ANSWERS: 87
  • That's so not true.
  • I think wise people can have a solid foundation of personal conviction, but they understand the universe is filled with a myriad of possibilities, variables and factors we can't control. The absolutely convinced personality sees only one path or answer -- his.
  • Perhaps because true wisdom acknowledges that there is always something to learn?
  • Because the more you learn, the less you realise you know. Er, hang on .....
  • I think it's all a matter of having a closed mind. Keeping an open mind to the world makes you more curious, more willing to learn and know new things (but not necessarily accept them). Your life is richer, more fullfilling in my opinion.
  • because they are full of wisdom and they know everything and they are neva wrong
  • I think fools and fanatics are too foolish to realize there is much to learn in the world. Either that, or they realize their shortcomings and are foolish enough to think acting silly and talking loudly will hide their flaws.
  • I remember a wise man saying once that people only make assertions about things they are unsure of. He said "You never hear of someone standing up in front of a crowd and asserting that the sun will rise in the east today rather than the west." Maybe they are trying to reassure themselves when they speak with such certainty.
  • I believe the statement that "the more you learn the more you realise you do not know" is a very apt statement. Wiser people are aware of that, whereas others may not be as aware. People may also just be very stubborn (even if they are educated) and closed minded.
  • Wise people know the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. Fools don't know enough to doubt....Great question Retro!:)
  • I don't know. ;)
  • I was going to leave this alone, but it's too juicy a morsel! :-) Doubt always accompanies any kind of conceptual knowledge, because in order to have a concept, one must separate something from the whole (i.e. take it out of it's original context) and encapsulate it as an abstraction (remove the messy details, sharpen up the boundaries, simplify, generalize, etc.) By the time the surgery is complete, and the "unit of knowledge" is in a neat little manageable form we call an IDEA, it's lost some of it's "trueness" -- it's been distorted by the surgery. So the process of creating concepts always introduces uncertainty and doubt. If you take the bear out of the forest and give it an apartment in the city, it no longer behaves quite like a bear should. Now if you take a LOT of concepts, and hook them up like little disconnected building blocks, and start performing various logical operations on them (like analyzing them, telling stories about them, trying to decide what they mean in relationship to each other, etc.), that initial distortion gets amplified, and also the odds are very good that some logical fallacies or further distortions will be introduced. By the time you've done a lot of this, your model has a lot of distortion and doubt built-in. Wise people do as much as they can to minimize this distortion, but it's inherent in the process and cannot be eliminated. Thus they (honestly) admit where there doubts lie, and do this kind of work with caution. A fool fails to notice any of the distortion, and then compounds the problem by hooking his ego up to the model and saying "look Ma! I figured it all out!". This makes him intensely resistant to seeing what others can see quite readily: the gaps, loopholes, leaps of logic, artificially rigid boundaries, and other bits of non-truth which have slipped in during construction. One might conclude from all this that it's impossible to really know the truth... but strangely enough, it isn't! The truth can be known quite easily -- it's right in front of our noses at every moment... it's just "THIS"... our direct and immediate experience right now. The only problem is, when we try to capture that truth into concepts, we start the whole model-building process again, introduce distortions, and so forth. That's why it's said that "those who know don't tell, and those who tell don't know". Truly knowing precludes being able to talk about it "truthfully". Talking about it can only be done if you admit to the distortions introduced by trying to talk about that which will not be packaged up into language.
  • It's like the difference between a Mac user and a PC user...
  • Have you read any of Plato's books? Especially the republic, he would say that the fools and fanatics are still in the cave- a simile for being trapped away from the sun which is knowledge. The wiser people have broken out of the cave and can see the sun, and the light- knowledge. As the wiser people can see the truth, they understand that nothing is certain and therefore doubt themselves. The people inside the cave can only see shadows of the truth outside, and think that they are seeing the truth in these shadows, but it is only the reflection of truth. They believe these images because they don't know better, as they have never left the cave.
  • coz they dont want to open their eyes and are frightened to see the light
  • So what are you if they are the in-between?
  • 1. Wiser people are not necessarily full of doubts. 2. Wiser people are not interested in claiming authority and recognition.
  • Wisdom generally comes through doubting the status quo. I would, however, not be perturbed at being considered a fool (particularly the shakespearian variety :-))
  • Because they are just that; wiser. They are aware that they may be wrong. They can think situations through better, assess them, and see a bad outcome better, whereas fools and fanatics are fools BECAUSE of their lack of ability to ascertain what could possibly go wrong.
  • Because doubting ones self makes you question you're ideas and beliefs, when you question them you help make yourself wise by making sure they are correct.
