How is this so? Surely, as a general proposition, ignorance and intention are much more loosely correlated than the quote suggests. What if the statement were altered slightly: “If (after great effort and/or reflection and/or prayer) you (still) don’t know...” Does it still make sense to speak of intention? Or if the point is that the failure to solve a simple problem indicates a will to fail, well then the author has more faith in human will than I do—and IMO greatly underestimates the possible ways of not-knowing.
How is this so? Surely, as a general proposition, ignorance and intention are much more loosely correlated than the quote suggests. What if the statement were altered slightly: “If (after great effort and/or reflection and/or prayer) you (still) don’t know...” Does it still make sense to speak of intention? Or if the point is that the failure to solve a simple problem indicates a will to fail, well then the author has more faith in human will than I do—and IMO greatly underestimates the possible ways of not-knowing.
You’re misreading the quote. The intention is on the part of the person who designed the gun, not the person who’s trying to fire it.
Thanks for clarifying. The wording seems odd to me, but I get it now.