Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
October 16, 2011 at 7:44 am (This post was last modified: October 16, 2011 at 7:48 am by JollyForr.)
I'm not sure if this belongs in the philosophy section, but it deals with certain elements pertaining to philosophical thought, and I was wondering what your views on it are. I'd like to point out that I disagree with it profusely; I can't see how anyone could believe in it. I have seen it revered, but others have also disagreed with it. It is a generalization which reflects a lie, I think.
The quote: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Now, I know what it is attempting to say, and I have not been inclined to take it literally, or at face value.
It says that ideas are more important than discussing events or people. I agree to an extent. But, when it labels those who talk of events and people as average and small minded...that's when I have a problem.
If I saw a concert last night, or witnessed a robbery, would I have to forcefully suppress my desire to tell someone? What ideas could I possibly have revolving around that? It's just a common occurrence of communication; and it is vital to beget feeling and fascination.
Also, if I were to talk about, Christopher Hitchens, and how wonderful he is, then would that make me small minded? It's just a burst of passion, which shouldn't necessarily reflect the size of my mind.
That's the thing; it seems so unrealistic and hideous; it seems to suggest that every passing second of communication should involve talking about ideas, ideas, and more ideas. There's nothing but that. But we're all human, and we need to talk of events and people to understand the world. It's fascinating to talk of events and the lives of people. I've always found lives of people absorbing and intriguing.
Even if it's related to gossip - the small minded section - then I wouldn't say it was small minded. Perhaps just a vice that everyone seems to carry. But then why should gossip be scorned? It's fascinating right? Everyone seems to do it.
And there are lots of people with ideas, but horrible ideas, and I wouldn't label their mind as great. I don't like labeling anyone's mind. They've just got their own individual mind.
What's your view on it? I think it's quite a bold statement, but interesting nonetheless.
And i'm sure when someone declares to believe this quote, they are talking of events and people anyway.
Albert Einstein had a mistress. I'm quite sure he didn't spend the entirety of his days only discussing "ideas".
If you're going to take that quote at any value, let it be only that "small minds" only discuss gossip, but nothing else, and "great minds" can encompass all of those subjects.
October 16, 2011 at 8:20 am (This post was last modified: October 16, 2011 at 9:11 am by JollyForr.)
(October 16, 2011 at 8:00 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Albert Einstein had a mistress. I'm quite sure he didn't spend the entirety of his days only discussing "ideas".
If you're going to take that quote at any value, let it be only that "small minds" only discuss gossip, but nothing else, and "great minds" can encompass all of those subjects.
Yeah I guess you're right. I think I looked at it at face value, and didn't really try to understand the true value of it.
I agree with your take on it. Small minds ONLY discuss people; I always really thought that one should always try and avoid talking about people, even if it wasn't critical and vitriolic. It seems weird really, because that would be impossible and pointless
Thanks thesummerqueen
Yeah, I think all she was really trying to say was that gossip is small minded. I think the events part can be grouped in with gossip. I took it too literally.
I think the novelists, or poets, when telling great events, is unrelated to this. It would mean storytelling or history is average minded. And that's why it has to be about gossip.
It's just the event section I don't get. I think it means during a debate, it is best to have ideas revolving around an event rather than the event itself alone. It can not possibly mean in the personal life because we tell stories all the time and recall events. Unless the events part can be grouped in with the gossip as well. Maybe it's just an attack on gossip in the end.
I'm not sure if this belongs in the philosophy section, but it deals with certain elements pertaining to philosophical thought, and I was wondering what your views on it are. I'd like to point out that I disagree with it profusely; I can't see how anyone could believe in it. I have seen it revered, but others have also disagreed with it. It is a generalization which reflects a lie, I think.
The quote: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Now, I know what it is attempting to say, and I have not been inclined to take it literally, or at face value.
It says that ideas are more important than discussing events or people. I agree to an extent. But, when it labels those who talk of events and people as average and small minded...that's when I have a problem.
If I saw a concert last night, or witnessed a robbery, would I have to forcefully suppress my desire to tell someone? What ideas could I possibly have revolving around that? It's just a common occurrence of communication; and it is vital to beget feeling and fascination.
Also, if I were to talk about, Christopher Hitchens, and how wonderful he is, then would that make me small minded? It's just a burst of passion, which shouldn't necessarily reflect the size of my mind.
That's the thing; it seems so unrealistic and hideous; it seems to suggest that every passing second of communication should involve talking about ideas, ideas, and more ideas. There's nothing but that. But we're all human, and we need to talk of events and people to understand the world. It's fascinating to talk of events and the lives of people. I've always found lives of people absorbing and intriguing.
Even if it's related to gossip - the small minded section - then I wouldn't say it was small minded. Perhaps just a vice that everyone seems to carry. But then why should gossip be scorned? It's fascinating right? Everyone seems to do it.
And there are lots of people with ideas, but horrible ideas, and I wouldn't label their mind as great. I don't like labeling anyone's mind. They've just got their own individual mind.
What's your view on it? I think it's quite a bold statement, but interesting nonetheless.
And i'm sure when someone declares to believe this quote, they are talking of events and people anyway.
Any attempt to generalize anything is fraught with deficiency, ergo debates. Most of the time people generally do not present a thesis on a an idea in the hopes that it is directed to an understanding party.
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
![[Image: Untitled2_zpswaosccbr.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i1140.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn569%2Fthesummerqueen%2FUntitled2_zpswaosccbr.png)
