Negligence is the source of stupidity

Hello Darkerthanblack,Welcome to DDO -- we hope you stay awhile :"DAnyway, I'll gladly debate/discuss this topic with you...I'm essentially going to argue the inverse of your resolution, the inverse being: 'Stupidity is the source of negligence'.Stupidity is the source of negligence1. A lack of understanding causes us to act differently than if we had understanding2. We may act differently (i.e. negligently) because of lack of understanding (stupidity)3. Therefore, stupidity causes negligenceFor example, I may not care about my cat being left outside because I see no reason to bring it inside. However, I see big, threatening dogs outside that will have access to my cat. Nevertheless, I do not call-in the cat because I do not understand that the threatening dogs may maul my cat. Therefore, this is a negligent decision based on my stupidity. Someone's negligence does not make you stupid, it is an indication of someone's stupidity. I believe my argument engages and negates the resolution, but I will expand on it in later rounds if I see fit.Seeing as this is also a discussion, I feel obliged to address my opponent's comments. Whilst I do not think they are pertinent to the resolution, I will address them anyway so as to create a discussion."Stupid is avoiding knowledge and the possibility to learn things. When someone who isn't the brightest strives to learn more, I don't believe them to be stupid. People that don't want to think about things and just ignore/disregard knowledge are stupid."I would say this trends towards apathy rather than stupidity. Stupidity would be avoiding reading a book when you know that it has information that you could make use of."Stupid is priding yourself in reading a thousand books, when you didn't gain anything from them at all."Perhaps you do not gain understanding from every book, but many people I know derrive intense pleasure from reading a well-written novel. This claim you make assumes that someone reads purely to gain understanding.Stupid is accepting things the way they are and not thinking about how they could be improved and how you can help improve/change them.I can't disagree with you here, but this is human nature. Humans are so often content with the norm because the abnormal is difficult. It is human nature to strive for comfort. Still, you could say human nature is stupid in this sense.Stupid is closing your mind to any other possibility other than the one you've chosen.Of course.In a way, we are all stupid, just some of us are not as stupid as others. We are all intelligent in some sort of way, just some of us are more intelligent than others.I think we are ultimately stupid because we are driven by emotional/instinctive factors, which themselves were formed through 'survival of the fittest' rather than rationality. I mean, why should we have to eat? Of course, the immediate response from nearly anyone would be to sustain life. But why do we have to sustain life? If the questions were to continue in this trend, the eventual answer would be 'because I feel like it' or 'that's the way it is'. We, as humans, are founded upon irrational principles, and this relfects in our decisions.