Pondering the nature of existence and discovering truth are crucially important. The question is, why are they important? Too often, intellectuals have answered that we ought to study truth for its own sake and obtain comprehension for the purpose of obtaining comprehension. This answer leads nowhere.

Let us posit an individual who has ventured on the quest to obtain knowledge for its own sake. He follows the prevalent intellectuals' advice to the letter; he seeks knowledge without regard to any effects other than the acquisition of truth itself. At the end of his quest, he obtains this knowledge, but nothing else has changed. The material circumstances of his life remain the sameas do his character, work ethic, values, and relationships. What has he gained by seeking truth solely for its own sake? He has done no more than render truth entirely irrelevant to his life. He holds a vast storehouse of knowledgepotentially useful knowledgethat he has segregated from his body, his habits, his actions, and his interactions. He has implicitly accepted a dichotomy between truth and realitya dichotomy that simply will not do.

A different answer exists for why an individual ought to seek out truth and knowledgeas much truth and knowledge as his mind can hold. Every individual has objective survival requirements; he lives in reality and interacts with other real entities. In order to continue to survive, he must know the requirements of his own objective nature, the natures of the entities with which he interacts, and the ways to use the natures of other entities to fulfill the requirements of his own objective nature.

Thus, what is commonly called "truth" has three vital components: knowledge of self, knowledge of external reality, and knowledge of how to use external reality to serve oneself. What is the object of truth? The object of truth is life, for without knowing oneself and the external reality, there is no way to make reality serve oneself; there is no way to survive in reality.

When one knows and applies enough truth to simply continue to exist, one accomplishes the goal of survival. Yet more can be done. When an individual continually increases the scope of his control over the external reality, he accomplishes the goal of flourishing. Flourishing is not a stagnant state; it is a process. The individual who flourishes continually expands his mind's knowledge of itself and of external

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