The Connection Between Lack of Knowledge and Foolishness

Ignorance is the lack of knowledge on a subject caused by not being exposed to the information. Whereas stupidity is the inability to gain knowledge about a subject. While ignorance and stupidity are often used as synonyms, they are far from the same. Manisha Kumar posted a blog to explain distinguish the difference between the two terms. In this essay, I will argue that ignorance is stupidity caused by a lack of exposure, while stupidity is the inability to understand something even with exposure to it. Ignorance is a very relevant term at this time, but the meaning of the term is often confused. As Kumar explains:

“An ignorant person might exhibit stupidity because of inadequate understanding of a situation, and exposure and experience will remove his or her ignorance, thus ensuring that the person no longer remains either ignorant or stupid...ignorance is caused by the same set of factors worldwide, namely a lack of exposure or experience.”

Kumar argues that an ignorant person can be stupid, but with exposure to information or experiences that directly relate to the topic they can get rid of their ignorance and stupidity. Three key phrases from this passage are: “inadequate understanding,” “exposure and experience,” and “no longer remains.” “Inadequate understanding” means that a person has very little or no knowledge about a certain topic or situation. Without the knowledge of the topic a person will be unable to have a legitimate opinion on that topic, because there will either be false information or bias information within their opinion. “Exposure and experience” are the way that people gain knowledge about a subject, to then get rid of their ignorance. Without any exposure or experience a person will usually maintain their ignorance. “No longer remains” is a very important phrase in the passage because it explains that while someone may be ignorant now, they may not always be ignorant. All of these phrases are extremely important when trying to understand the passage. Many people think ignorance is caused by stupidity; but in many situations it is caused by a lack of resources that enable a person to learn about different things, or resources that aren’t reliable. The unreliable resources could include bias opinions from role models or teachers and experiences that are influenced heavily by a certain perspective or culture. The passage explains how ignorance is caused by the lack of or misunderstanding of knowledge about a certain topic.

Stupidity is something that a person cannot always help because it is the inability to understand the knowledge that is being given to them. As Kumar explains, “While stupidity denotes the inability of a person to understand something due to insufficient intelligence, thus leading to the misinterpretation of a fact...

A stupid person, on the other hand, is also ignorant, because his or her stupidity prevents him from acquiring the knowledge, and this means that such a person is likely to remain stupid and ignorant.”

Kumar argues that stupidity is a trait that prevents a person from learning about a topic, which also makes that person ignorant because they can not take in the information given. Three key words from this passage are: “understand”, “prevents”, and “remain.” The first key word, “understand”, is very important when talking about stupidity because not being able to understand information is a direct product of stupidity. Understanding is the basis of learning, so not being able to understand a new topic will result in stupidity. “Prevents” is a term that means the stupidity of a person stops them from learning. Most people have the capacity to learn, but stupidity can be apparent in a person because of mental or physical impairments or simply because they do not want to learn. These factors are often what prevents someone from learning and causes them to be stupid. Since a mental or physical impairment is normally permanent, a person that is stupid will “remain’’ stupid. A person that is stupid will not be able to understand the knowledge being given, so they will stay stupid. A lot of people see stupidity as something that happens to someone because they were born that way; but in reality, stupidity is often caused by the attitude towards learning which can sometimes be traced back to the parenting or environment of a child during key phases of brain development and learning. The passage suggests that usually the information is available to stupid people, but the want or ability to learn that information does not exist.

The passage supports my original argument, but also expands on it in a way I didn’t think of. I thought of stupid people as people that were just less intelligent because that how they were born and raised; I never thought of stupidity being caused by a bad attitude towards learning. The main thing for people to understand is that ignorance and stupidity often go hand-in-hand however; there are key differences between the two terms. A stupid person is also ignorant because they can not understand the information they are being exposed to. A person that is ignorant does not have to be stupid, they just haven’t been exposed to any information to allow them to understand the topic. People can interpret these words in whichever way they feel is correct but they should make sure they expose themselves to many different perspectives to get a full understanding, and prevent themselves from being ignorant.