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Speeches by scientists and videos from TED conferences have been gathering huge audiences for several years now. Businessmen, millionaires, writers and journalists travel around the country with master classes. Why are we willing to spend time and money on abstract, “pure” knowledge?
We talked with psychologists about why lectures and master classes are so popular today. Experts named four main reasons.
1. We have more free time
“Interest in abstract knowledge has been cultivated since antiquity, when the so-called theoretical or speculative knowledge arose, to which people with free time could devote themselves, recalls the philosopher Danil Razeev. “Later on the same model, during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the profession of a scientist arises.” Modern man has more free time than in the distant past. “Free time, along with new formats of education, leads to the fact that gradually the passion for “pure knowledge” loses its elitism and becomes more massive,” says Danil Razeev.
2. We want to go beyond the known
Curiosity and thirst for new knowledge are no less powerful than the desire to satisfy basic needs.
Going to a lecture may be driven by the desire to develop, the desire to feel smarter or flaunt knowledge in a conversation with friends.
“Even monkeys are ready to work in an experiment not for food, but for the opportunity to satisfy curiosity – for example, lean out of a boring box and see what is happening in the laboratory,” says Maria Falikman. However, she adds that our motives are manifold. “Behind going to a lecture may be a desire to improve, a desire to feel smarter, or to flaunt knowledge in a conversation with friends.”
3. Knowledge was in demand before, but we did not know about it
“Before, we just didn’t know how many people were interested in popular science.– reflects Maria Falikman. The Internet makes this information available. My video course on the psychology of cognitive processes has 40 views. And if it was a TV program from my childhood, how many viewers would watch it? Certainly more.” It is possible that today the very availability of information about the mass interest in lectures contributes to their popularity.
4. Erudition Protects Against Manipulation
An important reason for the desire for knowledge is the desire to resist pressure and manipulation, especially in societies with rigid ideological attitudes. Danil Razeev draws attention to this. “Platforms like Coursera or TED are global, supranational, which makes them less susceptible to various kinds of political, ideological or religious influences, he believes. – The layman (in the good sense of the word) now wants to understand what exactly he is doing, why he is doing it and why. It is becoming increasingly difficult for institutions of power to control the actions of people.”