Simplicity Is Also An Intellectual Virtue

Simplicity is also an intellectual virtue. At the end of the day, we all act as we think and most of us have met at some time with superb people of mind and heart, those for whom humility is little more than a Russian verb, something indecipherable that does not deserve to apply. However, why is this type of self-centeredness so prevalent?

It is not a casual question or an open lament. In recent times, there is almost an excess of those voices that reaffirm that their opinion is the only one and true. It is becoming increasingly difficult to hear apologies, to admit that perhaps we have made a mistake about something and that things could possibly have been done better. Intellectual egos flood social media and sometimes even the tables we eat at.

Just as an example of this situation: a little over a year ago, psychologists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development came up with something decisive. The suggestion was aimed at all scientific communication: given the number of studies that have been shown to be wrong or invalid, an apology should be published to warn that this approach was wrong.

According to the promoter of this idea, Dr. Julia M. Rohrer, the lack of intellectual humility is a cultural factor. It is so ingrained in our patterns and behaviors that someone must begin to set an example.

Simplicity is also an intellectual virtue

Have you ever been frustrated because someone refused to change your mind on an aspect whose approach was completely wrong? Surely many. Well, now let’s think about the last time we realized our mistake ourselves and were able to admit it. Long ago? Or is it something habitual in you?

It must be admitted, it is quite difficult for people to become aware that, sometimes, we err, that there are times when our ignorance about some aspect is more than evident. However, as we pointed out previously, it is the culture itself that urges us to pretend that invulnerability, that intellectual infallibility that leaves no room for setbacks or admitting failure.

What’s more, sometimes it is even frowned upon that we change our minds. It is as if the values, the approaches and the beliefs that we maintain today, we have to maintain them in a mandatory way to demonstrate coherence. We are more than obliged to vary some concepts as a result of our experience and maturity.

Assuming our ignorances, a great value

” The true wisdom is to recognize one’s own ignorance,” Socrates said. “Boasting of one’s own knowledge is the worst plague of the human being”, affirmed Michel de Montaigne in the 16th century. Few philosophers have been oblivious to the lack of that dimension that in psychology we call intellectual humility.

Simplicity is also an intellectual virtue because with it we always keep in mind that we are fallible, that it is good to take into account other opinions and that it is necessary to be aware of our blind spots. However, what are these blind spots really?

They are the blind spots that our brain does not perceive. In other words, it is those biases of which we are not aware, it is our mental rigidity and that cognitive closure with which we raise walls to contradictions, uncertainties and opposing opinions.

Mark Leary, a personality and social psychologist at Duke University, points out something important: Ignorance itself is invisible to ourselves. We do not see it and if we do, it will be difficult for us to admit it because accepting that we are wrong generates suffering. On the other hand, the simple person, the mind that applies intellectual humility, will have no problem in assuming the error. Doing so facilitates advancement, learning, and even cognitive enrichment.

Simplicity is also an intellectual virtue

There are virtues that go unnoticed but that, nevertheless, have the remarkable ability to make this world a better place. Somehow, someone who shows an excess of self-confidence and arrogance, who is infallible and inflexible in the eyes of others, always attracts more attention. They are the ones who hold up banners such as “I know everything and I am never wrong.”

And yet they do. They are wrong one, two and ten times. Because who does not assume the error, repeats it. Instead, the person with cognitive and emotional humility monitors himself and dares to do the right thing, not the easy thing. Although this implies making mistakes and accepting other perspectives.

Because, after all, simplicity is also an intellectual virtue, it stands as that exercise of undoubted social and emotional health with which to dethrone the ego to elevate humility, making prejudices fall to open windows to flexibility and understanding . Few psychological crafts are so necessary today. Let us try to exercise it, let us strive to make it real.