Hermione and the Lack of Logic

[conuly]

I know everybody thinks Hermione is oh-so-smart, but she really *is* illogical. Think of how she acts to Luna! Just because there's no proof of nargles means they don't exist? Does she hear herself? There are people in the world who would say that witches don't exist, but Hermione's very existence (such as it is) is proof against that!

So here's the question. How has Hermione gone so long without learning that a lack of proof for something (say, nargles) isn't the same as proof against something? People didn't believe until giant squid until very recently, and yet they still exist.

That was short. Sorry.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of my older brother... as I mentioned, he's a genius. No doubt about that. He's smart, fairly well-educated, and good at self-learning. At 16, he was also quite an asshole. The problem was, he was too used to whenever there was an argument, the other person was wrong. Now, this was usually true. But because he could out-argue people even if he was taking a side he knew was wrong, this meant that he always felt he was right. Annoying, annoying brother.

This corrected itself as he got older. His now-wife then-girlfriend helped a great deal. She's smart, but she's probably not a genius. But she was able to stand up to him and say, I know you think that's true, but you're wrong, and I don't care how well you can argue it. And over time, he found he sometimes was wrong. But it's really easy when you're almost always right and you know you're one of or the smartest person in the room to not be an arrogant twit. But you can outgrow it.

This is why I am glad I both had that example and generally wasn't the smartest person around when I was growing up. I was smart, sure, but I wasn't the smartest person I knew.