  • Fools haven't the time to evaluate things from all sides. Fanatics only see one side. Wise people question and evaluate ,which sometimes may lead to doubt in the process.
  • I agree completely with Donna. I have been around enough fools and fanatics for a lifetime, and I agree completely. Fanatics will argue with anyone about their chosen subject, and I've known them to lie when the cards are stacked against them, or to twist words to suit themselves.
  • ignorance is bliss.
  • They would never get wise unless they were full of doubts and constantly examining and re-examining. That's why fools and fanatics aren't wise. They are always certain and have no time or inclination for examination.
  • Perhaps it's because "fools" are ignorant and therefore don't have any other knowledge than the basic one that they keep defending. And wiser people are full of knowledge/life experience and therefore can come up with different conclusions to answers. I don't think its doubt though, I think it's more that they have learned to accept that there is never one answer, so you have to keep your mind open to other possibilies.
  • The more you know, the more you realise how much more there is to know. Intelligence destroys ignorance.
  • Fools and fanatics acquire just enough functional knowledge to delude themselves into thinking they are experts. They are fools simply because they have stopped learning. Wise people only know that there is much more to know and are inquisitive and filled with wonder as they seek deeper knowledge. They understand that they will never exhaust the possibilities of any subject. It is not so much doubts they have as awe, wonder, and curiosity tempered by a tentative judgment and lots of humility.
  • Good comments. But a lot of "political correctness" was there in most. I am not politically correct. Fools and fanatics,... political, religious, or pseudo-scientific are usually very ignorant and stupid people. There. It is that simple. Wisdom requires a degree of both intelligence, knowlege, and experience. I would not say that "wiser people are full of doubts". I would say that they are more full of reasons to doubt fools and fanatics.
  • Shakespeare said it best: "The emptiest vessel sounds loudest".
  • The question is rather: why are those full of doubts not fools or fanatics? They are not fools because the fact that they doubt so much means that they must think. They are not fanatics because that requires certainty.
  • Rather than saying that the wise are full of doubt, I'd better say that they are more acceptance, they accept different point of view, they accept changes. They learn from it and ask about it and learn more about it. Fools and fanatic cannot accept that something outside their belief could be true. They just have not ready yet, time will come where something happen and the fools and fanatic transform their selves and become wiser.
  • Because "the more you learn the less you realise you know" - Socrates
  • Have you ever watched TV in the very early hours of the morning? It's filled with infomercials about "loose all the weight you want in 6 days without dieting and exercise!" and "Get rich fast with no-money down real estate!" Fools want fast, easy answers to complex questions. They feel so certain those answers are correct because they WANT those answers to be correct. They don't want the uncertainty and ambiguity that exists in the real world because that frightens them. Religion is the same- it's nice to believe there is a loving father out there looking after you, and if you just believe in him he will give you eternal life. It makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's a pleasant, easy answer to the complex and uncertain reality of existance, and as others have said, ignorance is bliss.
  • Fools know everything. It is the wise that relize and can admit to themselves that they don't.
  • Methinks I detect a false premise. No one would think a mathmatician who's certain 2+2=4 a fool or a fanatic, nor would anyone think any adult who questioned it wise. Just remember the purpose of opening your mind is so that one day you can close it again. True, some questions are unaswerable (at least in this life). But some answers are undeniable and inescapable. Wisdom is knowing the difference between the two.
  • Because they follow the dictum "ignorance is bliss".Fools and fanatics use their brawn instead of brains. Wisemen believe in their wisdom.
  • If you sit on ground, you will see only a small part of the world. If you stand on the top of a mountain, you will see the majestic vastness of the world.
  • You answered your own question wiser people are realists,where as fanatics and fools,live in a self absorbed delusion far from reality.
  • I think that such an assertion is baseless, presumptive, and categorically inaccurate. That makes as much sense as saying "all Syrian people have freckled backs." Self-doubt is not a sign of intellect; it's a sign of insecurity. Arrogance and self-confidence are not signs of foolishness. Don't confuse your personal opinions and social distastes with philosophy and sociology. Stephen Hawking is arrogant and intelligent, and there's no arguing either of those things.
