Being Interested: Amateur Reports on Books and Ideas

The floating of other Mens Opinions in our brains make us not one jot the more knowing, though they happen to be true. What in them was science is in us but opiniatrety.  This line from philosopher John Locke has been quoted in two (relatively) recent books I’ve read, with opposing interpretations of its legitimacy. In both books, The Internet of Us and How Do You Know? , the passage from Locke assumes critical importance in assessing both the desirability and the costs of knowing and understanding in today’s information-saturated world. In The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data , Michael P. Lynch, a philosopher from the University of Connecticut, quotes Locke in his attempt to summarize one of the dominant currents of Enlightenment thought, that of cognitive self-reliance. One of the accomplishments we credit the Enlightenment with is the downplaying of tradition, custom, hearsay and rumour when it comes to forming our world-views....