"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance-it is the illusion of knowledge"-Daniel Boorstin

Question

Does it mean something along the lines of: vizualize your success, do not ponder about the negative aspects?

Also, what does "the illusion" refer to?

Thanks

Answer 1

it means if you think you already know the answer then you will not look for anything better.

So you should realise how little you know, and then you will be open to learning more.

The illusion of knowledge is thinking you know when you don't really.

Answer 2

At my first reading Dan Boorstin made a statement that did not make any sense. after Thinking and processing word for word to word his statement turns out sort of riddle.
My interpretation that in discovery of something new the person must have some perspective,perception,creativity along with all other ingredients in the makeup of the word "knowledge" would be in one area, field,or discipline in which the discovery is made. One cannot make the discovery without those certain ingredients of knowledge of whatever is discovered. The most interesting type of discovery is one of finding something new, a discovery so profound,so right in our faces obvious that it will change the destiny of mankind. Like the computer you are reading this on,it sure tweaked the way in which we do everything. suddenly without it would throw mankind back to the type writer. I digress.
illusion...its meaning in this context "lack of".

Answer 3

I don't think it means the kind of thing you think it does. My reading is as follows: if you believe you already know it all, you won't think you have to look at something carefully and increase your understanding till you have the "aha!" moment — that instant when you look at someting that you think you know, and realize that you only now really know and understand it. It's a bit like the line from T. S. Eliot where he speaks of coming back to something that has always been familiar and seeing it again, as if for the first time (Burnt Norton???).

Answer 4

It means that the greatest obstacle to discovery isn't that you don't know anything, but that you think you know everything. Basically it means that you think you already know, so you don't seek the answers.

Answer 5

no; its means people believe (think, have the illusion) they know something and that causes an obstacle to discovery

Answer 6

False knowledge.

Consider the Iraq war and the weapons of mass destruction. I think the admin knew the document was fake and they didn't care, but they wanted to believe it so badly that they came to believe in its reality and thus we are stuck in a quagmire.

Answer 7

Yes, an interesting quotation.