why is it even though we're graduating college at a higher rate than

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Poll of the Day » why is it even though we're graduating college at a higher rate than
Beveren_Rabbit
05/22/2025
01:28 PM
#1
generations before us and have access to much more information, we're still not considered smarter than philosophers like Plato, Leonhard Euler, Diogenes .
*flops*
GreenKnight127
05/22/2025
02:06 PM
#2
I'd like to believe the average college student today is a hell of a lot more intelligent than their 20-something counterparts thousands of years ago.

It's just a different kind of intelligence.

College students today are a lot more understanding about the nuances of identity, gender, technology, and common scientific facts.

I know that might sound silly, but it wasn't that long ago that most people genuinely thought women shouldnt be allowed to vote, etc.

People were a LOT dumber back in Plato's era than you think. Just because Plato had some good one-liners....doesn't mean he wasn't also a total dimwit when it came to many other aspects of society.
Different opinions: Insightful to the strong - Inciteful to the weak
shadowsword87
05/22/2025
02:22 PM
#3
Beveren_Rabbit posted...
we're still not considered smarter than philosophers like Plato, Leonhard Euler, Diogenes

I don't know, I think I know more math than Plato or Diogenes.
fettster777
05/22/2025
02:24 PM
#4
Because those guys dedicated their life to their works. Most college kids these days dedicate their life to Fortnite.
joemodda
05/22/2025
03:15 PM
#5
Those guys were pioneers in their fields, there was much to be discovered and conceptualized back then because the fields they worked in weren't as developed as now.
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ParanoidObsessive
05/22/2025
05:19 PM
#6
Beveren_Rabbit posted...
Why is it even though we're graduating college at a higher rate than generations before us and have access to much more information, we're still not considered smarter than philosophers like Plato, Leonhard Euler, Diogenes .

Because you're making the fallacious assumption that "higher education" actually results in intelligence, and that "larger amounts of data" result in anything more than a higher signal-to-noise ratio.



GreenKnight127 posted...
I'd like to believe the average college student today is a hell of a lot more intelligent than their 20-something counterparts thousands of years ago.

I've met the average.college student today. I have no faith in that statement whatsoever.
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green_dragon
05/22/2025
06:24 PM
#7
We're standing on the shoulders of giants. A lot of what we know wouldn't be known without those that came before us. I can learn basically all of newton's laws in like an hour, but it took him many years to figure it all out.

Also, we should really define what intelligence means. Being able to recite facts isn't really intelligence in my book. Being able to recognize patterns and solve problems(in whatever realm you choose) is intelligence to me.
.
caprontos
05/22/2025
07:01 PM
#8
I think people underestimate people of the past. If you took the average peoples phones away they would literally go insane, and not because they lost access to all the worlds knowledge, but because they are lost.

People have always been intelligent, just the way they were changes with the times. Because life has gotten so easy, we don't need to know all that much to thrive in this world now, so honestly I think they'd thrive in our world, and we'd die in theirs.

Amuseum
05/22/2025
07:42 PM
#9
You are conflating hand fed education, with individual innate intelligence. You are also overrating pseudo science like "gender studies", etc. that degrades intelligence , filling minds with sludge.
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Kallainanna
05/22/2025
07:52 PM
#10
Ah, but we do 100% have more knowledge and have advanced far beyond such thinkers even in philosophy, even as important and influential as they were and still are.

In fact, we have so much knowledge these days it's no longer really feasible to be a generalist, because there's so much to learn about one given subset of a field and things have progressed so far.
Unfortunately, certain people disdain certain fields even as the world burns due to their neglect, because they just learned engineering or coding or whatever and not empathy or critical thinking which isn't really even their fault! .
"God loves you, but not enough to save you
So, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself." -Ethel Cain, "Sun Bleached Flies"
Flappers
05/23/2025
04:41 AM
#11
Ah, the age old intelligence vs. education debate.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
hockey7318
05/23/2025
06:09 AM
#12
GreenKnight127 posted...
I'd like to believe the average college student today is a hell of a lot more intelligent than their 20-something counterparts thousands of years ago.
...
College students today are a lot more understanding about the nuances of identity, gender, technology, and common scientific facts.

