Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”
Charles Darwin · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 1871
What does it mean?
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge does. Darwin is watching people who are sure a question about human origins will never be touched by science, and who are surest where they have looked least. Knowledge tends to show the edges of a problem. A rival reading says the line is itself a piece of overconfidence about expertise, as if the specialist's doubt were always wiser than a lay person's firmness. He is naming a pattern, not crowning a class. Confidence is not the enemy.
Did Charles Darwin really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Darwin's own English in the introduction to The Descent of Man. He is talking about people who are sure a problem will never be solved by science. It is not the fake 'survival of the fittest species' slogan, which is listed separately.
Where it comes from
The Descent of Man, introduction
Approximate date: 1871.
How to use it
In a family argument in Belfast about evolution, or about a medical headline, notice who is most certain and least informed. Treat that feeling as a warning light, not as evidence. He watched the pattern in arguments about human origins. It is not a reason to defer to every person with a doctorate.
A mindset reading
A careful person can be firm where the evidence is firm. The sentence does not say that hesitation is a virtue in every register. It says swagger and ignorance often travel together, which is a different, narrower claim.
Understand the philosophy
The remark sits in the introduction to The Descent of Man. It is a naturalist's epistemology, and it happens to describe a bias later psychology would study. It is not the fake sentence about the species most responsive to change.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge does. Darwin is watching people who are sure a question about human origins will never be touched by science, and who are surest where they have looked least. Knowledge tends to show the edges of a problem. A rival reading says the line is itself a piece of overconfidence about expertise, as if the specialist's doubt were always wiser than a lay person's firmness. He is naming a pattern, not crowning a class. Confidence is not the enemy.
Did Charles Darwin really say this?
Well attested. Darwin's own English in the introduction to The Descent of Man. He is talking about people who are sure a problem will never be solved by science. It is not the fake 'survival of the fittest species' slogan, which is listed separately.
Which work is it in?
The Descent of Man, introduction Approximate date: 1871.