[coberst]

Autodidactic: A Means for Self-Actualizing

I am a retired engineer with a good bit of formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.

Disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term ‘disinterested knowledge’ as similar to ‘pure research’, as compared to ‘applied research’. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

I think of the self-learner of disinterested knowledge as driven by curiosity and imagination to understand. The September Scholar seeks to ‘see’ and then to ‘grasp’ through intellection directed at understanding the self as well as the world. The knowledge and understanding that is sought by the September Scholar are determined only by personal motivations. It is noteworthy that disinterested knowledge is knowledge I am driven to acquire because it is of dominating interest to me. Because I have such an interest in this disinterested knowledge my adrenaline level rises in anticipation of my voyage of discovery.

We often use the metaphors of ‘seeing’ for knowing and ‘grasping’ for understanding. I think these metaphors significantly illuminate the difference between these two forms of intellection. We see much but grasp little. It takes great force to impel us to go beyond seeing to the point of grasping. The force driving us is the strong personal involvement we have to the question that guides our quest. I think it is this inclusion of self-fulfillment, as associated with the question, that makes self-learning so important.

The self-learner of disinterested knowledge is engaged in a single-minded search for understanding. The goal, grasping the ‘truth’, is generally of insignificant consequence in comparison to the single-minded search. Others must judge the value of the ‘truth’ discovered by the autodidactic. I suggest that truth, should it be of any universal value, will evolve in a biological fashion when a significant number of pursuers of disinterested knowledge engage in dialogue.

In the United States our culture compels us to have a purpose. Our culture defines that purpose to be ‘maximize production and consumption’. As a result all good children feel compelled to become a successful producer and consumer. All good children both consciously and unconsciously organize their life for this journey.

At mid-life many citizens begin to analyze their life and often discover a need to reconstitute their purpose. Some of the advantageous of this self-learning experience is that it is virtually free, undeterred by age, not a zero sum game, surprising, exciting and makes each discovery a new eureka moment. The self-learning experience I am suggesting is similar to any other hobby one might undertake; interest will ebb and flow. In my case this was a hobby that I continually came back to after other hobbies lost appeal.

I suggest for your consideration that if we “Get a life—Get an intellectual life” we very well might gain substantially in self-worth and, perhaps, community-worth.

As a popular saying goes ‘there is a season for all things’. We might consider that spring and summer are times for gathering knowledge, maximizing production and consumption, and increasing net-worth; while fall and winter are seasons for gathering understanding, creating wisdom and increasing self-worth.

I have been trying to encourage adults, who in general consider education as a matter only for young people, to give this idea of self-learning a try. It seems to be human nature to do a turtle (close the mind) when encountering a new and unorthodox idea. Generally we seem to need for an idea to face us many times before we can consider it seriously. A common method for brushing aside this idea is to think ‘I’ve been there and done that’, i.e. ‘I have read and been a self-learner all my life’.

It is unlikely that you will encounter this unorthodox suggestion ever again. You must act on this occasion or never act. The first thing is to make a change in attitude about just what is the nature of education. Then one must face the world with a critical outlook. A number of attitude changes are required as a first step. All parents, I guess, recognize the problems inherent in attitude adjustment. We just have to focus that knowledge upon our self as the object needing an attitude adjustment rather than our child.

Another often heard response is that “you are preaching to the choir”. If you conclude that this is an old familiar tune then I have failed to make clear my suggestion. I recall a story circulating many years ago when the Catholic Church was undergoing substantial changes. Catholics where no longer using Latin in the mass, they were no longer required to abstain from meat on Friday and many other changes. The story goes that one lady was complaining about all these changes and she said, “with all these changes the only thing one will need to do to be a good Catholic is love thy neighbor”.

I am not suggesting a stroll in the park on a Sunday afternoon. I am suggesting a ‘Lewis and Clark Expedition’. I am suggesting the intellectual equivalent of crossing the Mississippi and heading West across unexplored intellectual territory with the intellectual equivalent of the Pacific Ocean as a destination.

Would you consider having an intellectual life as a hobby to be beneficial to you?

Do you think that a society with many citizens who have a hobby of an intellectual life would benefit that society?

Do know anyone who has an intellectual life as a hobby?

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('coberst', '
')Would you consider having an intellectual life as a hobby to be beneficial to you?

Do you think that a society with many citizens who have a hobby of an intellectual life would benefit that society?

Do know anyone who has an intellectual life as a hobby?

