What is the Virtue of Admitting Ignorance?

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@Letty,

Thanks again Letty,
I must confess poetry is very much a challenge for me. I have a lot of trouble setting aside strict literal analysis. But I try.
This stanza really resonates with me:

'[i]Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College[/i]' by Thomas Gray wrote:

These shall the fury Passions tear,
The vultures of the mind
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,
And Shame that skulks behind;
Or pining Love shall waste their youth,
Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,
That inly gnaws the secret heart,
And Envy wan, and faded Care,
Grim-visag'd comfortless Despair,
And Sorrow's piercing dart.

My take is that it shows the dangers of unreasoned passion.
Passions are necessary, but it is wise to use reason to direct them.

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@MattDavis,

MattDavis wrote:

Passions are necessary, but it is wise to use reason to direct them.

Are you sure you can?

Hume's position in ethics, which is based on his empiricist theory of the mind, is best known for asserting four theses: (1) Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the “slave of the passions.”

1 Reply

@igm,

This type of question (since the time of Hume) has since been informed by psychological study.
The analysis was of a poem, I was attempting to find 'meaning' in it.
As you often speak of there is a difference between what you call 'conventional' knowledge and absolute knowledge.
It is conventionally understood that wisdom can be found in art.

1 Reply

@MattDavis,

On an ethical level I find that passions have an intimate connection to value (in the ethical sense of the term).
I find that reason is a tool that may be used to make the best decisions as informed by ethics.

1 Reply

@MattDavis,

Quote:

I find that reason is a tool that may be used to make the best decisions as informed by ethics.

I appreciate the complement but I do not see myself as a tool but rather an idea that may be incorrect. Laughing

1 Reply

@reasoning logic,

Yes reasoning logic you are a tool. Wink

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@MattDavis,

uncertainty is certain.
for i'm uncertain

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What is the Virtue of Admitting Ignorance?

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