Category: Virtue

• September 2, 2015

  Open-mindedness: Living Socratically

  I begin to note that, in my experience in academia and beyond, most people are close-minded. It was a marvel to me to discover, and this only very recently, that one can make sense of people by ascertaining whether they are close-minded (the many) or open-minded (the few). The apparent crudeness of the distinction (“There…
• January 21, 2015

  Say what you believe, do not insist, be open: A paradox

  Say what you believe. Do not insist that it is so. Surrender in openness. Can any sense be made of these three statements, of this apparent paradox? Yes. ‘I believe that P’: this is where we begin. You do not claim to know that P. You do not insist that P must be the case. (When you…