What is naivety? This is a tricky question. She is often compared to innocence and inexperience. But if a child is simple-minded, can you call him stupid? But if a person who is supposed to be a wise experience is naive …
Naivety and stupidity
So how does naivety compare to stupidity? You need to start with the fact that every person's naivety manifests itself in its own way.
It is natural to be naive until a certain age, but after that it looks stupid and causes a lot of problems for a person. It is childish naivety that can be considered true. But an adult who again falls into the same trap is more like an ostrich that hides its head in the sand, not wanting to notice problems in the world around it.
Perhaps a person is simply unable to accept the imperfection of any aspect of reality. For example, they may not notice all the signs of deception on the part of their spouse for a long time. But then the "cup" overflows, and all the facts appear before your eyes at once. Then the person, who looked rather naive before, suddenly understands the situation in its entirety. You can't call him naive anymore.
If a person is in no hurry to judge people and the world around him, simply accepting it as it is, then this is also a manifestation of naivety. This is the so-called simplicity of judgment, which often contains the truth. It is not for nothing that sages always declare that most of all one should be like children, whose naivety does not raise questions for anyone.
But it also happens that a person "steps" on his own naivety, like a rake. Over time, he either learns from his mistakes or not, continuing to bruise his forehead. Naivety does not imply serious reflection on the nature of some questions. It may be a virtue, but certainly not one that is conditioned by the intellect. Sooner or later, you will have to think about it, and the longer you put it off, the more naivety becomes like erroneous behavior.
Naivety as ignorance
Despite the fact that naivety is often a manifestation of stupidity, if you are naive about something, you should not be ashamed of it. There are many fields of activity in which everyone is naive. For example, when you start learning a new profession, you will look naive. But until you accept it and humble yourself, you will not learn new things. Only by realizing yourself as not knowing something, you can acquire new knowledge.
Lack of experience or knowledge is not stupid. But the unwillingness to assimilate this experience, although it has been present in your life for a long time, is, of course, stupidity. It is also not very smart to pretend to be an experienced person if you yourself perfectly understand how naive your ideas about a certain area are.
