You go to college to acquire knowledge. You want to learn about things you don’t already know and enhance your mental capabilities. You wonder how things work, in which teachers will enlighten you. You expect all your questions to have an answer you can learn about. Is this however the only reason we train our brains and keep reading day in day out?
According to medieval philosophers it was. As well as Moses Maimonides, an influential medieval philosopher, medievalists thought writers should provide answers and help their readers understand the content of their texts. To be truly smart and to truly understand something was to be able to explain something as simply as possible and make even the most stupid person understand the solution you provide for the stated problem.
I, however, have to disagree with this view on the objective of scientifical texts. The importance indeed lies not in the attempt of the writer to try and impress his readers and show them how intelligent and special he is. But, it should not only provide readers with answers. People should still think about problems themselves and not always assume what important thinkers say to be true. A book should leave some questions to be unanswered and not only tell people what to believe and what is right. If we keep holding on to what all writers and scientifical researchers say, we get stuck in a controlling society where we lose the ability to think for ourselves. The strength of the development of our universal knowledge lies in the variety of our society. Because we have so many different people with so many different brains with so many different ways on how they work, we can come up with endless possibilities and perspectives. We shouldn’t neglect this ability and keep inspiring the public to think, instead of creating lazy, everything assuming people, which happens when we don’t excite them with questions that will keep them up at night.
From Knights to computers 