destructive, dangerous, reckless activity. But we would not Gọi that firefighting. We have a separate word for it: arson. Similarly, if you employed the ‘principles of marketing’ in an unprincipled way, you would not be doing marketing. We have another term for it: fraud. Kant gives the example of a doctor and a poisoner, who use the identical knowledge to lớn achieve their divergent ends. We would say that one is practicing medicine, the other, murder.

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Great thanks to lớn volunteer Thuy Do has contributed these explanations and question markings.

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