On the Question of Erudition in a Modern Knowledge Society

Abstract

The authors speak in this paper about some of the risks that come with education process in the so-called knowledge society, influenced by a rapid development of digital technologies, especially the Internet. The Internet has changed access to information and way of usage of information paradigmatically, introducing thus some changes in education process. The authors speak about 6 risks that a knowledge-based society encounters: reducing knowledge to isolated and expressible blocks of knowledge, outcome, weakening in logical and linear thinking, reduction of awareness of the past and future and acceleration in the information flow with cumulation of information. The authors state that elimination of these risks requires higher degrees of knowledge, such as understanding that relates to education, and wisdom. Wisdom together with education should then, according to the authors, be the most important “competences” in a knowledge society. Index Terms information, erudition, education, wisdom, linear and net-like linking of information