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>But even so, I thought it would be the sort of thing someone would know about just through a general awareness of current events. I've never taken a flying les
by razakel 10y ago
>But even so, I thought it would be the sort of thing someone would know about just through a general awareness of current events. I've never taken a flying lesson but I know who the Wright brothers are, that their first successful flight was in 1903, the basic control mechanisms of all aeroplanes, and a bunch of other rudimentary aeronautical knowledge. I thought most people had a vague idea of who timothy Leary was and that a drug named LSD was quite popular in the 1960s and so on - it's not exactly obscure.
You're living in a bubble. You're the exception.
The general public are actually by and large incredibly ignorant. Do some research into literacy rates if you want to be terrified.
Ask the average man on the street to name five Enlightenment philosophers and he'll just stare at you blankly.
- majewsky 10y agoFive Enlightenment philosophers? That would be hard for me, too. Probably because I don't know which philosophers count as Enlightenment period. In decreasing order of confidence: Kant, Voltaire, Hegel, Rousseau, Nietzsche. How many points do I receive?
- Insanity 10y agoI would have had a similar list (decreasing order of confidence as well). Kant, Voltaire, Descartes, Heidegger, Kierkegaard. I don't think this is something people should necessarily know. Ask them to name some 5 philosopers and be happy if they can do that, but specifying a period? A tad too hard I guess :-)
- 3131s 10y agoAren't Hegel and Nietzsche too late to be considered Enlightenment philosophers? I'm intentionally not looking it up since I wanna see if I pass the test too... I'll add Hume and Spinoza as replacements, but please don't ask me to elaborate on what any of these people actually contributed to our societal body of knowledge :)
- mercer 10y agoSpeaking of Hume, I rather enjoyed this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/how-david-hume-helped-me-solve-my-midlife-crisis/403195/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/how-davi...
- jacobush 10y agoIn disbelief that you would want to memorise stuff that can be found by googling. :) Heck, I don't know em. Rosseau? Anyway, the ignorant people may be quite proficient in stuff you'd be surprised at. But I agree the literacy rates ARE frightening. Maybe technology will fix that one day...
- razakel 10y ago>Heck, I don't know em. Rosseau? You understood the question; that puts you in the bubble. >Anyway, the ignorant people may be quite proficient in stuff you'd be surprised at. I agree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "let's all laugh at the morons" and I hope I didn't come across like that. >But I agree the literacy rates ARE frightening. Maybe technology will fix that one day... Unfortunately I see this as being unlikely. See [1] someone posted the other day. The problem is education - and quite likely has even deeper roots. [1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/