This is my son's first year in baseball. The league he's playing in is associated with
the city and is designed to prepare him for playing baseball in a school. The kids are learning and having fun, but -
as often is the case - some parents take things a bit more seriously.
A few games ago, the opposing team had a runner on
second. There was a ground ball, so the
runner on second base took off for third.
When he was about ten feet away from the base, our third basemen stepped
right in his path, blocking him from getting to third. The umpire missed it and called the runner
out when the ball finally made it to third base. The opposing team's coach kept saying -
correctly - the third basemen cannot block the runner's path. A big discussion started among the coaches
about what happened. A parent a few
seats away from me went into a tirade.
She began screaming at the other team's coach, "This is
baseball!" It was obvious she had
no idea what she was talking about. She
was ignorant of the rules, but passionately felt the runner should be out, and
was confidently obnoxious in expressing her conclusions. For the informed, we were embarrassed for
her.
Betrand Russell said, "The trouble with the world is
that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Some people haven't had the experience of being an expert in
an area and then receive obstinate criticism from a novice.
Yesterday, Tiger Woods made a very impressive chip on the
16th hole in the Memorial Tournament (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLNLdHz_A8). Jack Nicklaus raved, "It's the most
gutsy shot that I've ever seen." He
continued later, "Under the circumstances, I don't think I've ever seen a
better shot." A non-golfer may
watch that shot and think Nicklaus is ridiculous or at the least being overly
dramatic. The shot was only a handful of
yards away and went in the hole...big deal.
It's when a person becomes educated regarding the details that they
begin to have some appreciation regarding Jack's statement: the way the ball
was sitting in the grass, the direction the grass was facing, the slant of the
green, the wind, the impact of a full stroke, the pressure of the situation,
etc. Even when a novice learns of these
things, his lack of experience may still leave him not nearly as convinced as
the expert who understands how this mix of circumstances impacts the situation. But a non-golfer seasoned with humility might
at least be able to confess, "My ignorance leaves me unimpressed, but
since the experts are so thrilled, I'm almost certainly missing the
significance." And if they're
interested, they may begin to ask questions to try to understand the topic a
bit better.
As an expert No-limit Hold'em player, I've often had the
experience of a casual poker player instructing me on how a hand should have
been played. As they begin to justify
their thinking, I realize they don't even know how to begin thinking about the
game. They don't even know what they
don't know. Ignorance is powerful.
But why are the intelligent often full of doubt? It's because they realize the complications
involved and it drives them to uncertainty - or at least an appreciation of
other experts in the field who may disagree with them.
A few weeks ago, I was reading about a philosopher from the
1800s, Auguste Comte. He was trying to
think of an example of knowledge that would always be hidden. He decided the composition of the distant
stars and planet would be a good example.
One hundred years later, the scientific community using the tool of
astronomical spectroscopy would look back on his statement as another example
of the power of the position of ignorance.
Science had discovered a method Auguste couldn't have even imagined. Sometimes we lack the knowledge to even begin
imagining a way we may gain knowledge.
To me, the power of ignorance highlights the absurdity of a permanent
agnosticism on any topic. In other
words, a statement like "We'll never be able to know that" may always
be arguing from ignorance.