GNED101 - Argumentative Essay on Ignorance vs. Knowledge and Happiness

This argumentative essay explores the philosophical debate surrounding the saying "Ignorance is Bliss." The essay examines the various reasons why ignorance might be considered blissful, particularly in the context of childhood and the avoidance of unpleasant realities. It then presents counterarguments, highlighting the importance of knowledge and information, and the potential dangers of ignorance. The essay draws on academic sources to support its claims, presenting a balanced perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of both ignorance and knowledge. Ultimately, the essay concludes that ignorance can be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on the specific circumstances and the individual's perspective. It emphasizes that while ignorance may offer temporary happiness, knowledge is essential for making informed decisions and navigating the complexities of life.

Running head: IGNORANCE IS INDEED BLISS
Ignorance is Indeed Bliss
Name of the Author
Name of the University
Author Note

1IGNORANCE IS BLISS
There is an English saying called “Ignorance is Bliss”. What this sentence actually
means is that sometimes in life, it is better to remain unaware or ignorance of something that
might be the reason of pain or hurt to somebody else. Often, human beings comes across
many such situations in their lives where it is better to be uninterested rather than involving
themselves in the matter and finding out something that is unpleasant for them whether it is
for their families or friends or loved ones. It is exactly for these reasons that it is being and
that ignorance is bliss.
The purpose of this essay is to determine why ignorance is indeed is said to be
blissful.
Ignorance is said to be blissful for a number of reasons. First of all, it is considered to
be useful for the children as they remain unaware of the burdens of life and the problems that
comes with it. Although there are children who suffer from the problems of hunger, poverty
and lack of housing, still, it can be said to be blissful for the children because the parents are
the ones who protects the children from such problems by keeping unaware of such problems
in their lives. However, it is stated by the experts that the children can only be kept ignorant
of the problems of the world only if there are the parents to do the protection for the children
otherwise they might get to know the reality of life which might not be pleasant for them. On
the other hand, in a happier note, ignorance can be blissful for the children because they will
get whatever they want as the parents are there to fulfil their wishes for them (Dexter, 2019).
Other reasons why ignorance is considered to be blissful is because it allows people to do
things that are new to them without understanding the full consequence of their deeds.
Therefore, the person who performed those deeds would be happy in knowing that his actions
have no consequences. Being ignorant about something helps the person to be happily
involved in performing a certain activity (Blum, 2015).

2IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Being ignorant has its advantages on the human beings. This is because the more
ignorant a human is about something. This is based on the psychology of the humans which
states that the more ignorant a human being is about something, the more happily he/she can
involve in the activities that he/she likes best without having to worry about the various
consequences that comes it. As a result, it has been truly said that ignorance is indeed
blissful, if one is not aware of the problems it brings.
Similarly, there are others who do not support this claim and are of the opinion that
ignorance is not blissful. As stated by Barasch (2014), these individuals who oppose the
claim have several points to make sure that their points have validity in them. Firstly, these
experts are of then opinion that being ignorant leads to many problems for the human beings
like they might indulge in some unknown activity whose consequences might be dangerous
for them. These experts are of the opinion that the people should have prior knowledge of the
things that they have done in their life so that it does not turn out to be dangerous for them
(Ying, 2019). Other reasons why ignorance is not considered as bliss is because of the reason
that being ignorant leads to the lack of information and the knowledge in an individual.
Knowledge is considered to be the most powerful weapon that an individual can have. In that
place, if an individual, is being ignorant of the consequences of their activities, then it means
the failure of the knowledge and the information that the individual has for himself. It is
exactly for these reasons that the individuals are expected to possess knowledge so that they
are not ignorant of their activities (Congram, 2014).
In spite of all the oppositions made by some of the experts, it can be still be said that
ignorance is still being useful for the human beings to some extent. It is because of the fact
that being ignorant makes the human happier than they are when they come to know about
the fact of the matter which might not be pleasant for them.

3IGNORANCE IS BLISS
From the above discussions, the facts can be concluded that the ignorance is both
useful as well as harmful to the human beings. Still, it can be said that ignorance helps the
human beings to indulge in activities which makes them happy without thinking much about
the consequences of the actions. Hence, it can be said that the ignorance is at least blissful for
the children since they do not know about the hardships of the world.

4IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Reference List
Barasch, A., Levine, E. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2016). Bliss is ignorance: How the
magnitude of expressed happiness influences perceived naiveté and interpersonal
exploitation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137, 184-206.
Blum, A., Dickerson, J. P., Haghtalab, N., Procaccia, A. D., Sandholm, T., & Sharma, A.
(2015, June). Ignorance is almost bliss: Near-optimal stochastic matching with few
queries. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth ACM Conference on Economics and
Computation (pp. 325-342). ACM.
Congram, D., Flavel, A., & Maeyama, K. (2014). Ignorance is not bliss: Evidence of human
rights violations from Civil War Spain. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 38(1),
43-64.
Denter, P., Morgan, J., & Sisak, D. (2014). 'Where Ignorance is Bliss,'Tis Folly to Be Wise':
Transparency in Contests. Available at SSRN 1836905.
Szigeti, S. S., Carvalho, A. R., Morley, J. G., & Hush, M. R. (2014). Ignorance is bliss:
General and robust cancellation of decoherence via no-knowledge quantum feedback.
Physical review letters, 113(2), 020407.
Yang, Y. (2019). Is Ignorance Bliss?. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 160,
68-82.