Credo
Spirit
Sense
of
Life
Objectivists Headquarters
War
People
Store
Forum



Forum
Archives
Objectivism

Post to this threadMark all messages in this thread as readMark all messages in this thread as unread


Post 0

Monday, November 14 - 6:43amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
 
An interesting speculation, I am not yet sure how I come down on this.  Thoughts?




Sanction: 6, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 6, No Sanction: 0
Post 1

Monday, November 14 - 6:48amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
I would think it depends upon context.  If it's an ignorance brought about by the refusal to use ones mind and think about things, then I don't think it the better of the two.  It's certainly better to make an honest error trying than to shut ones mind down and plead ignorance.



Post 2

Monday, November 14 - 6:49amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
That presumes the one who is ignorant is one who says 'I don't know'...



Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 4, No Sanction: 0
Post 3

Monday, November 14 - 7:05amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit

Neither are sins, necessarily.  We're all ignorant of most things, and we all err constantly.   

As to which is preferable, I would agree with Jefferson.  Being in error generally implies that available data was analyzed and subsequently misconstrued, perhaps through some flaw in logic, whereas ignorance is simply the lack of data.

That said, forming a conclusion from ignorance is an error, and perhaps a more egregious error than the one born of flawed logic.  And knowingly forming a conclusion absent the facts is the biggest sin of all.  Oddly, it's the folks who commit this last sin who generally have the most invested in their conclusions, and who will 'argue' their positions most viciously (if illogically). 

SmS






Post 4

Monday, November 14 - 9:08amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
I like the quote.

Lots of people are too quick to jump to conclusions, and too unwilling to say, "I don't know, I'll have to think about it more and try to figure it out later."




Post 5

Monday, November 14 - 12:05pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
On your last, Summer - how so very true. Excellent observation. 



Sanction: 8, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 8, No Sanction: 0
Post 6

Monday, November 14 - 1:40pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
Ignorance is easier to fix than an error.



Sanction: 5, No Sanction: 0
Sanction: 5, No Sanction: 0
Post 7

Monday, November 14 - 1:58pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
Rich, once ignorance is individuated the error has already been commited
(Edited by Ciro D'Agostino on 11/14, 3:00pm)




Post 8

Monday, November 14 - 4:57pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
Jody,

I think Jefferson meant ignorance in the blank slate sense. 




Post 9

Monday, November 14 - 4:59pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit


Good points all.




Post 10

Monday, November 14 - 7:57pmSanction this postReply
Link
Edit

Ignorance

Logic

Literary

 Theorize on everything but science leaves bewilderment of those with different thought process.

Closed minds?

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."
- H. G. Wells (1866-1946)
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)
"Don't be so humble - you are not that great."
- Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat
"His ignorance is encyclopedic"
- Abba Eban (1915-2002)
"If a man does his best, what else is there?"
- General George S. Patton (1885-1945)
"I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better."
- A. J. Liebling (1904-1963)
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
"Give me chastity and continence, but not yet."
- Saint Augustine (354-430)
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei
"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
- Emile Zola (1840-1902)
"This book fills a much-needed gap."
- Moses Hadas (1900-1966) in a review
"The full use of your powers along lines of excellence."
- definition of "happiness" by John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
"I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart."
- e e cummings (1894-1962)
"Give me a museum and I'll fill it."
- Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
"Assassins!"
- Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) to his orchestra
"I'll moider da bum."
- Heavyweight boxer Tony Galento, when asked what he thought of William Shakespeare
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."
- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems."
- Rene Descartes (1596-1650), "Discours de la Methode"




Post 11

Wednesday, November 16 - 3:15amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit

Ignorance is easier to fix than an error.

Not necessarily.  Willful ignorance is often incurable.  Then again, willful ignorance is also an error.  The X-Factor here is intellectual honesty.

SmS




Post 12

Wednesday, November 16 - 9:30amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit
Summer,

You make a good point about willful ignorance, but I hope you realize that that is not what Jefferson is referring to.




Post 13

Wednesday, November 16 - 9:34amSanction this postReply
Link
Edit

...but I hope you realize that that is not what Jefferson is referring to
Yes, I do.  He's referring to honest ignorance.  I was just exercising my fingers ;o)

SmS




Post to this thread
User ID Password reminder or create a free account.