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The best lesson Socrates taught (over 2,400 years ago) was that the wisest person is the one that realizes he knows very little - a lesson that “the educated” w
by keiferski 3y ago
The best lesson Socrates taught (over 2,400 years ago) was that the wisest person is the one that realizes he knows very little - a lesson that “the educated” would do well to learn.
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoWhat Socrates understood was that wise people exhibit humility. Educated people usually exhibit such humility because they understand how limited their breadth and depth of knowledge is. On the other hand, neither the proudly uneducated nor the proudly educated have such a trait. Of the two, at least the latter is easier to reason with than the former. The qualifier "proud" makes all the difference.
- keiferski 3y agoI’m not actually sure that “education” writ large is useful for helping people understand the fact that the world is complex and can’t be divided into simple good-bad dimensions. A number of other things that aren’t traditionally considered to be education would have a better effect, I think. Things like living abroad, making friends of different social classes, reading books by people that you strongly disagree with.
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoI take it our definitions of "education" are different. I do not refer to academic education. Everything you expressed are forms of "education", and the core tenet is putting aside your beliefs and attempting to understand a different point of view. This, by construction, requires humility because it implies that the person has something to teach you. This identical to pure-land view [1], where every person you meet in one way or the other is a small Buddha[1], enlightened with something you can learn, if you only set aside your existing beliefs and listen. [1] https://vividness.live/pure-land https://vividness.live/pure-land
- keiferski 3y agoYes I primarily meant academic education which is (I think) what the OP had in mind. Not “life education” or “experiential education.” I could be wrong, but it’s my impression that most people use the term education to refer to academic education, not life-experience-as-education.
- logicchains 3y ago>Educated people usually exhibit such humility because they understand how limited their breadth and depth of knowledge is. This does not match my experience at all.
- beebeepka 3y agoSame here. Quite the opposite, really. The thread itself is a great example of this.
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoI think it boils down to your definition of "educated". I wouldn't call somebody with say a bachelor's degree, or post grad degrees necessarily educated. I have met plenty of "educated" people who live in total ignorance of their surroundings, and plenty of seemingly uneducated people who consume knowledge like the air they breathe.
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoYour little snippet of wisdom here isn't as relevant as you think it is.
- keiferski 3y agoYou seem to have forgotten the second half of your comment, where you pointed out why it’s not relevant.
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoI didn't forget, I'm just not interested in debating it.