ABSTRACT
Is ignorance preferable to knowledge? Would it be preferable if the payoff were increased contentment? The Biblical philosopher Ecclesiastes (1962, 1:18) seemed to think so: “For in much wisdom,” he wrote, “is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Responding to Ecclesiastes centuries later, Spinoza (1677/1992) denied that “ignorance is preferable to knowledge, or that there is no difference between a fool and a wise man…. [It] is necessary,” he wrote, “to know both the power of our nature and its lack of power, so that we can determine what reason can and cannot do…” (Part IV, Prop. 17, Sch.).
