To be intelligent is to have analytical thinking skills. To be analytical is to examine possibility. To rely on probabilities is to be wise. To be wise is to recognize uncertainties.Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2024 11:13 am Bertrand Russell once said that the problem with the world is that the ignorant are cock sure and the intelligent are full of doubt. And yet one wonders how can doubt be intelligent and certainty be ignorance? Maybe Russell was wrong. And maybe he and the rest of us philosophers are the ignorant ones. In the end, perhaps nature is driven by impulse and desire and knowledge is faith and it is we who question Nature who are anti-natural and therefore not favored by nature.
Perhaps life is a wonderful thing...for others. But my birth was a mistake. It should never have happened. Survival of the fittest is cruel. And we live in a cruel world. I lose.
To be ignorant is the opposite of being intelligent. To be certain is the opposite of being doubtful.
It’s that straightforward, Gary.