Why are so called 'educated people' so stupid?

Question

The ones I have encountered all argue that their degree taught them critical thinking. If that is true (not at uni until next year) why do they lack basic commonsense?

Answer 1

Once they earn that degree, some of them become enamored of themselves and of their "intelligence" ~ I wonder if they had common sense to begin with.

Answer 2

Of the educated people I know, some have common sense and others do not. Some of the ones who do not are people who have the mistaken notion that there is something wrong with having intellectual confidence and going for a straight-line solution where one is available. They think that if something makes basic, immediate sense, it must be somehow inadequate. These people are hard to reason with.

Family fragmentation also has something to do with this. People used to learn "common sense" as well as information from grandparents and parents. Now many people have very little contact with elders, and their parents aren't with them enough to teach them things like basic housekeeping, cooking, and car engine maintenance. This creates a real shortfall in problem-solving skills, one important aspect of common sense.

Answer 3

Because, as cliched as it sounds, common sense isn't common.

Sometimes when you are knowledgeable about a subject is it hard to break it down into simple sub-strata. I know I have this problem with piano and math.

Common sense and critical thinking are not the same thing. They are slightly related, but by no means inter-dependent.

Take this situation:

My car won't start.

I could think critically and suppose that I need to rebuild the engine.

Or, I could use common sense and check the gas gage.

Answer 4

Critical thinking is the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking, and being able to think clearly and rationally.
Critical thinking does not mean being argumentative or being critical of others. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, they can also be used to support other viewpoints, and to cooperate with others in solving problems and acquiring knowledge. Critical thinking is a general thinking skill that is useful for all sorts of careers and professions. Clear and systematic thinking can improve the comprehension and expression of ideas, so good critical thinking can also enhance language and presentation skills.
It is sometimes suggested that critical thinking is incompatible with creativity. This is a misconception, as creativity is not just a matter of coming up with new ideas. A creative person is someone who can generate new ideas that are useful and relevant to the task at hand.
Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating the usefulness of new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if necessary.
Critical thinking is also necessary for self-reflection. In order to live a meaningful life and to structure our lives accordingly, we need to justify and reflect on our values and decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation.
This mini guide contains a brief discussion of the basics of critical thinking.
It is neither a comprehensive survey nor a self-contained textbook. The aim is to highlight some of the more important concepts and principles of critical thinking to give a general impression of the field. For further study,
readers can look up the books and online resources listed at the end. Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that people have offered as true. It forms a process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming judgments about the facts.
Critical thinkers can gather such information from observation, experience, reasoning, and/or communication. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual values that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, accuracy, precision, evidence, thoroughness and fairness.

Overcoming bias: To reduce one's bias, one can take various measures during the process of critical thinking.
Instead of asking "How does this contradict my beliefs?" ask: "What does this mean?"

In the earlier stages of gathering and evaluating information, one should first of all suspend judgement (as one does when reading a novel or watching a movie). Ways of doing this include adopting a perceptive rather than judgmental orientation; that is, avoiding moving from perception to judgment as one applies critical thinking to an issue.
Critical thinking, intended as a handy tool to help anyone develop sound reasoning

Answer 5

I don't think you can equate common sense with researched knowledge. Have you seen the show KyleXY? I think these are two separate types of knowledge. I have met a lot of people who are definitely not grounded (no common sense) and extremely intelligent in their own realm. Ignorance isn't always equal intellect through education either because one has to learn to understand. For example, I didn't know that cucumbers were made into pickles until I saw my grandmother make pickles. Does this make me stupid because I am educated and didn't know this? Or does it merely make me naive to pickling?

Answer 6

Education does not pertain to common sense. They are two different beasts entirely. I know brilliant people who can barely function in society. Of course there are millions of streetwise commonsense people out there how are complete failures. Stick with education.

Answer 7

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Answer 8

Educated people are so busy becoming educated that they lack the social skills to become street smart and use common sense instead of "thinking" things over too much!

Answer 9

this is what the papers say

The general intellectual incompetence of Americans at present leads directly to a blindness to our current catastrophic situation. Without the learned ability to make decisive distinctions, people cannot discriminate between, for example, "economic downturn" and depression, or between "change of leaders through free elections" and coup d'etat through monied interests buying and selling presidents and congress-
persons. Our minds are so repressed and undeveloped that we lack the capacity to discriminate between the essentials and the changing, superficial forms.

Answer 10

there are different sorts of stupidity for every taste

educated stupidity is by focussing on something till they lose their common sense

they know so many things, they forget there is anything they dont know, so they never have to use common sense, which is what you use when you dont know something - you figure out what is most likely, most sensible

see the educated fools in gulliver's travels [book three, i think it is - floating island]

'people get so much information these days they lose their common sense'

congratulate yourself - since you noticed they lack common sense, you must have some! lucky you

Answer 11

there are two types of smart. Book smart, and street smart. Book smart is a scholar student who was a genious throughout school. Understood everything, and spent most of their academic life studying. Street smart is common among people who maybe weren't straight A students, but understood the concept of common sense. In rare occasions, you get the type of people who are brilliant in both. This is most common with CEOs(minus enrons) and rap artists.