Recognizing the limits of one's own understanding

Recognizing the limits of our own understanding and listening to the ideas and perspectives of others will enable us to make better decisions and reform our political system

• The Science of Know-It-All Ignorance p.24-25

• When we recognize the limits of our own understanding, we become more humble and open to listening to other people’s ideas and perspectives…

• At the time of this writing, American politics is severely polarized. Liberals and conservatives oppose each other’s viewpoints, and as a result, Democrats and Republicans are unable to find consensus or compromise. The U.S. Congress is unable to pass even bland legislation. The Senate prevents the administration from appointing high-ranking judicial and executive officials simply because the candidates are from another party.

• One of the reasons for this stalemate is that neither politicians nor voters realize how limited their understanding is. Without exception, issues that are important enough to spark a national debate are the most difficult to understand… The world is full of complexity. If everyone understood that, society would not be so polarized.

---

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/自己の理解の限界を認識 using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.