“These statements may not include the high class people”
The reason that Sarah (Famous Monkey) is smart, it is because people compared her to other monkeys.
People say you are smart, it is because they compare you to your own kinds.
You think you are smart, it is because you only interact with stupid people.
Therefore, the conclusion is that you are not smart, if you compared yourself to the people around the world.
2007-02-20 01:31:03 · 5 answers · asked by Hermes 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
No. "You think you are smart, it is because you only interact with stupid people." is not correct. It would be if you said "You think you are smart, it is because you only interact with people who are less smart than you."
Also, no such conclusion could be drawn from the given premises because there's one premise missing: the one that states where "the people around the world" are in your reasoning. You cannot draw a conclusion regarding this category if you haven't mentioned it in any of the premises.
2007-02-20 05:57:46 · answer #1 · answered by Valeria M. 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, the reasoning is not correct.
First, the reasoning above mistakes frequently (surely in the sentence between quotation marks, and in the conclusion too) an "absolute" sense of "smart / stupid" with a relative sense, "smartER / stupidER". For instance, you actually have to define "smart" with the help of "being smarter than..." - eg Sarah was *smart* because she was *smarter* then the other monkeys. And, if you define "smart" as "smarter than anybody else", then the reasoning is almost correct. Only that assuming such a premise would be quite a silly thing to do (and anyway, the reasoning above does not do it explicitely anywhere), so, leaving the premises as they are, the only reasonable conclusion would have been "you are not smartER than everybody", not an absolutely "you are not smart".
(...to leave aside the fact that being or not being smarter than someone is seldom a clearly solvable problem)
(comment to an answer: this whole story is not about thinking how smart we are, but simply about defining a word)
2007-02-20 10:26:57 · answer #2 · answered by jlb 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You have to compare yourself to someone if you are trying to decide if someone is smart or not. The first person on the earth couldn't see if he was smart or not until the second one came into existence. So, in order to decide if you are smart or not, you have to compare yourself to others. To find if you are really smart, compare yourself to smart people, like Einstein.
2007-02-20 13:02:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You forgot one.
People who spend a lot of time thinking about how smart they are, never are.
Love and blessings Don
2007-02-20 09:38:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
wow what a stupid thing to say you must be stupid hahahaha
2007-02-20 09:53:15 · answer #5 · answered by henryredwons 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