Your point #2 is pretty good, but I was surprised because every psychiatrist I've ever met has taken psychedelics, and doctors enjoy getting high just as much as the rest of the population.
But even so, I thought it would be the sort of thing someone would know about just through a general awareness of current events. I've never taken a flying lesson but I know who the Wright brothers are, that their first successful flight was in 1903, the basic control mechanisms of all aeroplanes, and a bunch of other rudimentary aeronautical knowledge. I thought most people had a vague idea of who timothy Leary was and that a drug named LSD was quite popular in the 1960s and so on - it's not exactly obscure.
>But even so, I thought it would be the sort of thing someone would know about just through a general awareness of current events. I've never taken a flying lesson but I know who the Wright brothers are, that their first successful flight was in 1903, the basic control mechanisms of all aeroplanes, and a bunch of other rudimentary aeronautical knowledge. I thought most people had a vague idea of who timothy Leary was and that a drug named LSD was quite popular in the 1960s and so on - it's not exactly obscure.
You're living in a bubble. You're the exception.
The general public are actually by and large incredibly ignorant. Do some research into literacy rates if you want to be terrified.
Ask the average man on the street to name five Enlightenment philosophers and he'll just stare at you blankly.
Aren't Hegel and Nietzsche too late to be considered Enlightenment philosophers? I'm intentionally not looking it up since I wanna see if I pass the test too... I'll add Hume and Spinoza as replacements, but please don't ask me to elaborate on what any of these people actually contributed to our societal body of knowledge :)
I would have had a similar list (decreasing order of confidence as well). Kant, Voltaire, Descartes, Heidegger, Kierkegaard.
I don't think this is something people should necessarily know. Ask them to name some 5 philosopers and be happy if they can do that, but specifying a period? A tad too hard I guess :-)
In disbelief that you would want to memorise stuff that can be found by googling. :)
Heck, I don't know em. Rosseau? Anyway, the ignorant people may be quite proficient in stuff you'd be surprised at. But I agree the literacy rates ARE frightening. Maybe technology will fix that one day...
>I've never taken a flying lesson but I know who the Wright brothers are, that their first successful flight was in 1903, the basic control mechanisms of all aeroplanes, and a bunch of other rudimentary aeronautical knowledge.
Most people don't know any of those things, including many of the people that frequently fly on the planes (based on conversation I have with people sitting next to me when I fly)[1]. Similarly, I wouldn't expect many people that frequently get high on something other than psychedelics to know anything at all about LSD.
1. PSA: Something that frequently comes up that is relevant to being a passenger is the importance of putting on your own air mask as fast as possible. At a 40,000 ft elevation atmospheric pressure, hypoxia will cause you to lose consciousness in <20 seconds. Remember to put on your own mask before helping others ;)
But even so, I thought it would be the sort of thing someone would know about just through a general awareness of current events. I've never taken a flying lesson but I know who the Wright brothers are, that their first successful flight was in 1903, the basic control mechanisms of all aeroplanes, and a bunch of other rudimentary aeronautical knowledge. I thought most people had a vague idea of who timothy Leary was and that a drug named LSD was quite popular in the 1960s and so on - it's not exactly obscure.