I work at a major university and I'm definitely dubious of this.
Beveren_Rabbit
05/23/2025
08:58 AM
#13
why is it that we are getting college students that cannot read a book?
*flops*
hockey7318
05/23/2025
09:09 AM
#14
I mean they can read for sure. They're not stupid, but thinking that school equates to smart makes me feel like you've never met people in general.
GreenKnight127
05/23/2025
10:25 AM
#15
hockey7318 posted...
I work at a major university and I'm definitely dubious of this.

I bet if you asked college students today how they feel about minorities, or people with different religious beliefs...they'd shrug, probably be confused why you're asking the question, and ultimately say they are human beings just like everyone else.

Back in Platos time? 20-somethings would vehemently believe they should all be eradicated or something.

20-somethings today > 20-somethings thousands of years ago.

Intelligence doesnt matter.

Tolerance does.
Different opinions: Insightful to the strong - Inciteful to the weak
captpackrat
05/23/2025
10:42 AM
#16
If you think about what the average grade schooler knows about the Solar System, and compare that to what, say, Galileo knew, the kid would obliterate Galileo in a trivia contest.

On the other hand, there's a vast difference between intelligence and knowledge.
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Kallainanna
05/23/2025
10:45 AM
#17
Beveren_Rabbit posted...
why is it that we are getting college students that cannot read a book?
Because our society disdains reading. It hates art. It hates humanity.

Be a good little cog and maximize your grind.
"God loves you, but not enough to save you
So, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself." -Ethel Cain, "Sun Bleached Flies"
Flappers
05/23/2025
11:47 AM
#18
Beveren_Rabbit posted...
why is it that we are getting college students that cannot read a book?
Because the American education system is that fucked.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
hockey7318
05/23/2025
12:35 PM
#19
GreenKnight127 posted...
Intelligence doesnt matter.

Tolerance does.
I guess we agree that they are likely more tolerant than people were a long time ago, but I thought you were comparing how intelligent they were as opposed to some of the great minds back in the day.

The two Greek philosophers you mentioned were likely quite tolerant based on what I can remember of Greek history.
GreenKnight127
05/23/2025
01:42 PM
#20
hockey7318 posted...
The two Greek philosophers you mentioned were likely quite tolerant based on what I can remember of Greek history.

Im not sure it's documented anywhere, but I guarantee if you sat Plato down today and asked him questions about women, minorities, how to raise children, views towards sex and relationships, etc...........we would be disgusted by what he has to say. LOL
Different opinions: Insightful to the strong - Inciteful to the weak
hockey7318
05/23/2025
01:51 PM
#21
The Greeks were pretty famously fluid with their sexuality man.
Muscles
05/23/2025
01:54 PM
#22
People have had the same intelligence for like 100k years, or at least have had the same brain for that long if not longer. We need to stop thinking of people from the past as being dumb Neanderthals. They just had less accumulated knowledge than we do today. You take someone from back then and bring them to the modern world they'll adjust and be just fine.
Muscles
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GreenKnight127
05/23/2025
02:00 PM
#23
hockey7318 posted...
The Greeks were pretty famously fluid with their sexuality man.

Yeah, but they'd burn you alive if you said the world was round.

They'd also burn you alive if you suggested washing your hands before performing surgery on an injured person because stuff called "bacteria" exists.

They'd burn you alive for a LOT of things back then.

Sometimes they did it just to set an example. Just for the fun of it.
Different opinions: Insightful to the strong - Inciteful to the weak
Kallainanna
05/23/2025
02:31 PM
#24
hockey7318 posted...
The Greeks were pretty famously fluid with their sexuality man.
Plato in particular was incredibly gay, IIRC.
"God loves you, but not enough to save you
So, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself." -Ethel Cain, "Sun Bleached Flies"
captpackrat
05/23/2025
03:37 PM
#25
GreenKnight127 posted...
Yeah, but they'd burn you alive
The Greeks were more into poisoning with hemlock.
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Poll of the Day » why is it even though we're graduating college at a higher rate than