An Educated Mind

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. "
- Aristotle

Lots of family time yesterday - my son and nephew having a ball. I had to listen to and understand different people's points of view, though I stopped just short of acceptance.

If you watch people arguing, pay attention to the respect that they give each other's arguments. If my mind is not robust and flexible, then I may need dogma to keep it safe from "rogue" ideas. So if I am in an argument, and someone puts forward an idea that I don't agree with, I will not even allow the idea through the front gate. I will shoot it down on the road. I certainly will not entertain it. That would be too risky - I might begin to shake the fragile foundations of my thought system. However, if my mind is robust and flexible, I would actually take a good look at their point of view, suspend my bias temporarily and seek to see the value of their argument. I may update my view, having learnt something; or I may be able to to better present my argument, having understood their argument or the flaws in it.

"Seek first to understand, and then to be understood" - Stephen R Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People)

Every argument is a learning opportunity. But only if you are willing to learn. That is probably the essence of an educated mind, rather than having been through school, university etc. Let's practise this discpline today - could be fun, seek out some arguments!