[Aaron]

Kind of like reading a "self help" book.

If you need a book to do it, that isn't really "self" help.

It's just regular old help.

[coberst]

My experience leads me to conclude that there is a world of difference in picking up a fragment of knowledge here and there versus seeking knowledge for an answer to a question of significance. There is a world of difference between taking a stroll in the woods on occasion versus climbing a mountain because you wish to understand what climbing a mountain is about or perhaps you want to understand what it means to accomplish a feat of significance only because you want it and not because there is ‘money in it’.

I think that every adult needs to experience the act of intellectual understanding; an act that Carl Sagan describes as “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

This quotation of Carl Rogers might illuminate my meaning:

I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!"


When we undertake such a journey of discovery we need reliable sources of information. We need information that we can build a strong foundation for understanding. Where do we find such reliable information? We find it in the library or through Google on the Internet or combinations thereof.

I have a ‘Friends of the Library’ card from a college near me. This card allows me, for a yearly fee of $25, to borrow any book in that gigantic library. Experts in every domain of knowledge have written books just especially for laypersons like you and I.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

I've always been like that. However, after reading manuals for calculators and airplanes in my teens I wanted to do more with what I learned.

Learning a philosophy or new line of thinking has its own rewards in and of itself, but although I was not practical by nature I wanted to be able to do something with it. I can only say that it has immeasureably enriched all aspects of my life. I have lived more than most my age, done more than quite a few and still to this day try and take courses or putter around with something new all the time.

I think the main loss we have suffered in society today is that those hours where we might be busy mucking about with something new is filled with the endless drivel of TV's and therefore applaud any who turn it off, cast it away and let their minds drift on to a new adventure in thought, learning or gain insight no matter what the subject.

I have to say that "eureka" feeling I've had the privlidge of experiencing is even better (sometimes) than sex. Its thoroughly awesome.

[coberst]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'I')'ve always been like that. However, after reading manuals for calculators and airplanes in my teens I wanted to do more with what I learned.

Learning a philosophy or new line of thinking has its own rewards in and of itself, but although I was not practical by nature I wanted to be able to do something with it. I can only say that it has immeasureably enriched all aspects of my life. I have lived more than most my age, done more than quite a few and still to this day try and take courses or putter around with something new all the time.

I think the main loss we have suffered in society today is that those hours where we might be busy mucking about with something new is filled with the endless drivel of TV's and therefore applaud any who turn it off, cast it away and let their minds drift on to a new adventure in thought, learning or gain insight no matter what the subject.

I have to say that "eureka" feeling I've had the privlidge of experiencing is even better (sometimes) than sex. Its thoroughly awesome.

[kpeavey]

Albert Einstein wrote:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')e who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('coberst', ' ')
I think that you are right on the mark. Unfortunately few people ever experience this understanding.

I have been shouting this message on Internet discussion forums for more than four years. Perhaps you might find it worth while to do likewise. This is an alien concept to most people and the more they are exposed to it the less alien it will become.

[Stratovarius]

I'd rather drink, fight, and fuck.

Learning is for pansies. Choosing the scientist/philosopher class when you log onto the MMORPG of life is a sure way to prevent from unlocking the sex mini-game.

[kpeavey]

Stratovarius is descended from Vikings.

[coberst]

Imagine that you and a thousand other people lived deep in the jungle of Africa. Imagine further that every one of you had been born colorblind and none had any idea what color was. Imagine further that you were an exercise nut and discovered, quite by accident, that if you performed a certain sequence of exercises you developed color perception.

What would you do?

If you tried to tell the others what would they do? Would you be able to convince any one of them to follow your example? How would you explain to them what you had accomplished? Would they eventually kill you like the Athenians did Socrates?

[Magus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('coberst', '
')If you tried to tell the others what would they do? Would you be able to convince any one of them to follow your example? How would you explain to them what you had accomplished? Would they eventually kill you like the Athenians did Socrates?

[kakkerlak]

As a system administrator and programmer i'm constantly learning new things about computers and nothing is more exciting then reading and experimenting for hours in an attempt to solve a complicated problem. The feeling i get when finally solving a problem is just indescribable good.

I'm 23 years old and never finished any school. As long as i can remember i loved learning and finding out new things on my own. I'm a real autodidact and almost all my knowledge is coming from the public library and the internet (duh!). It makes me proud and extremely happy to know i did it all alone without any help from others.

