2 years, 8 months ago
Is there a term for some who is neither naive nor scepitcal but somewhere in between?
Following on from @easyeboy's question the other day:
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/words-and-wordplay/whats-the-difference-between-a-cynic-and-a-skeptic
If there's a spectrum on which at one end we might use terms like naive and gullible, and on the other end cynical and sceptical, what other terms are there for people that fall elsewhere on that spectrum?
Esp interested in terms for people that one would not describe as naive, but neither would we describe them as sceptics.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/words-and-wordplay/whats-the-difference-between-a-cynic-and-a-skeptic
If there's a spectrum on which at one end we might use terms like naive and gullible, and on the other end cynical and sceptical, what other terms are there for people that fall elsewhere on that spectrum?
Esp interested in terms for people that one would not describe as naive, but neither would we describe them as sceptics.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1 Answer
A pragmatist, or cautious believer, this site has more explanation
http://www.earth360.com/psych_skeptic_fanatic_scale.html
http://www.earth360.com/psych_skeptic_fanatic_scale.html
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
id on't thikn you have read that scale properly, your example, Osama Bin Laden, if we say he is a fanatic we therfore mean, " Unjustified enthusiasm. Zealot. Sometimes willing to die so that a principle, model, theory, dogma may live." Is that not correct, basically there is nothing that will change his mind.
and Nitpicker, you have describes exactly as that scale does, someone who focuses on small discrepencies, not taking the whole theory into consideration.
I don't know about that scale. People use every single on of those terms to mean something very different than what is suggested there.
e..g We might call Osama Bin Laden a fanatic, but we sure don't mean he's gullible. And "nitpicker" doesn't mean someone who is very sceptical. Mostly it would describe someone that doesn't see the wood for the trees, and while they're question a small detail on page 8 they fail to spot that the whole thing can never work.
Yes, but that isn't a scale. A nitpicker doesn't have more of something that fanatic has less of, and a pragmatist is not someone in the middle.