#119: Intellectual Humility, Epistemic Trespassing & Intellectual Yet Idiot
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Intellectualism
I. Intellectual Humility
Intellectual humility is the recognition that our reasoning is so flawed, so prone to bias, that we can rarely be certain that we are right.
—Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind
Instead of certainty, intellectual humility invites us to approach knowledge with curiosity. Because, as physicist Richard Feynman put it, “an unknown must be recognized as being unknown in order to be explored”.
II. Epistemic Trespassing
Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and how we acquire, justify and evaluate beliefs. Epistemic Trespassing happens when people “judge matters outside their field of expertise.” Prominent examples of alleged epistemic trespassers include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins writing about religion and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson infringing on philosophy.
Some say Epistemic Trespassing is wrong. Because judging matters in a field you’re not formally trained in leads to a misrepresentation of the truth and undermines the real experts. Others say Epistemic Trespassing is only human. It’s perfectly fine to venture outside your intellectual domain as long as you do it with intellectual humility.
III. Intellectual Yet Idiot
Intellectual Yet Idiot (IYI) is a term only Nassim Nicholas Taleb could’ve come up with. It refers to people who have intellectual credentials. But they demonstrate a lack of practical wisdom or common sense in their judgments and actions.
Taleb was mainly thinking about well-educated bureaucrats who tell the populace what to think, how to speak and what to do. However, these were people with no personal stakes in the decisions they impose on others. In his own words:
The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn’t understand without ever realizing it is his understanding that may be limited.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game
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Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com