I never followed one single lesson in English at school because somehow everybody else knew more then i did. At school everybody was able to count to ten in English except me. Only the idea of standing in front of a classroom humiliating myself while attempting to count to ten made me quit school.

After a few years i learned English by watching CNN/BBC on television, reading technical computer manuals and comparing comic books (Donald Duck). The experience of learning English without any assistance is making me very proud and happy about myself. Nothing can beat that!

When bored i like to use a technique i call "freestyle learning". This means i go to Wikipedia or a library and search for a subject i never heard of before and start reading. Every time i find a word or a statement i don't completely understand i look it up and go further from there...repeating this loop indefinitely.

Searching for the truth and understanding this truth is my main goal in life.
I want to know everything! And i want to understand everything i know!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Magus', 'I')'m just glad that I never fell into the same, soul-destroying traps that others have (religion, politics, etc...).

[coberst]

Roach

If one half of one percent of the population acquires the hobby that I call the ‘intellectual life’ such a group could be the foundation for a new “Age of Enlightenment”.

The original Age of Enlightenment occurred in Europe during the eighteenth century. “The men [in the 18th century the enlightened were still only half enlightened] of the Enlightenment united on a vastly ambitious program, a program of secularism, humanity, cosmopolitanism, and freedom, above all, freedom in its many forms—freedom from arbitrary power, freedom of speech, freedom of trade, freedom to realize one’s talents, freedom of aesthetic response, freedom, in a word, of moral man to make his own way in the world.”

It appears to me that following the completion of our schooling the normal inclination is to pack up our yearbook and our intellect into a large trunk and store it in the attic. Occasionally one might go up to the attic and reminisce about the old days.

What I propose is that following the end of our school days we begin a gradual process of self-actualizing self-learning.

This period of our life is generally filled with our duties to family and career so that not a great deal of time is available for extraneous matters. However, time is always available for important things and the important thing is to ‘keep curiosity alive’.

I suspect that if one does not engage in non job related intellectual efforts for the twenty years between the end of schooling and mid-life that the curiosity with which we started life will have dried up and blown away.

What are non job related intellectual activities? Such activities are what I consider to be intellectualism. Intellectualism is active engagement with ‘disinterested knowledge’.

There is in industry the concept of ‘applied research’, which is research looking for a good way to build a new mouse trap; there is also a concept called ‘pure research’, which is a search for truth that may or may not lead to an enhancement of the ‘bottom line’.

Interested knowledge is knowledge we acquire because there is money in it. Disinterested knowledge is that knowledge we seek because we care about understanding something even though there is no money in it.

The goal of intellectual life is similar to the goal of the artist "the artist chooses the media and the goal of every artist is to become fluent enough with the media to transcend it. At some point you pass from playing the piano to playing music."

I think it is possible for a significant portion of the population of every nation to become intellectuals.

[bodigami]

are you basically saying "use your mind"? I agree 100%

[coberst]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'a')re you basically saying "use your mind"? I agree 100%

[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('coberst', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'a')re you basically saying "use your mind"? I agree 100%

[kakkerlak]

I think i understand your message, but i don't know what this means in practice; There are many different types of knowledge and many different ways to understand this knowledge. I suppose you suggest we have to think about the things we think we know, or not know. And act to it?

My advice to anyone is to take at least one day in the week for yourself. Don't visit friends or family, don't go to work, don't go to the shopping mall or a theme-park on this one day. Instead go to the park, read a book, enjoy the weather, DO NOTHING! The thoughts will come! Just take time for yourself for one day, that's all you have to do.

Many people are afraid of "doing nothing" because they are afraid for their own thoughts. This is because many people are unhappy and by staying busy all the time they don't have to think about it. Ignoring your own thoughts is in fact ignoring the truth.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f one half of one percent of the population acquires the hobby that I call the ‘intellectual life’ such a group could be the foundation for a new “Age of Enlightenment”.

[coberst]

kakka...

Religion and philosophy are disinterested knowledge except for priests, rabbies, and preachers and professors of philosophy.

Not many people use the phrase "disinterested knowledge" besides me. In fact I find that only a few people seem to comprehend the concept.

[kakkerlak]

Hmmm....

Correct me if i'm wrong...
After reading some of your posts it looks like you have a message, an idea in development, an observation, but somehow lack the right words to explain it. Am i right?

Wait a minute...i just see this topic. Now i see where you're going.

Give me some time to write a new post. I suck at writing.