"What is an ignoramus?" - this question is often heard. We will readily explain the meaning of the word and give examples.
Meaning
An ignoramus is a person who is not enlightened in some areas of knowledge. Is it worth talking about the relativity of this concept? There are people who can build or design an airplane, but they may well not read fiction books at all and not understand why Leo Tolstoy or, for example, George Orwell is so great.
Sherlock Holmes as an example of a brilliant ignoramus
After we understand what an ignoramus is, we can turn to examples. Of course, this will be a literary or rather cinematic example.
Recall the famous conversation in the film "Introduction" between Holmes and Dr. Watson, where the latter tells the first directly that the man is sharp-minded, but ignorant in all other respects. Naturally, this meant education. Holmes knows almost nothing about Copernicus, Joan of Arc and Aristotle, although the name of the first on this list seems vaguely familiar to him. Watson is shocked by the cultural illiteracy of his future colleague, but Holmes is not embarrassed andcontrasts Watson's historical and humanitarian knowledge with his purely practical skills, for example, the ability to distinguish the dirt of one London street from another or the ashes of one cigar from another.
Therefore, if the reader is asked what an ignoramus is, he can say without hesitation: this is Sherlock Holmes (with certain reservations). There are interesting discoveries, and completely unexpected ones.
Watson, meanwhile, thinks with horror about the utilitarian world, where no one is interested in philosophy, literature and history, but only in what is necessary for life. Holmes reassures his friend and says that he is the only one. I wonder if the famous detective knows the word "ignoramus"? Not a fact, because for the case it is completely useless to him.
It's been almost 40 years since the film was released, because it was released in 1979. And now we, modern people, understand that Holmes's ignorance is not the most terrible that can be imagined. Holmes, though ignorant, is a passionate person. Perhaps he would be interested in literature and history, if he had time, but he gives his all to work. Now, absolutely terrible people are being born, who definitely do not understand anything, and do not even want to learn - this is the real image of the ignorant, which frightens. The theme is endless and inexhaustible, and we need to move on. To understand what an ignoramus is, one more important aspect needs to be covered.
Ignorant and ignorant
People especially find it difficult to distinguish between two concepts,which are placed in the sub title. In fact, there is no difficulty here. You just need to remember that an ignoramus is a person who is ignorant in the field of science, technology, history and literature, and an ignorant person is an ill-mannered and uncivilized person in the everyday sense. It is even easier to understand the difference with examples. A person who puts his feet on the table at a dinner party is ignorant, and a person who does not see the stylistic difference between Turgenev and Gogol is ignorant. Now, we think, the question will not arise, what is ignorant and ignorant, what is the difference. We explained everything thoroughly.
Which is worse - being ignorant or ignorant?
Here is a long-standing dispute about two phenomena that one is worse than the other. True, let's assume that being ignorant is not as scary as being ignorant, because the latter concept fixes, first of all, the everyday bad manners of a person, but, as we know, all norms and rules are relative. Therefore, each person is free to choose his own from two evils.
We hope it is clear what an ignoramus is, and now the reader will have no difficulty both in using the concept and in explaining it.
