According to the Law, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. This is the legal default. Similarly, we cannot but come into communication with some preconceived notions about the knowledge status of the other person, and ourselves. Do you consider a person ignorant until proven knowledgeable, or knowledgeable until proven ignorant? Or neither, and something else altogether?
i will come right out and say I am not smart!! I sound stupid most the time yes..but I have brains, they just dont work as good as all of yours
I think people mark themselves out against the perceived average. Lacking any indication that the person may be more or less knowledgeable than the perceived average I assume that they have about average knowledge.
What about your own knowledge status? Do you conceive of it as average, below-average, or above-average?
That depends on the subject. Over-all, I'd say above average. [Edit] But that's hard to tell. I know next to nothing about some subjects and well above average about other subjects. It's hard, if not impossible, to estimate the total knowledge of a person taking into account every possible subject.
I can usually induce an individuals intelligence and level of knowledge by the body language that they display.
Neither. We all have experiences in which we gain knowledge that others may not have but they will have experiences that offer them knowledge that we do not. One man may have knowledge of the workings of the stock market, another may understand the workings of a car engine. The first would be considered stupid in an auto garage. The second would most likely make bad decisions with your money. Intelligence is a different matter. I have four brother in laws. Each of them are knowledgeable in different fields. If I need advice from one of them, I choose based on what I preceive as having greater knowledge on the subject than I. Over time, we learn the limits of the knowledge the person has and then can judge more fairly.
A brilliant and most wise question, and it speaks to one of my greatest challenges on the path to enlightenment, that of judgment. Is it ever possible to learn NOT to judge another? I once worked on an Island in my State called Mackinac Island. I was young, reckless and foolish. Caught up in the follies of youth. There was another young man there I thought little of, and talked with little. He had Down syndrome. He made me uncomfortable, and had many odd peculiarities in his behavior. Yet, he was always looking at me. Before I left the island, he "foretold" that I was to be a "great magician." I laughed heartily at such foolishness. Yet, years later I remember all the things he said. He said so many strange things about life. Things I found odd for an eighteen year old to say. Simple things really. Like things a child would say. And now I note, he had the ability to do the one thing I cannot, to this day do, and that is refrain from ever judging ANYONE when he looks at them. Isn't that something? And isn't that just like a five year old child? I suppose children always judge everyone older than them as being more intelligent, yes? But what about other children? Hardly not. Never do they make a judgment of another child. Perhaps I am not making myself all that clear. Let me give an example. The other day, in another thread, I ran across this site; http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ If I were truly as enlightened as I would like to be, this site would hold absolutely no interest, and I would NOT judge these people to be any less intelligent than the general populace, I would make no judgments at all. Instead I would think only of their family, friends, those they love, and their hopes and dreams. What is their life like? Indeed, sometime I forced that thought into my head. Instead, I too was swept away by it's intended purpose, to giggle at, or judge others by their looks compared to societal standards. To have a laugh at others expense. Not a proud moment on my part. So, to answer your question, I do my best everyday, to never judge, even if I DO know the answer, because, in the end, it is irrelevant. Everyone has something to off the whole of humanity, the whole of life. There is more to being than intellectual prowess, and wisdom comes in many forms if one is open to learning.
