The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. ~Spinoza

I can always see the question coming. After recommending to a friend that they read a technical, heavy duty philosophical or theological text, I’m asked “why don’t they just talk like normal people, using normal language?!?” It’s a fair question. Why don’t academics (e.g. theologians, philosophers etc…) use accessible language that any layperson could understand?

There are a couple ways I think about this.

Simplistic vs Simplified
The late Steve Jobs said that if you believed something was ‘simple’ you obviously did not understand it. The challenge, he said, was to thoroughly understand the complexity so that you can then simplify it. I couldn’t agree more with Steve.

I feel that one of our most powerful and underrated default human urges is our proclivity to simplify things, which isn’t necessarily bad (and can oftentimes be good), but it can be a real danger in that too often we tend to make complicated matters simplistic. Sometimes complicated ideas/concepts/situations require sophisticated understandings, explanations and solutions, otherwise we face the threat of losing immensely important and nuanced details. Consequently, in order to get to these sophisticated understandings, diligent, arduous and consistent study is required. It’s by no means easy, and can actually be one hell of a trudge, which is probably why many people give up so easily when faced with adversity.

At this point some folks may say, “Ok, well isn’t there a point where these academics just become intentionally verbose and bombastic?” I have no choice but to agree. Certainly this is the case with many brilliant people. They attempt to prove their unsurpassed genius by using big, unnecessary words and highfalutin concepts to impress their peers. However, I usually urge folks to consider two words: condescendence & transcendence.

Condescendence & Transcendence
The people who usually gripe about reading heavy-duty academic or scholarly work tend to make the argument that these brainiacs could say the same things in a more accessible manner. This can be true in many cases, however I would point out that the assumption behind this argument is that the sole point of a scholarly text is to communicate a concept or idea. I would say that yes, communicating a concept or idea is one goal of a scholarly work, but not the only one. Perhaps the more important point of scholarly and academic work is not to condescend to a lay level or pander to a general audience by putting forth some diluted, watered down idea, but to pull, stretch and push readers to transcend their ordinary limitations.

This all sounds completely elitist I know, but hear me out. Think about it, what is wrong with being extraordinary?

Making complex ideas more accessible is fine, but if this is how it’s supposed to be, i.e. if all ideas should be dumbed down and made “accessible,” why does the complex idea exist to begin with? Why is anything hard in the first place? The answer has to be that we need to be stretched, pulled and made uncomfortable in order to grow in any meaningful way. Until we get to the point where we can upload data to our brains like Neo in The Matrix, we just have to study really hard to learn something, just like we have to lift heavy weights in order to get big muscles. Scholarly work demands that we ‘step up’ and work hard–of course keeping dictionary.com and Wikipedia within our reach as we go–in order to comprehend what we read. I mean, in all honesty, no one likes to be treated in a condescending manner or to be spoken down to…right?

All in all, the best writers I’ve read know that this is their mission. They walk the scholar/laity line by avoiding complete condescension, but somehow also manage to avoid the pompous jargon trap. Step by step they pull their readers to a new level so they can transcend the ordinary and reach new, more complete understandings. I for one appreciate this and feel that this is how it should be. So next time I get the question I get the question “why is this so difficult to read?!?,” I’ll probably just say “nothing good comes easy.” Or something like that.

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Painting above by Charlene Liu

Tags:Charlene Liueducationlearningreadingwriting