The Wisdom of Intellectual Asceticism

Abstract How does one find true happiness? A common belief is that in order to secure this lofty goal, one needs comprehensive knowledge that can protect from the evils of life and ultimately unite one to the good life. This attitude is sometimes associated with the efforts of Socrates and other early philosophers, regarded as the progenitors of the rational and scientific search for knowledge. However, a closer examination of what these sages actually said about knowledge reveals that many of them surprisingly rejected the knowledge-seeking path, which they saw as the root cause of human estrangement from life. For them, wisdom was not dependent on knowledge but consisted in freedom from the impulse to accumulate knowledge. They seem to have discovered their own path to happiness through an asceticism of the intellect that finally brought the knowledge reflex to rest. This essay explores their unexpected discovery.