Managing Leadership^®

Okay, so let’s review a moment (if you haven’t, yet, you may want to read yesterday’s post before this one): Socratic genius can be either a specific skill in a particular field (such as the artisans) or an inherent ability that one seems to express with mastery, but with little or no real control or comprehension (like the poets). Moreover, it is often accompanied by an unwarranted, but firmly held and even widely acknowledged, presumption that this reflects similar ability in all areas to which the owner deigns to direct his or her sublime attention, but in which he or she is actually ignorant.

So, let’s try to make that into a definition:

Socratic genius: A skill or ability of limited scope, duration, or comprehension. A characteristic feature of this sort of narrow or transitory genius is that it seems almost inevitably to be interpreted by others, or parlayed by the possessor into, unwarranted reputation and influence beyond the range of actual competence.

That will do for now; perhaps we’ll refine it in time. But let’s look for a moment at the other side of the issue. Consider the logical progression of these three additional quotes from The Apology, beginning with Socrates’s reaction to encountering a politician afflicted with a bad case of Socratic genius:

. . . he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him.”

Plato has Socrates identify the key to liberation from ignorance here as avoiding the unwarranted presumption of knowledge. In this light, he goes on to ask himself,

. . . whether I would like to be as I was, neither having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I made answer to myself and the oracle that I was better off as I was.”

He’s not describing any classical middle way, here; he’s cleverly uniting the two concepts, suggesting that unexamined knowledge leads directly to - or, actually, is - ignorance. If you don’t know the nature or bounds of whatever knowledge or ability you possess, you don’t really possess it. And yet, he noted,

. . . my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom which I find wanting in others . . .”

The desire to find, in ourselves or others, an infallible escape from uncertainty is relentless. Like lemmings, we will follow it anywhere.

When we put these two together, then - knowledge and ignorance - the issue seems to boil down to this: the smarter they think they are, the dumber they are. So, let’s venture another definition:

Socratic ignorance: A blindness, arising from the presence of Socratic genius, to the distinction between what one knows or can do, and what one doesn’t know or can’t do.

So, Socratic genius simply terminates in Socratic ignorance. Is there no solution? If so, what is it, and what does it mean for the professional manager? The fact that this problem hasn’t improved much in the 2400 years since (or preceding) Socrates should suggest that these are questions worth asking.

We’ll begin to close the loop on this part of the discussion, tomorrow. See you then!

—

Here is a list of all the posts in this popular series:

1. Radiating Imbecility
2. Rays of hope
3. Pulsating inconsistency
4. Radiating confidence
5. Blind faith
6. Mirror, mirror . . .
7. Socratic genius
8. Socratic ignorance
9. Socratic method
10. First principles
11. The Socratic attitude
12. Why we do what we do
13. Recon by fire

—

Today’s tip: Speaking of people or institutions whose opinions of themselves know no bounds, guess what outfit Charles H. Green, at Trusted Advisor, describes as, more or less, obtuse but interesting - stop over to see which one and, in particular, why.

—

We appreciate your visits here very much, and would love to have you as a regular reader. Please take a moment to subscribe, either by email or via an RSS reader, using the options available just below or at the upper right. And welcome aboard!

—

Technorati Tags: genius, skill, ability, mastery, control, comprehension, ignorant, reputation, influence, competence, Apology, Plato, Socrates, ignorance, knowledge, wisdom, uncertainty, Socratic genius, Socratic ignorance, professional, manager, Charles H. Green, Dunning-Kruger effect

Similar Posts:

• Socratic genius
• Socratic method
• Radiating imbecility
• Rays of hope
• Mirror, mirror . . .