Does knowing things make us ignorant?

Zen philosophy is of the opinion that the more you know, the more you cloud your vision of reality. In other words, absolute reality is one in which human concepts do not exist, they are imaginary and invented - for example, chairs only exist in so far that a set representation of physical objects resembles some memory we have of what signifies a chair. In Zen, the chair does not really exist, and our apparent 'knowledge' is merely anthropomorphic construction. When applying that to something like language, all forms of communication become human constructions, and thus the whole way in which we perceive the world is through a framework that is not reflective of reality at all.

In Western philosophy, this is exaclty the same case in postmodernism/deconstruction. The less we know about the world, or more precisely the more we distrust our commonly accepted perceptions of things, the closer we become to understanding the true nature of the world. There are of course strong arguments against all of this, namely belief in objective ethics, god, and logical truth. However, the main philosophical schools that argue our knowledge can make us ignorant is postmodernism and Zen, at least in my opinion.

Speaking of full and empty cups, it sounds like you've emptied several cups of Jack Daniel's already today.

Didn't get the memo?
Here you go, share it with others;

The new, critically updated, all inclusive, final definition of 'Knowledge';

"'Knowledge' is 'that which is perceived', Here! Now!!"

All inclusive!

That which is perceived by the unique individual Perspective is 'knowledge'.
All we can 'know' is what we perceive, Now! and Now! and Now!!!

'Ignorance' is that which is NOT perceived, at any particular moment, by any particular unique Perspective!

Knowledge doesn't necessarily have anything to do with 'thoughts' and 'learning', it is about Knowing!
All 'thoughts' have to do with it is that if you perceive a 'thought', all you 'know' is that you perceive a thought, nothing more. Thought is imagination!
Ego = thought/imagination!
By the 'cup being full', it is ego that fills it.
It is not about thinking outside the box, thought/imagination IS THE BOX!

In the area of knowledge, there is no 'full cup'. There is always something new to learn. When you stop learning you are dead.

No. That is the opposite of ignorance. You're kind of overthinking. Are you bored philosophy student?

Perhaps the cup is infinite, but the contents are not. We may apply or may not apply meaning to things such as knowledge; however, this is always done on an individual basis.

it's actually the other way around. this isn't the Garden of Eden guy, its the 21st Century

Humans are dumb as ****. We don't even know how life started. We may think we are knowledgeable but really we have no idea. So load your mind up with whatever you want, its yours, your 70 odds years here is your time to enjoy and play so build up the knowledge you feel you need to do what you want

It is clear you have a lot to learn about knowing things. Please post again when your cup is full. One common remark of experts, those very knowledgeable, is that they know there is so much they don't know.

It only seems that way. Every discovery yields more questions than answers.

The cup is never totally full and room to fill it with more learning and knowledge.

You will know when you stop learning something new every day. I mean EVERY DAY.

Knowledge only makes us ignorant when it blinds us to a truer knowledge or suppresses the pursuit of a truer knowledge.