I wish we had something like the French have: the requirement of philosophy for a degree. OK, this is the "Bac Litteraire" which I gather is like high school plus a couple of years of college, so it isn't quite comparable to a high-school course. But suppose a largish fraction of the voting population was at least exposed to the notion that it helps to understand what you are talking about. Would it make a difference in our culture or our politics--or perhaps even the advertisements?
Three things come to mind.
I know several people who tell me C.S. Lewis was hard to understand. When I was young I thought that with patience you could teach just about anybody anything, but I'm not so sanguine these days.
Maybe the AP courses would be thorough, but if the required psychology and sociology courses are any guide the result would probably be jargon heavy and biased.
The French have had this since Napoleon, and they seem to chase the banners of "god words" just as eagerly as Americans.
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I know bright people who could understand subtle distinctions, but do not understand even obvious ones, such as you list. I think it is not an intelligence problem but a different type of cognition failing. Some inability to self-observe, or to take the emotional risk of challenging an idea, even to oneself.
I think people with an AA background learn some ability to do this, and perhaps that is because there is cultural support, even demand for it. Yet that might also be selection bias, that only those willing/able to self-question take to that method of self-improvement.
The only other place I see it is with some Christians, certainly not all.
That's discouraging.
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