{"id":34366,"date":"2016-06-16T14:34:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T20:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=34366"},"modified":"2016-06-16T14:34:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T20:34:36","slug":"the-value-of-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/the-value-of-knowledge.html","title":{"rendered":"The value of knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34367\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34367\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/06\/Al-Biruni_crater.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-34367\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34367\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/06\/Al-Biruni_crater.jpg\" alt=\"Al-Biruni would have been delighted at this.\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lunar crater \u201cal-Biruni\u201d<br>(NASA public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stubborn critic would say: \u2018What is the benefit of these sciences?\u2019 He does not know the virtue that distinguishes mankind from all the animals: it is knowledge, in general, which is pursued solely by man, and which is pursued for the sake of knowledge itself, because its acquisition is truly delightful, and is unlike the pleasures desirable from other pursuits. For the good cannot be brought forth, and evil cannot be avoided, except by knowledge. What benefit then is more vivid? What use is more abundant?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (AD 973-1048)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cThe stubborn critic would say: \u2018What is the benefit of these sciences?\u2019 He does not know the virtue that distinguishes mankind from all the animals: it is knowledge, in general, which is pursued solely by man, and which is pursued for the sake of knowledge itself, because its acquisition is truly delightful, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The value of knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cThe stubborn critic would say: &#039;What is the benefit of these sciences?&#039; He does not know the virtue that distinguishes mankind from all the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/the-value-of-knowledge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The value of knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cThe stubborn critic would say: &#039;What is the benefit of these sciences?&#039; He does not know the virtue that distinguishes mankind from all the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/the-value-of-knowledge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-16T20:34:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/06\/Al-Biruni_crater.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/the-value-of-knowledge.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/06\/the-value-of-knowledge.html\",\"name\":\"The value of knowledge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-16T20:34:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-16T20:34:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cThe stubborn critic would say: 'What is the benefit of these sciences?' 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