FRESNO, Calif. (TNS) — Education is useful in many ways: People need to learn to read and write, and we must also learn social and emotional skills that help us navigate the complexities of life. But education is also intrinsically valuable. It is a fundamental good for thinking beings.

We forget this in a world that views education as a mere means to obtaining a degree or credential, and the prestige that comes with them. When viewed in this way, cheating is tempting — a shortcut to the desired result. Today, the siren song of AI offers another way to avoid the hard work of learning.

Teachers and professors have always fretted about cheating. Now, artificial intelligence poses further challenges. AI can be a useful tool, but when it’s a substitute for genuine thought, it corrupts education.

It is important to prevent shortcuts to genuine thinking and learning. Cheating is wrong because it is dishonest. And it’s unfair to those who don’t do it. But the main problem is that the cheater has not learned anything.

Some discussions of this topic devolve into a cat-and-mouse game of detection and evasion. As teachers try to prevent unethical behavior, cheaters try to avoid getting caught. But this is not enough: Curiosity and wonder are not produced by obedient rule-following. The deeper problem is the general view of education as a mere means to some other end.

This instrumental view of education is typical in contemporary conversations about schools and universities, where folks talk about education in purely economic terms. This approach asks, what is the return on investment? Or, how does education contribute to economic growth?

Those are relevant questions. But the worth of education is not merely its cash value. More important is the way that education transmits culture and meaning. Education facilitates social and moral development. It leads young people to become decent adults and responsible citizens.

Education also directs our minds toward higher things, including the big questions of justice, beauty and truth. To be fully human is to learn to think critically about these perennial questions: What is good? What is beautiful? And what is true?

In wrestling with these questions, we also discover the power and joy of thought itself. Human beings have an innate desire to think and learn. We are curious beings, with brains that seek stimulation. We wonder about ourselves and the world around us. We explore and create. The love of learning makes us fully human.

An education that does not stimulate wonder is mere training — it may be fit for slaves and animals, but it’s not adequate to the nobility of the human spirit.

The sages of the world have noted that people are often as confused about the purpose of education as they are about the meaning of life. Business-minded folks think life is all about profit. Others focus on pleasure and amusement. But the sages suggest that the best life is spent cultivating the mind.

Aristotle celebrated “intellectual enjoyment in leisure.” An example he discusses is music: The music industry generates profits, and music can be pleasantly amusing. But the study of music leads to deeper things — music stimulates the mind and leads to fundamental questions about sound, ratio, creativity and the meaning of aesthetic experience.

The same expansive form of thinking occurs in the proper study of mathematics, literature, history, religion or science. These studies are useful for citizens and workers. But they are also valuable for their own sake, as sources of intellectual enjoyment.

And this is what cheaters and those who instrumentalize education misunderstand: The goal of education is education itself, not the outcome of a grade or a degree. Artificial intelligence is similarly confusing. Machines can quickly distill information. But the joy of thinking is only available to spiritual beings like ourselves. Human beings are driven to learn by our innate curiosity, our passionate creativity and our sense of wonder.

As we return to classrooms this fall, let’s recall the intrinsic value of thinking. Authentic and humane education should stimulate the human spirit. One might suppose that education satisfies a desire for knowledge. But the love of learning is never satisfied. Curiosity is open-ended and insatiable. Education does not merely shed light, it also kindles a fire.

(Andrew Fiala is the interim department chair of California State University, Fresno’s Department of Philosophy.)