I agree with like, everything you say for some reason'.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think I get this and wonder if sometimes it can be a triumph to realize the limits our knowledge? Does it have to be humbling? Why can't it be as if we removed our blinders and saw the path ahead - then we rejoice for having discovered that we had blinders that could be removed.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think one can feel both triumphant and humbled discovering something can be amazing no shame in rejoicing

by Anonymous 11 years ago

OK. But to me being humble in the sense of "not arrogant" is different then //being humbled//. The later, to me, means having your pride destroyed, or being humiliated. Being humble is good a good thing; being humbled is degrading. It is like, does the felling come from within, or from without?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think of having a humbling experience in relation to modesty with the post instead of thinking I know so much I would wanna think there's a lot I don't know and keep on taking actions to gain more information I never thought of humble, being humbled as degradation/humiliation that sounds horrible

by Anonymous 11 years ago

After re-reading this post a few times I do agree in principle with what you mean. Being a trained semanticist gets in my way sometimes. There is a dictionary distinction between humble and humbled. Humble as verb means to lower (someone) in dignity or importance: "I knew he had humbled himself to ask for my help". Or to //decisively defeat// (another team or competitor, typically one that was previously thought to be superior). As an adjective it is //not proud, or not arrogant//. Therefore I read: gaining knowledge should be like a decisive defeat of your dignity. I now take this post in the spirit of which I believe you intended. My humble apologies.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

what does humbling experience mean exactly?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I am sure a humbling experience for the Queen of England would be vary different than a humbling experience would be for Nelson Mandela. I think it means to be shown that you are not as "great" or as "important" as you thought you were. So if you thought you were "all that" perhaps it would be different than if you thought you were just a human. This is really making me dig into my reasoning and think about who I am and what it means to gain knowledge, and to be humbled. I am thinking out loud here ---> my personal philosophy that I really do not know anything. (I have posted on that before.) The idea of "gaining knowledge" to me is a misnomer - nobody can //ever// know anything for //certain//. But learning and discovering new things is, to me, like breathing. I can never be //certain// about what I hear/see/learn/believe/discover/surmise, but I do it, constantly every day, assimilating new info into my understanding of reality. I hope I never think that I know more than anyone else. I am glad to share what I //think// but I am openminded to another's points of view, and gladly change my mind when new information is presented.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

For the most part I think of something existing when one or more of my senses can pick it up like in a dream if I see and feel an apple I feel that it exists at least in the dream world

by Anonymous 11 years ago

As you may have gathered I am a student of philosophy. I adore Plato's Republic and the allegory of the cave. He tells of people who have lived their whole lives chained and facing a blank cave wall. These people watch shadows projected on the wall as others walk by or carry objects in front of a fire which is behind the prisoners. The prisoners start to give names and meanings to these shadows. To me this sums up the human condition - we have no ability to discern reality, we only glimpse shadows and label them.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think that //that// goes back to the idea that we're very limited beings and they're only so much we can understand and perceive

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Ergo, if we already know our limits then "gaining knowledge" would not be "humbling"

by Anonymous 11 years ago

but there are some who discover something and let it go to their heads the humbling experience is to realize the limitations and just how ignorant we are

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I believe that some people do as you suggest and get a "big head" over that.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

and for the gaining knowledge part an example could be a child learning to become self-aware I think that he gains that knowledge it's not new knowledge for others but it's new for him

by Anonymous 11 years ago

*there's only I've also made a post about this http://amirite.com/741824-even-with-our-cognitive-abilities-theres-so-much-in-life-we-cant-comprehend-ie-certain-colors

by Anonymous 11 years ago