Most people are stupid, relative to Old One, and most people are smart, relative to lichen. We need a standard reference point in order to assign a truth value.
But the only salient reference point for the speaker of that sentence is… the speaker of that sentence. Hence, the opinion reduces to:
“I am smarter than most people.”
Now, that may be true about the speaker. But when everybody agrees about that… then we’re living at Lake Wobegon, “where all the children are above average.” Only now they’re all below average (except for me, of course).
It’s interesting to think about what this might mean, by thinking like a positivist.
Most people are stupid, relative to Old One, and most people are smart, relative to lichen. We need a standard reference point in order to assign a truth value.
But the only salient reference point for the speaker of that sentence is… the speaker of that sentence. Hence, the opinion reduces to:
“I am smarter than most people.”
Now, that may be true about the speaker. But when everybody agrees about that… then we’re living at Lake Wobegon, “where all the children are above average.” Only now they’re all below average (except for me, of course).