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The school system, as we know it, is and has been shaping students to fit the system in which they live. Throughout this process, the students are forced to learn (mostly memorize) subjects in which they do not have any interest whatsoever and because of this they can't score high in school. It is as if our brains are trying to avoid information, which is not interesting as much as possible. But when there is something of interest it is very easy to collect and comprehend that information.

Let's assume that you are a programmer and you are greatly amazed by that. You love solving problems and developing software. You read lots of documentation and contribute on other people's projects without even having to worry about "remembering" what you're reading. Everything is easily understood and there's no issue with that. But when you have to learn about politics and how the system works, it appears as a cancer to your eyes because you have no interest in it. There's no will to collect that information and therefore you score low in that subject.

Now my question is: Why can't we learn what we don't like? Why can't we learn what we're not interested in?

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    This seems like a question for psychology, not philosophy.
    – E...
    Oct 7, 2018 at 16:54
  • I made some edits which you may roll back or continue editing. I agree with Eliran H that this probably would get better answers from the psychology and neuroscience SE: psychology.stackexchange.com/… Regardless, welcome to this SE!
    – Frank Hubeny
    Oct 7, 2018 at 17:57
  • It's not that we can't, it is that we choose not to.
    – Bread
    Oct 7, 2018 at 18:56
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    @Bread Then why can't we choose to? In either way, the question is not within the scope of philosophy. Except if we'll end up discussing free will.
    – rus9384
    Oct 7, 2018 at 19:37
  • @rus9384 Some people do choose to, so it is a question of free will.
    – Bread
    Oct 8, 2018 at 0:34

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Your argument is not exactly correct, we CAN learn something that we are not interested in, we passively learn a lot of things that we are not even aware of let alone interested in.

No learning is impossible though, while it may seem "hard" for you to learn something you're not very interested in, there are ways of making it more interesting, but even without those with some effort no matter what you WILL learn it, being interested in a matter merely makes it easier to remember and learn but interest is by no means a requirement for learning.

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  • At least this answer shows that the question is based on a false premise.
    – rus9384
    Oct 8, 2018 at 10:07

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