40 HUMANISM n 



completing a system of knowledge which is useful in other 

 parts and as a whole. Or perhaps in some cases the use 

 has not yet been discovered. A great deal of mathe 

 matics would be in this position. Or lastly, there is a 

 good deal of knowledge which is comparatively, or as 

 Aristotle would say, accidentally, useless, because the 

 time spent in acquiring it might be more usefully 

 employed otherwise. For instance, you might count the 

 hairs on Aristotle s head, and the knowledge might 

 enable you to win a bet that their number was less than 

 a myriad. But ordinarily such knowledge would be 

 deemed useless seeing that you might have been better 

 employed. 



But would these explanations cover all the facts ? 



Not perhaps quite all in our world, in which there is 

 also seeming &quot; useless knowledge,&quot; which is not really 

 knowledge at all, but falsely so called ; being as it were 

 a parasitic growth upon the real and useful knowledge, 

 or even a perversion thereof, a sort of harmless tumour 

 or malignant cancer, which would not arise in a healthy 

 state and should be extirpated wherever it appears. 



Still it exists. 



As evil exists ; indeed it seems to be merely one 

 aspect of the evil that exists. 



Are you not now extending your explanations so 

 far that your paradox is in danger of becoming a truism ? 

 Can you any longer give me an instance of really useless 

 knowledge ? 



Of course not, Plato, seeing that my contention is that 

 whatever is truly knowledge is useful, and whatever is 

 not useful is not truly knowledge, while in proportion as 

 any alleged knowledge is seen to be useless it is in 

 danger of being declared false ! The only illustration I 

 can give, therefore, is of knowledge falsely so-called, 

 which is thought to be useful, but is really useless, and 

 therefore false or, if you prefer, unmeaning. 



Even of that we should like an example. 



I see, Plato, that you are willing to embroil me with 

 most of the philosophers in my world. For if I am to 



