Scrolling is like a slot machine for your mind. This is not an intentional quest for knowledge. You pick up your phone and open Facebook or Instagram to see what is there, and then you continue scrolling to see what is next. Social media is designed around the vice of curiosity. So, you watch one more episode, then another, and another. At the end of every episode is a cliffhanger, and you want, almost need, to know what happens next. Content creators are effective at tapping into curiosity. Once a show is selected, the storylines hook you and grab you in. For some, this leads to hours of mindless channel surfing, and for others, it leads to scrolling through Netflix offerings. An individual might be curious about what is on television. Modern culture feeds on curiosity and is widely available on television, phones and the Internet. Monks, I imagine, had limited access to ballads or novels, but think of all the useless distractions we have access to through technology. Aquinas discussed monks who neglect their vocation by immersing themselves in the latest ballad or novel. Curiosity becomes a problem when we pursue something that we should not or need not know. The type of knowledge we pursue can also lead to the vice. The vice of curiosity is thus more present than ever, and it is time to revisit it. If someone acquired knowledge intending to perform an evil act, like studying chemistry to build a bomb, then it is a vice.Ĭuriosity did not carry great importance in medieval texts on virtues, but the modern technological revolution has changed how we access knowledge. If the motivation was intellectual pride, then the pursuit is a vice. The motivation for knowledge in a monastic setting could still lead one to a vice. The limited access to knowledge reduced aspects of the vice, especially what knowledge was accessed and how it was accessed. In the age of Aquinas, formal knowledge was accessed through rare and expensive books, found mostly in church-controlled libraries. A bad motive, method, or content in your pursuit of knowledge can result in a vice. The vice of curiositas is knowledge pursued poorly. The church is not against having a desire for knowledge or learning Aquinas confirms that everyone has a natural appetite for knowledge and that knowledge is good. The English word “curiosity” means a strong desire to know or learn something, and curiosity is not vice using this definition. Well, my curiosity about “curiosity” was piqued. And now after being a Catholic for 40 years I find out that it is a vice. I am an incredibly curious individual, and I considered it one of my positive traits. As a teacher, I want my students to be curious, and as a father, I want my children to be curious. Thomas Aquinas in bed (Catholic nerd alert) when she turned to me and read a passage about the vice of curiosity.Ĭuriosity is a vice! I thought it was a virtue.
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