"The idea that open communication will lead to understanding is a blatant lie."
The biggest new book bestseller in Japanese history

Published in Japan in 2003, it took the publishing world by storm, selling 1 million copies in the shortest amount of time ever for a new book. The same year, it was also published in Korea, where it became a bestseller. A re-covered version of "The Wall of Fools" has been published.


This book, written by Takeshi Yoro, a former professor of anatomy at the University of Tokyo, also known as the "social scientist," has achieved the astonishing record of cumulative sales of 10 million copies, becoming the biggest new book bestseller in Japanese history.

This book, brimming with insights derived from the author's extensive knowledge spanning natural sciences to humanities and his extensive experience as a physician, shatters all conventional wisdom about "modernity" and "modern people" through case studies and empirical evidence from diverse fields, from scientific knowledge of the brain to Eastern and Western thought, philosophy, and religion, unfolding an original and compelling logic of "reverse thinking."

Why can't we communicate with each other?
Author Takeshi Yoro says the cause is our brain.
There is a 'wall of fools' in the brain that blocks conversation and communication with others.
According to the author, the idea that you can get through things if you open your heart is a blatant lie.
The human brain has a structural characteristic that blocks out information about things it does not want to know, so no matter how much you talk to someone who does not want to know, it will not be understood. Although you cry out for mutual understanding, in reality, you cannot move even one step forward from what is already input into your head and what you believe.

The author calls this brain function, which blocks communication and conversation and blocks information, the "Wall of Fools." The constant wars and terrorism across the globe, the religious conflicts and disputes, and the ongoing conflicts and animosities between the older and younger generations, conservatives and progressives, men and women, and parents and children are all due to this "Wall of Fools."

So what exactly is the 'Wall of Fools'?
The author explains the 'wall of fools' as brain activity.
The brain operates on a linear equation model called y=ax.
Here, x is the input to the brain, y is the output, and a is a coefficient called the 'weight of reality'.
If a is 0 for a given issue, then no matter how much information is input, it has no effect on that person's behavior.
Conversely, if a is infinite for some matter, then information or beliefs about it serve as absolute truths for that person.
This is why monists and fundamentalists arise.

If the same information (input) produces different results (output) for different people depending on the coefficient a, can there really be an objective truth that we believe in?
Furthermore, what is it that we claim to know?

Ultimately, the author says that it is the 'Wall of Fools' within our own brains that causes us to suffer and destroy ourselves and others by falling into exclusive fundamentalism, intolerance, and self-righteousness, and that breaking down the 'Wall of Fools' within ourselves and overcoming dogmatic monism is the path to a wise and peaceful life.