my GRE issue topic

[anup.das97]

"What most human beings really want to attain is not knowledge, but certainty. Gaining real knowledge requires taking risks and keeping the mind open—but most people prefer to be reassured rather than to learn the complex and often unsettling truth about anything."


This is my GRE essay topic that i wrote... please check my grammatical mistakes and pls do suggest me how can i improve this topic by including any other relevant points... if possible pls grade my essay... i accept criticism sportingly.



The claim made by the speaker is really a debatable issue. Thirst about knowledge depends upon many entities namely psychological status of an individual, circumstances, time and places. In our society there are two types of individual, the erudite and the semi literates or the layman. Erudite being knowledgeable and conversant look into each and every aspects of life rationally. They are the mainstay of our society and constitute the intellectual property of each and every country. It’s only through their hard earned knowledge they could able to establish themselves . They have been facing the realities of this modern society and only with their intellectual thinking they have been trying to convince the masses for their betterment and developments since time immemorial. They are skeptical in accepting any unproven facts, doctrines, policies and issues which can be detrimental to the society the in the long run. They always keep their mind open accepting what is good and keeping aside the vices. They rejuvenates themselves with every passing day by learning more and more new facts and gaining new knowledge. This section of the society looks forward to learn the more complex and perplexing truth about anything they face for the fist time. Thus they have no fear for the failure. These facts substantiate the claim that erudite are those who loves to learn new things keeping their brain’s receptors always open.
The other side of the coin presents a different perspective. The layman often looks for assurance and certainty in their lives. They are well aware about their limitations and shortcomings. So they are always skeptical about every thing either it be life or profession. And according to me it’s not at all surprising. For example if a layman wins a lottery he will first keep the amount in a bank from where he can get a good amount as an interest which in turn will make his life secure during any types of recession. The very thought of insecurity haunts him and this sense of insecurity compels him to look for assurance. But in the process they may overlook many minutes details (financial pitfalls, economical information ) which are very complex and uneasy according to them and so they rather prefer to stay away from them. The bank may face bankruptcy or may even lower the interest rates drastically to cope up with the recession. And in the process a layman looking for security and assurance may loose a bit of his money . But such things matters least to a layman because if they starts bothering about such issues then they have to acquire a good knowledge regarding banking and economics which they don’t want to.
The erudite can afford to take risks and can modulate them according to the situation and what time demands irrespective of any situations but a layman has to follow the normal flow of the society knowing their shortcomings and limitations . They can’t even think of taking risks rather they look for assurance in the face of grave danger.
To conclude I must say that it’s not always true that most of the human beings look for assurance and certainty overlooking true knowledge and the pain they have take in acquiring the same but circumstances ,psychological status of a person and situations can provoke an individual to think differently.