  • 1) "Descartes is often regarded as the first modern thinker to provide a philosophical framework for the natural sciences as these began to develop. In his Discourse on the Method he attempts to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt. To achieve this, he employs a method called methodological skepticism: he rejects any idea that can be doubted, and then reestablishes them in order to acquire a firm foundation for genuine knowledge. Initially, Descartes arrives at only a single principle: thought exists. Thought cannot be separated from me, therefore, I exist (Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy). Most famously, this is known as cogito ergo sum (Latin: "I think, therefore I am"), or more aptly, "Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum" (Latin: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am"). Therefore, Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the very fact that he doubted proved his existence" Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes#Philosophical_work Those fools and fanatics probably don't follow Descartes. 2) To be aware of doubts is not bad, as long as it does not hinder you too much for taking the right decisions. Wise people are also people who take wise decisions, not people who let others decide for them!
  • I absolutely love this rhetorical question. It is the master of all humblings. As soon as you know something, you are just admitting that you no longer wish to seek any other possibilities. The fool is someone who stops seeking truth. The philospher seeks it and the wise man knows it does not exist, thus making the wise man a fool. It's why we keep looking. Nobody wants to be a fool.
  • Fools and fanatics believe the more they know "the less" there is to know, but the wise man knows the more he knows the more he realizes how much there "is yet" to know.
  • The question is: Who is wiser the one who listens to himself or the one who questions himself?
  • The Socratic definition of wisdom is "I know only that I don't know."
  • Because fools and fanatics know not that they know not and so look no further. Wiser people know they don't have all the answers so they are continually searching.
  • I think you may have just defined the difference between those two categories.
  • fools and fanatics may not be aware or do not wish to acknowleage the implications of the choices and the effects of a choice on theres, the wiser individual may be more aware of the conciquences of any choice. Time and again it has been said that you cannot see past a choice you do not understand, maybe it is that only the wise individual is able to see past there chice.
  • Doubt is a result of a question. Most fanatics don't question themselves, or like to be questioned.
  • You mean like the foolish fanatical PC, Postomodern twits who are always certain that people who are certain of their views are fools and fanatics?
  • a wise man knows that there may be an angle to it that he may not have thought of and that angle an added to all else that is known to him could change his perception of the reality of the situation. the world is so vast that one man can not possibly know all things. also a wise man has nothing to prove of himself, he is that that that he is. the fool wants to be seen as great, and so stays shallow, afraid to stick his neck out too far and end up becoming smaller than he is. the wise man knows that he is small.
  • socretes - "wisdom is to know that you know nothing" or something to that effect.
  • Because wise people are critical thinkers and are more concerned with the pursuit of real knowledge than the display of false knowledge.
  • Because as Socrates said, "True knowledge is knowing that you know NOTHING." Questioning things, exploring possibilities, and searching for truth is part of what makes us human. Anyone who just believes what they're told and then stops searching is a fool.
  • the more i know the less i'm sure
  • Knowledge comes through experience, and wisdom through knowledge. Fools and fanatics simply don't know.
  • To put it simply: Fanatics and fools think one-dimensionally, they are not able to put anything in perspective and thus question anything. That makes them in a technical sense more efficient in their actions, but it also makes it easy to manipulate them into wrong directions. Wise people, on the contrary, know about perspective and questioning. I think a good instrument against fundamentalism is the learning of a foreign language. If you speak (at least)two languages, you are naturally putting things into perspective, and so you will be not as easily becoming a fanatic.
  • My communications teacher told me that "stupid people know everything" because in their minds, they do. Wise people are ignorant. Ignorant is defined as "destitute of knowledge or education" according to Merriam-Webster Online whereas stupid is defined as 1 a: slow of mind b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner c: lacking intelligence or reason Stupid people won't ask questions because they think that asking the question makes them stupid. It is quite ironic because they are being stupid by trying to not look stupid. Wise, ignorant people will ask the "stupid" question.
  • for if i was a wise person i would realise that i am but a mere shell and as such i should grow out of it... yet if i were a fool or fanatic i would believe completly that my life is all that i have and as such i need not expand or grow...
  • Ignorance is bliss. The less you know, the more you can concentrate upon and become more infatuated with, giving yourself more confidence is that facet. Contrary, the more you know, the more you realize how great things can be and how horrible things can be, thus causing an unfortunate lack of respect to that which is evil and more uncertainty of what to depend upon.
  • Wise people realize that they might be wrong. Fools on the other hand, .. they're a different story.
  • There is a Buddhist saying that says it all. 'Those that know, know not. Those that know not, know.'
  • Socrates said that his wisdom came from his acknowledging his complete ignorance. Wisdom is the gift of being able to remain unpersuaded, no matter how "sure" you feel, in the face of anything less than metaphysically / epistemologically certain knowledge. To do anything else is to risk intellectual dishonesty, and to claim and believe knowledge that you do not actually have. I would argue that this "sin" is the root of all other human evils.
  • The Bible says, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."
