“Talk Sense To A Fool And He Calls You Foolish”

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. This quote from Euripides in his book The Bacchae could not be more true. It illustrates the fact that when someone does not know what they are talking about, facts and reality seem foolish to them. It is similar to the quote, “it’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it is damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.”

Why is that? Well because people who are not knowledgeable about a subject are less likely to follow the rules of logic. If you are completely out of your depth on a topic, you’ll just deny facts. You will simply ignore the premises that follow from logical arguments.

When you get into debates, you make arguments. These arguments are based on the building blocks of facts. You use these arguments to create understandings of ideas. “If this is true, we can ascertain this fact. Therefore, from what we know, this is why we should come to this conclusion.”

The problem with people who have challenges following logical reasoning is that they simply cannot or choose not to follow logical arguments in good faith. You: “X is true, you agree?” Answer: “yes.” You: “because we accept X, we know that if you apply that fact, this is the conclusion.” Answer: “no we don’t.”

Foolish people will be unable to follow the path that logic can lead in such a way that you spend more time repeating so as to explain to them than getting to the point. It is so effective, that often when people have no response to arguments, they play ignorant. Or they simply refuse to accept arguments built on agreed upon facts.

Now, there are some instances where the frame of reference we are inclined to color how we view facts themselves. It is completely understandable for two people to see the same set of facts, but react to them differently. To view the context of the facts, and thus how we should interpret them differently.

But what is very often the case is that people are just ignorant (willfully or not) about certain facts. Or do not understand how to use logic in a serious way. And these are the people who are almost impossible to convince. These are the people who getting through to is almost impossible.

Foolish people are usually quite far away from the reality of the situation. That is precisely why they call the person talking sense foolish. It is possible for two reasonably informed people on a controversial topic to think the other is foolish. But to the foolish person, a well thought out and explained argument is what seems foolish.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. Just remember that when you are trying to explain something logically to a person who simply ignores your logic altogether. At some point, one must accept that if someone is foolish enough, nothing will ever get through to them.