now there is nothing of which a man is prouder than of intellectual ability for it is this that gives him his commanding place in the animal world it is an exceedingly rash thing to let anyone see that you are decidedly superior to him in disrespect and to let other people see it too because he will then thirst for revenge arthur schopenhauer is not always concerned with great metaphysical or ethical ideas concerning the nature of reality and the universe in writings other than his main work written near the end of his life he takes it upon
himself to give his readers practical advice for day-to-day life a lot of his advice deals with the question of how to move through society and invariably schopenhauer's elitism will shine true without shame schopenhauer writes about the dumb masses versus the intelligent genius and how such a genius should conduct himself in polite society we have seen in a previous video how schopenhauer advises strategic withdrawal from society in order to develop one's talents and not be dragged down by the rest but living in society is inescapable when a person of great intellect is forced to mingle in
polite company the best thing to do according to schopenhauer is to play dumb it is a real recommendation to be stupid for just as warmth is agreeable to the body so it does the mind good to feel its superiority and a man will seek company likely to give him this feeling as instinctively as he will approach the fireplace or walk in the sun if he wants to get warm the reason why it pays so well to play dumb is because intelligence in other people rouses a great feeling of resentment and envy schopenhauer makes the following
psychological sketch assume two people are having a conversation now a man feels and perceives that the person with whom he is conversing is intellectually very much his superior what happens next is that this person reasons that his conversation partner must have a low opinion of him after all he's so much smarter than himself how could he not believe he is stupid this is a method of reasoning which rouses the bitterest feelings of sullen and rancorous hatred notice that in this scenario the smart person hasn't done anything wrong he simply forgot to play dumb which made
the other guy realize he's not as smart as him which made him jealous which made him hate his conversation partner even if only secretly and subconsciously intelligence is the object of so much envy because we do not feel like we deserve our intelligence to have it means you are in possession of an unfair advantage which you did not earn yourself the same psychology is at play when we are jealous of someone who inherited a large sum of money it doesn't matter if it's a legitimately good businessman or investor and if you took great care to
increase his inheritance instead of wasting it if this person would flaunt his wealth and rub it in your face how much money he has we wouldn't really like him to say the least aim is true of intelligence it's regarded as something to which its possessor has no legitimate rights and upon which he dares to pride himself a man may be as humble as possible in his demeanor and yet hardly ever gets people to overlook his crime in standing intellectually above them in order to get ahead it pays to play dumb he quotes approvingly from balthazar
gracian's oracle of worldly wisdom one of his favorite texts to be well liked one must dress in the skin of the simplest of animals this entire short little book by the way comes highly recommended we'll leave a link in the description to our preferred translation schopenhauer had to learn the lesson of playing dumb the hard way consider the following letter his own mother sent him when schopenhauer was just 19 years old all of your good qualities become obscured by your super cleverness and are made useless to the world merely because of your rage at wanting
to know everything better than others of wanting to improve and master what you cannot command with this you embitter the people around you the relationship between schopenhauer and his mother is worth an entire video on its own and will release one on the subject in due time meanwhile will leave you with schopenhauer's own closing words on the subject of playing dumb these remarks are applicable not only to advancement in political life but to all competition for places of honor and dignity nay even for reputation in the world of science literature and art in learned societies
for example mediocrity that very acceptable quality is always to the fore whilst merit meets with tardy recognition or with none at all so it is in everything if you're curious to learn more practical advice from schopenhauer we recommend watching our big video on schopenhauer's guide to happiness as well as our video on solitude and dealing with society thank you for watching and we'll see you in the next one
