Education Doesn't Give Us Everything:

Montaigne and the Limitations of Intellect and Reason

There is an arrogance of learning. While I preach that education is the solution to so many things, it does have limits and we need to pay attention to them. I recommend looking to Montaigne's Essais (The Essays) for excellent critiques on intelligence and learning.

"Even on the highest thrones in the world, we're still seated upon our asses." - Michel de Montaigne

Intellect and reason are fantastic and they give mastery over the physical and material world, however, people can get too arrogant about the limits of their brains.

When we learn a ton, we forget what it was like to be ignorant. Once we know, it is impossible to not know. If we aren't careful, this can breed vicious arrogance.

Intellectual pride could blind people to the inherent fallibility and limitations of their knowledge.

Wisdom also involves recognizing what we do not know and being open to the perspectives of others.

"Our life consists partly in madness, partly in wisdom. Whoever writes about it merely respectfully and by rule leaves more than half of it behind." - Michel de Montaigne

I want that quote to be kept in mind while you go through this course. All of the things I've written about are either from lessons I had to learn "the hard way" or lessons I've read about from other people's experiences.

For all the wisdom in this course, there is greater or equal stupidity that walks upon the Earth. (Particularly from me.)

So what does Montaigne think we should place worth?

If not learning and reason, then where?

Critiques are only useful if we offer solutions.

"If man were wise, he would gauge the true worth of anything by its usefulness and appropriateness to his life." - Michel de Montaigne

This is a theme I want to heavily emphasize in this course. The worth of things comes from their usefulness.

For example, Montaigne mocks books that are difficult to read. If the book cannot be read, then the message can't be digested. The book, despite having wisdom in it, is not deserving of worth. Unfortunately, many textbooks in traditional schools are difficult to read. No surprise many of the students believe them to be worthless.

"Difficulty is the coin which the learned conjure with so as not to reveal the vanity of their studies which human stupidity is keen to accept as payment" - Michel de Montaigne

I want this book to be deep, and comprehensive, but also easy to understand and so should the path to building our education.

As we become more competent, what is easy to understand grows and grows.

When we're just starting, it's important to focus on what we can do and build our competence up to match the complexity of the world.

Montaigne suggests that this overly academic culture has trained people to study other people's books before they study their minds.

Schopenhauer presents another great critique of education:

“For education is to natural faculty what a wax nose is to a real one; or what the moon and the planets are to the sun. In virtue of his education a man says, not what he thinks himself, but what others have thought and he has learned as a matter of training; and what he does is not what he wants, but what he has been accustomed to do.” - Arthur Schopenhauer (The Art of Controversy)

Education has a social function and that function determines are large part of what is taught and supported.

This is why we must approach our education with an intentional and open mind. If we aren't careful, we might end up learning useless nonsense. Man is flawed and our social interactions are not always grounded in what is necessary for a good education. If we study ourselves and our minds, we are not held to the limited factor of what is socially acceptable to learn.

I want this course to encourage you to study yourself and your mind.

So don't be so bothered by the arrogance and petulance of "clever" people. Montaigne is among the best of them and says they still shouldn't be taken so seriously.