From the easiness or difficulty of a problem, we are accustomed to assume that the thing about which the problem concerns itself must be correspondingly simple or complex in its objective nature. It does not follow, however, that there is necessarily a one-to-one correlation between the degree of a thing’s objective complexity and the degree of difficulty in understanding it, such that we must understand more easily those things that are objectively simpler. If our conceptual machinery is geared a certain way, then we may more easily comprehend more complex matters in that way than simpler matters in another. It may well be that many things that come easily to us are objectively complex, and many things that we find difficult or impossible to understand are objectively simple.
1 comment:
Just by way of illustration, something like driving or throwing a ball is pretty complex. Granted, that's a combined motor-intellectual activity, but nonetheless. Of course, the inherent problems of socialism are pretty simple to see, but that doesn't prevent a certain kind of man's infatuation with them.
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