The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
Stephen Hawking
Do you remember a day, when you were at school, when the teacher asked a question and you did not know the answer? Do you know this feeling of pure terror, feeling your stomach dropping in your hells to the mere thought of admitting to your knowledge deficiency? You might have been lucky enough to never find yourself in such a situation, but you probably at least witness it in one of your peers. How can we be so scared of those three simple words?
Three simple words, indeed, that seems to carry a lot of weight: by saying “I don’t know” you recognise that you are not all-knowing. And it’s a good thing! Why should it require courage to admit that you did not do it all, see it all, or know it all?
It makes you more approachable, less pedantic, just by recognising other people might know things you don't. It doesn't mean you have to be friends with everybody, you just give people the opportunity to express themselves. It doesn't change any dynamic that can already exist (or not) between people, it changes the view people have of you. I won't go in the "I don't care what people think of me, I am who I am and you just have to deal with it"; it is not the place nor the time for this. However, it is the time for "I am entitled to my ideas, they are not threaten by others, and I am allowed to change ideas based on life experience"... which include talking with people that have divergent opinions and other centres of interest.
In an educational context, I can understand why “I don’t know” is not the answer the teacher is expecting when questioning a student about a previous lesson. But maybe (not saying it’s necessarily easy to do, but just maybe) instead of putting the one who doesn’t know in the spotlight we could think of ways to see if they really don’t know, are afraid to be wrong, are too startled to access the information right this second, or even do not like speaking in front of their peers.
Later in life though, I do not see what is so wrong in admitting you do not know this specific thing people are talking about. People’s reactions are not always pleasant (“How can you possibly don’t know about his?”, “Do you live in a cave?” – well close enough, I do a PhD…), but passed their glowing moment of rubbing all their supposed knowledge in your face, you might actually learn something new. Might not be the most interesting thing ever, but it’s new and could create mental connections with this other thing you recently came across. It feeds your well of knowledge.
Recognising different people have different centres of interest is probably the first step towards intellectual humility (recognising the limits of one’s knowledge and appreciating others’ intellectual strengths). We don’t all share the same centres of interests, and that ought to be a good thing! We might not know about others’ interests or know it is not for us, but I think that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it, exchange, and try understanding the other point of view. Understanding the other point of view… note that I didn’t say dismiss any other opinion or try convincing the others that your view is the only valid and how can they not see that your truth is the absolute truth. Disagreeing is not an issue per se; how the conversation evolves usually is. As soon as someone tries to impose their opinion, I'm out. I could be interested in what you have to say; the way you say it will make the difference between me listening to you, and me disconnecting instantly.
Intellectual humility is not about being a cognitive chameleon, changing opinion each time something new is presented to you. You are entitled to your ideas, you just acknowledge that they might not hold the whole truth. Chatting with other people and hearing different opinions might make you think and push you to learn more about something, either to agree with it or because you like to know even the things you don’t agree with.
Intellectual humility seems to go with the ability to recognise verbally that we don’t know something… and lead to more general knowledge!!! As we acknowledge we don’t know something AND we do not see other people’s belief or interest as inferior, we tend to know more about various topics we wouldn’t have come across if we stayed in our own bubble of knowledge. Interacting with others is a source of information, why not use it? Learn from each other might just broaden our cognitive world.
Socrates himself recognised that the only thing he knew was that he did know – it did not end up very well for him back in Athens, but times have changed, and intellectual humility should be cultivated. “I don’t know” shouldn’t be source of fear, but source of dialogue. It should be a way to open up to new people, new knowledge, new things, new experiences. And opening up is good. For it is by opening up that the unexpected can happen.
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A bit of cool research on intellectual humility…
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