Zenos Circle無知的來源 (網路文章)

一次芝諾的學生問他：『 老師，您的知識比我們多許多倍，您回答的問題又十分正確，可是您為什麼這麼謙虛呢？ 』

芝諾用手在黑板上畫了大小二個圓圈，並說：『大圓圈的面積是我的知識，小圓圈的面積是你們的知識，我的知識比你們的多。 』

『但是這兩個圓圈的外面，就是你們和我無知的部分。大圓圈的周長比小圓圈的長，因而我接觸到的無知的範圍比你們的多。這就是我謙虛的原因。 』

用蘇格拉底的一句話就是：我只知道，我一無所知。像蘇格拉底這種大智者會說出這種話，隱含了知道的東西越多的人就越明白自己的無知。如同大圓在面積越變大但依舊無法和圓外的的空白相比時，圓內的人就越發知道，自己的圓即使再大一與圓外空白相比就越襯托出圓外空白的無限大。知識越豐富的人就越知道自己知道的知識還遠遠不夠。

Zeno’s Circle

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Legend has it that a student once asked Zeno: “Teacher, your knowledge is many times more than ours. The question you answered is correct, but why are you so humble? ”

Zeno drew one small and one big circle on the blackboard and said: “Our knowledge is like a circle. Inside the circle are things you know about, and outside the circle are things you don’t know. The area of the big circle is my knowledge, the area of the small circle is your knowledge, so my knowledge is more than yours.

But outside these two circles are things you and I don’t know. The circumference of the big circle is larger than that of the small circle so that I may have more knowledge, but I also realize that there is still more I do not know. This is why I am humble. ”

Socrates said, “All I know is that I know nothing.”He implies that the more people know, the more they understand their ignorance. Even the largest circles still cannot compare with the blank space outside. The more knowledge they accumulate, the more aware they become. Space is infinite even though the circles are big. So the more knowledgeable people are, the more they know that they do not know enough.

 In another word, a person with a large circle knows a lot but also knows there are still things they don’t know, so they have to be humble. A person with a small circle knows only a little, so they think the whole world is in their hands.

Note:

Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as “immeasurably subtle and profound.”

Zeno of Elea – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Elea