There is a lot of effort trying to understand and wisdom… What if – in the spirit of ‘via negativa’ – we tried to understand intelligence and wisdom, by reflecting on stupidity??
I would dare say that there haven’t been enough theories of stupidity.
If intelligence (and wisdom) are so important, the flip side might be worth the effort. Sometimes, it is easier to say what things aren’t… particularly for fuzzy (approximate thinking) concepts.
The research on ‘stupidity’ is definitely lacking. It could be because this is an ill-defined (wicked) term.
Next are a few contributions on the understanding of stupidity, and a suggested conclusion.
Stupidity and Intelligence as Outcomes for the Self and Others
This is based on the work of Carlo Cipolla : “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity“.
Stupid people hurt others, while hurting themselves too.
Intelligent (I prefer wise, probably because of the connotations of the terms) people benefit others, while benefiting themselves too.
Here, based on a utilitarian approach, benefit is the measure. Wise people (intelligent) do things that benefit them and others. Stupid people, on the other side, damage others while damaging themselves.
We can now define the naive (damage to self, benefit to others), and the bandits (damage to others, benefit to self).
Needless to say, this is very subjective. What is the difference between the naive and the stupid here, for example?
The whole idea centers on the balance of individual and collective gains. Maximizing them (a problematic term in itself) is best (intelligent), minimizing them is worst (most stupid).
Corollary : Stupidity is more dangerous than Evil
Using the above definition, we might reach quite scary conclusions. If we take stupidity as the ability to damage to the self and to others, stupidity and power become a really scary mix…
Bonhoeffer argues that stupidity and power are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they might be somehow related. In this case, a very powerful idiot can do much more damage than a group of scheming evil agents.
[ Full description ]
Stupidity as “Likely origin of Malice” – Hanlon’s Razor
Hanlon’s rule of thumb is a philosophical razor that states :
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Ref
It might be that Churchill said the same about De Gaulle in a correspondence with King George :
“‘His ‘insolence … may be founded on stupidity rather than malice.'”
On the face of it, this would seem to be in contrast with the previous conclusion (Stupidity is more dangerous than Evil), but if you think about it, it only confirms that stupidity is more abundant (likely), and thus responsible for more of the world’s misery than straight evil.
Wisdom : Simplified Stupidity Avoidance
Needless to say, it is impossible to define stupidity. The concept itself, is the opposite of intelligence. Intelligence is an ill-defined concept, which can mean many things depending on the context.
They are both fuzzy terms, that sit on mountains of approximate thinking.
This is probably the reason the above explanations are quite (surprisingly) ‘good’.
‘via negativa’ can be a tool for simplification and clarity, in the face of murky fuzziness.
Describing stupidity as damage, evil, or bad outcomes, just highlights this. Stupidity here is the generalized bad outcome, and avoiding stupidity means trying to avoid causing damage.
A difficult task (not to mention somehow circular)… but something worth contemplating.