Is Curiosity Good or Bad?

Article in brief: The article discusses curiosity and how it has always been a motivational factor to discovering the world we live in and understanding the people we live with, however where does curiosity originate from? And is it dangerous?

Scientists have long debated about the origins of curiosity. Many believe that curiosity is driven from within us like hunger and thirst, but other scientists believe that curiosity is pushed on us by external factors like understanding the environment around us.

Whatever the drive of curiosity is, it is a major part of human endeavor; it is the energy to explain and understand the universe, but it is also the source of very extreme risks and consequences.

Everyone agrees that curiosity is what made Newton, Einstein, Al-Khwarizmi and Bell find the hidden secrets of the universe and bring the human race the knowledge and advances it has today.

However, when thinking about curiosity, one of the questions that arise is danger and consequence. Didn’t curiosity make Adam and Eve fall from heaven? In the Greek myth, wasn’t curiosity over what is inside the box that made Pandora open it and get trapped in it?

It was always believed in the old days that curiosity was bad, Saint Augustine, in the fourth century, stated that he wasn’t in favor of curiosity and had named it “disease of curiosity”.

Alexander Pope warned of curiosity’s dangers by this: “A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.”

Luckily, curiosity transformed in the Renaissance from a disease to a prerequisite for the modern age to kick in, as curiosity lead to scientific discoveries which lead to new knowledge and in its turn to human advances, people started believing in it.

It was only after the discoveries made out of curiosity that it was considered very important, because people realized without curiosity the human brain will rot, without curiosity there will be no reading, no listening, no trying, no observing, no learning and no innovating.

Curiosity is one of the phenomenal things humans do and it uses so many functions of their brain for one thing; for example it could use their attention, motivation, memory, learning, problem solving, and language all over one thing. Perhaps that’s why NASA decided to name the rover of mars “curiosity”.

Humans and animals alike are curious; if plants had it in them they would be as well. The line between good curiosity and bad curiosity can easily be blurred and the outcome might be dense. However, the original proverb about the cat has two parts, and it says, “curiosity killed the cat”, “but satisfaction brought it back”.

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Dictionary:

• Curiosity: the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.

References:

• “Alexander Pope Quotes – Page 11 – WorldofQuotes..” Famous Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings at WorldOfQuotes.. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2013. <http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Alexander+Pope/11/index.html>.
• Clark, Josh. “How Stuff Works, How Curiosity Works, Trait versus State.” N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/curiosity2.htm>.
• “Morbid Anatomy: The Dangers and Pleasures of Curiosity, from Saint Augustine to the Renaissance.” Morbid Anatomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2013. http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.ae/2010/08/dangers-and-pleasures-of-curiosity-from.html.