Many people say: “Erudition is very important!” But they do not really understand what phenomenon is behind this concept. Let's figure it out today.
Width and depth of erudition
As always, let's start with a definition. And here everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Because erudition can mean both broad, but shallow knowledge, and deep education, when a person understands the subject comprehensively. The meaning of the word "erudition", like any other, depends on the context. Yes, it is important to remember that the depth of any knowledge is relative.
Education and erudition: correlation of concepts
An educated person can be erudite, but education does not always imply broad and deep erudition. For example, there is a design engineer, and he knows everything about his work, but is almost not interested in anything except her, because the rest of the world has nothing to do with him. Who can say that a design engineer is a dark and uneducated person? None. However, he can hardly be called an erudite.
So what is erudition? This is a broad awareness of different areas of knowledge. As we have already understood, erudition can be deep and shallow. Mainthe peculiarity is that it is developed by a person independently, through self-education, i.e. reading books. Erudition and erudition are almost synonymous.
If we leave aside writing people (writers, journalists and philologists), for whom book education is a necessary tool for work, then in other cases an erudite is an ascetic of non-utilitarian knowledge, which, perhaps, he does not need at all in everyday activities. Reading books and automatically gaining erudition is just a way to dilute the prose of life.
Rounding off the topic of education and erudition, it must be said: a person with education is not always an erudite, but an erudite is always an educated person.
Joseph Brodsky as an example of fantastic erudition
A Nobel Laureate in Literature certainly fits the bill here.
Iosif Alexandrovich did not receive any higher education, he left school in the 9th grade. Since then, he has been exclusively self-educated. But if you take the trouble and read the book "Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky" by Solomon Volkov, you can be sure that Brodsky's erudition is boundless and deep. True, it mainly concerns literature, the Russian language, philosophy - the humanities. He is not an encyclopedist, as one might think. And now there is so much knowledge that in one area you can drown in the information sea. In other words, to the question of what erudition is, one can answer metaphorically: "This is Joseph Brodsky." But everyone has their own heroesand examples. Now let's look at the problem from a practical point of view.
How to increase erudition?
It is impossible to become well-read on purpose, but the main thing here is to start. Cultivate at least one fiery passion in your soul. Everyone can have their own. It is pointless to give examples here. The main thing is to be interested in something with all your heart. Impatient readers will ask: “Is it possible to increase erudition?” Answer: Yes. But only if a person loves knowledge disinterestedly, and not in order to achieve extraneous goals.
For example, a teenager wants to please girls, so with nauseating scrupulousness he studies the immortal creations of Paulo Coelho in order to talk about something with the young ladies, or rather, to start a conversation, of course, relaxed. It is unlikely that anything will come of such erudition. Because a person is not obsessed with a passion for knowledge.
So, erudition stands on three pillars:
- Love to develop.
- Love to read.
- Love of knowing without any purpose.
The last point needs clarification. If knowledge has a specific goal, then sooner or later it will exhaust itself, and an erudite is a person who absorbs knowledge for the sake of pleasure. Erudition is a kind of intellectual hedonism. The last fact is important to remember.
