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Full Idea
Can anything be more foolish than to suppose that those, whom individually one despises as illiterate mechanics, are worth anything collectively?
Gist of Idea
If one despises illiterate mechanics individually, they are not worth more collectively
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations [c.44 BCE], V.xxxvi.104)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'Tusculan Disputations', ed/tr. King,J.E. [Harvard Loeb 1927], p.531
A Reaction
Aristotle disagrees (Idea 2823). In 1906 a huge number of people guessed the weight of a cow at a fair, and the average was within one pound of the truth. In our world the healthy workings of the group are warped by the mass media.
Related Idea
Idea 2823 The many may add up to something good, even if they are inferior as individuals [Aristotle]
| 5879 | The soul is the heart, or blood in the heart, or part of the brain, of something living in heart or brain, or breath [Cicero] |
| 5884 | How can one mind perceive so many dissimilar sensations? [Cicero] |
| 5887 | The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish [Cicero] |
| 5885 | Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls [Cicero] |
| 5886 | Like the eye, the soul has no power to see itself, but sees other things [Cicero] |
| 5890 | We should not share the distress of others, but simply try to relieve it [Cicero] |
| 5891 | Philosophy is the collection of rational arguments [Cicero] |
| 5893 | A wise man has integrity, firmness of will, nobility, consistency, sobriety, patience [Cicero] |
| 5894 | All men except philosophers fear poverty [Cicero] |
| 5895 | If one despises illiterate mechanics individually, they are not worth more collectively [Cicero] |