I have a friend who has the infuriating habit of asserting things with authority when he has no idea what he is talking about. In one discussion I remember we were talking about where to get my brother’s car serviced my friend asserted with complete authority “Vernon’s auto has closed down.” My response was surprise, I asked him “Really?!? How do you know?” His response irritated me extremely, he said “I am just assuming, I haven’t heard about them in a while.” All I could do was tell him not to make such unfounded assumptions and leave it alone.
Now in fact most of us function from countless assumptions, we are always forming assumptions and opinions. I am as guilty as most people in regards to this. I have gotten myself into trouble countless times because I was laboring under a false assumptions. This person thinks this about me, or this person doesn’t want to be disturbed, or that place is closed down.
Now what is really interesting is that it seems like we can very often do without assumptions and opinions. In the Apology, which is one of the platonic dialogues, Socrates’ gives a description of his own wisdom. Socrates says, “if I am wise then it is because I know that I do not know those things that I do not know.”
Now since the platonic dialogues are all very complex, Socrates’ precise meaning is not completely clear. Without going into too much depth about his possible meaning however there is definitely a valuable lesson we can take away from it. Socrates’ wisdom in part seems to consist in the fact that he does not assume or form opinions. Socrates knows that he does not know the things that most of us just assume that we know. All the assumptions and opinions we function with, as if they were true and known to be true beyond all doubt, Socrates’ recognises these for what they are, assumptions and opinions, not knowledge.
We must recognise that these assumptions and opinions we function from cloud our mind. They prevent us from seeing things as they are and acting appropriately. When We act from these assumptions and opinions and they turn out to be false, as they very often do, you will necessarily act inappropriately. What we need to cultivate in place of our assumptions and opinions is a curious mind. Don’t make up your mind before you know, wait with an open and curious mind and find out the truth of the matter. Another way of saying this is; be curious, do not be judgmental. Curiosity discloses truth, judgment hides it.