  • It's easy to have blind faith. Questioning your beliefs constantly, and proving them to yourself, takes wisdom.
  • I would answer that with two quotes, “To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” Henry David Thoreau Which means that knowledge is understanding the limits of what you know. I don't remember the other quote word for word, but it was something like "the more I know, the more I realize how much I don't know." Which again means that knowing more things enlightens one about how much more knowledge there is to gain.
  • Because to some people, being conceited, is better than being convinced. Less work I suppose?
  • I woun't always call "indesision" a constructive charater trait, and occasionally there is only one answer for a given problem and that choice may be a clear one. People who "think" ofter ponder their desisions - some times for good - and sometime for ill, most of it is useless second guessing at best. It's too easy to say that their is an infinate possibility of answers to all questions - some questions only have one correct answer and their is nothing foolish about giving the correct answer at those times with certainty and confidence. Old sayings - like your question are great conversation starters - but their "wisdom" is seldom absoloute.
  • This is a question you must know the answer to? Do you believe N.A.S.A is launching a mission leaving out March 09 2009 seeking out intelligent life on a distant new found solar system?
  • It's because no body has it all figured out. The wise are aware of this and are open minded, always thinking about what might be
  • If ignorance is bliss, then intelligence is a burden. A fool has never really looked in the mirror. A fool has never seen the damage of his words. A fool has no need to doubt themselves, because he is already doubted. A wise man knows his faults. A wise man knows through wisedom that he is subject to failure, and in the struggle toward perfection, cautiously walks around the barriers.
  • BECAUSE OF THEIR STRANGE MENTALITY. MOST HAVE MENTAL PROBLEMS.
  • How true it seems big blowhard A-Ho#!es just intimidate everybody else
  • because wise people know that mistakes are possible, even for them. they know that they won't always be right. fools don't understand completely to realize that though.
  • When you really do not have a clear definable concept of self any kind of opposing viewpoint creates uncertainty and threatens to totally undermine an individual's system of vales.To the fool if they are uncertain of themselves they feel as though they do not have any intrinsic or extrinsic value they are worthless without certainty.The wise man has a clear concept of self and recognizes that whether or not his views are correct or incorrect does not define them as a person and that we should be skeptical of all ideas whether or not they are yours or someone else and this allows the wiser to look at something from the viewpoint of doubt.
  • i doubt why this question being asked.....coz i doubt every answers of it
  • The former have a lessor 'field of view'? - BTW: My +5 = over 200 points = the most awarded philosophy question in AB history! Congrats! - ;-)
  • Knowing is false understanding; not knowing is blind ignorance.
  • There's a little facet of life called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Wise people know there are no absolutes - all knowledge is probable, none is absolute. Even math is only probable because the only understanding of its objective existence is philosophical at best.
  • Failure to grasp nature of intellectual certitude.
  • Pretty sure thats a Bertrand Russell quote.
  • This question makes two assumptions: 1. If you are certain of yourself, you are ether a fanatic or a fool. 2. If you are full of doubts, you are wise. But these assumptions are stated as facts, "fools and fanatics [ARE] always so certain of themselves," "wiser people ARE full of doubts."(emphasis added) Since they are stated as facts-- as certainties, the questioner is then implying that they are certain, but if they are certain, then they must ether be a fool or a fanatic. So what's the question? It's like the pantheisic statement, "He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know." But in order to say that, they must speak, which means they don't know, making the statement false, but if it's false then... The fact of the matter is that while some fools are certain of themselves, that does not mean that all of them constantly are; foolishness can also be seen in dithering endlessly over pointless questions. On the other hand, while the wise one knows that they don't have ALL the answers, they also know that there are things that they can be sure of. See also the definition of wisdom: "Accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment." (knowledge being synonymous with fact, fact with certanty)
  • Well, to really know something, you have to know nothing about it, I figure.
  • WISER PEOPLE STOP AND THINK ABOUT WHATEVER, BUT FOOLS AND FANATICS DONT THINK, THEY JUST DO.
  • Because, at one time or other, wise people have already experienced being wrong when they were sure they were right. They, therefore, know that they can never be totally sure of anything--or at least very few things, such as, for example, that 2+2=4. For anything much more complex than that, new facts could always come along and change what they know. OTOH, fools make up their mind, and then refuse to consider new facts or new arguments.
  • Wise people are aware of the posibility of variables, while fools remain ignorant to such things.
  • The wise know to always doubt
  • fools never think about what they say, they just say it and expect to be right. Wiser people think about what their going to say, than after they say it, they still have doubts about what they said.

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