The Seduction of Sophistication

The basis of education is to acquire useful knowledge and critical thinking skills to advance ourselves as individuals and as a society.  However, I have noticed a trend within academia which acts contrary to that purpose.  I have yet to find a better way to describe it than as a form of intellectual elitism. Likely, most of us have interacted with individuals who are incredibly intelligent, but remarkably pretentious. However, my argument here goes beyond why pretentious sophistication is snobbish and unpleasant.  When our attitudes toward our own intelligence reflect unwarranted entitlement, it biases and alters our own perception and analysis and actually makes us less intelligent.  Here, I will provide examples of misconceptions or arguments commonly found in sophisticated circles.

First, appeals to complexity are often abused in academia to justify action or negate responsibility. A basic foundation of education is the realization that everything is not as simple as it seems: oversimplification can create gross misrepresentations of the truth. However, in an attempt to justify discretion or reject responsibility, some blanket their poor arguments by declaring how complex the situation is, as if no objective truth can be found and the decision should therefore be arbitrary. The problem arises when arguments fail to make a critical distinction: complexity is not equal to ambiguity. Complexity does not always hinder the acquisition of truth or blur the lines. You should watch out for arguments shrouded in vain appeals to complexity.

Another argument abused in academia is a type of appeal to authority. Expert opinion is invaluable to an educated and specialized society. However, it's a problem when I am told to blindly trust the logic, not the experience, of an expert. We should glean from the experience and knowledge of experts, but that does not exempt us from critically evaluating their logic. For example, mathematicians can understand and operate on levels of mathematics that are far beyond common expertise. However, we would continue to believe 2+2=4 even if a mathematician said otherwise because of our limited, but fundamental knowledge of math. In the same way, we ought to be critical thinkers when fronted with the logical sequence of experts in other, less obvious, fields. Everyone will inevitably have theories and assumptions which may or may not be helpful or accurate and they deserve our analytical attention.

To start my next point, a word from Calvin and Hobbes: "I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity...want to see my book report? ‘The dynamics of interbeing and monological imperatives in Dick and Jane:  A study of psychic transrelational gender modes.' Academia, here I come!" A less harmful, but obviously pretentious, sophisticated aspect is vocabulary and word choice. Jargon and technical words have their place because they are usually designed to connotate something more specific than a more common word. However, when an old, relatively unused word or phrase is used instead of a common word that has approximately the same connotation, you are just hindering clear communication to elevate yourself to seem more intelligent or sophisticated. I could say lexiphanic logophiles obnubilate orthology and obturate erudition. Or, I could say that people who love lofty language obscure clarity and inhibit learning.

Finally, sometimes academics succumb to a hyper appreciation for their particular field, or subfield. Literature people love literature, artists love art, musicians love music, and there is nothing wrong with that in itself. However, people tend to think that what they do or what they love is more important than it actually is. When a musician devalues your intelligence because you do not appreciate a specific masterpiece, it crosses a line. Shakespeare may help grow your intellect, but its absence does not infer stupidity; Russian history might be mildly useful and interesting, but my ignorance of it is no detriment to my intelligence.

Furthermore, this augmented valuing can devalue other, more important things. For example, a question was raised in a class whether one should save a masterpiece of art or human lives. Honestly, that should not be a tough decision. A piece of art, no matter how historic, elegant, beautiful, or insightful is nothing compared to human life, the lowliest of which is more beautifully formed than any human workmanship.

My main point is we must resist being seduced by the desire to be perceived and elevated as intellectual or sophisticated; it is self-defeating to the purpose of intellect: attaining truth. Our mind is designed for more than our own intellectual entertainment and self aggrandizement. So if you are gifted with naturally abundant intelligence, be admonished to use it wisely.