Books - the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom

[Mosman Library]

Are books essential for culture and learning? Plato questioned the assumption.

Phaedrus contains an imaginary conversation between two Egyptian deities, Thamus, the chief god, and Theuth, a god of inventions. In the book, Theuth invents writing and shows it to Thamus, suggesting that the skill should be taught to all Egyptians. Thamus, however, doubts Theuth's assertion that writing will make people wiser and improve their memories. The chief god fears that writing will encourage forgetfulness, since people would no longer use their memory to recall names, events, and ideas, but would instead look things up in books. "You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom," Thamus says, "for they will read many things without instruction ... when for the most part they are ignorant."

- Gods, goddesses, and mythology, Volume 1 by C. Scott Littleton

God knows what Thamus would have thought of Google.