Correct The Wise And He Will Be Wiser, Correct The Ignorant And He Will Become Your Enemy

In reality we are all very ignorant, we just don’t all ignore the same things and we are not even able to recognize our ignorance in the same way. Concretely, we understand ignorance as a concept that indicates lack of knowledge or experience. And it is precisely this lack of knowledge or experience that makes the ignorant vehement and insightful, therefore our enemy, if we have different experiences or knowledge than him.

Wise people, on the other hand, know that much of their virtue lies in knowing that they do not know, as Socrates argued. This awareness of our ignorance is what lays us bare in the face of reality, what reveals our imperfection in the face of perfection and reconciles us with our nature. Wise people keep away from rivalry, so they hardly have enemies, and they are not swayed by the greed and confusion of impossible desires.

People who ignore their limits and the limits of their knowledge are canceled from their own point of view, given the impossibility of establishing an assertive communication with them. Anything that does not fit into their patterns or models will be a cause for conflict, a conflict that can be resolved in some way, but not because they will give up.

Ignored ignorance boasts knowledge

Ignorance is so shameless as to boast knowledge. The Dunning-Kruger effect defines people who believe they know everything. In psychology, this term refers to a cognitive distortion whereby inexperienced people tend to overestimate themselves in terms of their knowledge, they are confident in transforming their personal opinions into irrefutable facts.

This false self-perception was discovered in 1999 by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, professors at Cornell University. The two researchers analyzed several situations in which ignorance seemed to offer more security than knowledge. Specifically, they focused on certain activities such as driving a car or playing chess or tennis.

Ignored ignorance, on the other hand, is the cause of many disagreements. A person does not become an enemy by chance, for example he could be a friend or a neutral person who, however, feels attacked or despised because he believes he possesses omnipotent knowledge.

Awareness of one’s ignorance gives curiosity

Knowing also means being aware of what we don’t yet know and opening the door to motivation. In this sense, humility is the ideal travel companion for wisdom. We should not be ashamed to confess our ignorance, this would increase our opportunities to learn. Children know this well, in fact they always ask: “What is this?”, “What is that?”, “What is it for?”, “How does it work?”.

Much of society does not know how their organism works and is unaware of its complicated chemical and biological processes. However, in a public conversation on this issue, it is difficult for anyone to profess ignorance on the subject, everyone knows everything. Here is manifested “ignorance of ignorance”, the effect that occurs when no one wants to play the part of the ignorant, as if it were the worst thing in the world.

The awareness of being ignorant forges the golden key to knowledge and wisdom. Recognizing ignorance allows us to understand that man is a plastic being. When someone labels us as ignorant, therefore, we have no reason to be offended, vice versa we could thank them for the reminder and invite them to teach us new things or discover them together, another fascinating process.