Ideas stand apart from the people who think them
Recognizing that an idea just might be wrong or that a value given particular concepts may be misjudged, the process of re-evaluation must be preserved and encouraged. Worthwhile lessons can come from anywhere.
Ideas stand apart from the individual who thinks them. My ideas carry no more weight for being my own. It would be unwise to preserve my ideas at the expense of truth. It's far more important to understand things as they really are. Too many people feel personally threatened when their own ideas are challenged. Being wrong doesn't really matter. Having a better, more complete, or more refined idea is reason to celebrate, not be embarrassed.1
Yes indeed, I shall use the old road, but if I find a shorter and easier one I shall open it up. The men who pioneered the old routes are leaders, not our masters. Truth lies open to everyone.2
Seneca's Letters each included an important lesson from an opposing school of thought. There is always something of value – positive or negative – from an opponent's position.
My thought for today is something which I found in Epicurus (yes, I actually make a practice of going over to the enemy's camp – by way of reconnaissance, not as a deserter!)3
An opponent's criticism can either add to our position or to refine our defense. How poor is the United States at this. "They have no good ideas they are only the commie reds."4
Knee-jerk thoughtlessness.
The other man's wisdom
We often act as though if one side is right, the other side is wrong. Debates, editorial and op-ed pages, pro & con – all suggest no middle ground.
. . .merely a restatement of the proposition: `there are two sides to every issue,' which they take to mean that nobody is ever fully right or fully wrong. But that is not what that proposition means or implies. It implies only that in judging an issue, one should take cognizance of or give hearing to both sides.5
Its in our own best interest to say:
Let us extract from this side what is useful and reasonable and works while extracting from that side that which is useful and reasonable and works. From these independent threads, let's see if we can weave a new fabric better than either previous one.
While looking for a new, whole fabric, it is better to have all the valid threads in an incomplete fabric than to omit valid threads simply because they come from another side. How ridiculous to be prejudiced against ideas simply because they are not our own! Isn't one better off to recognize if some personal ideas are mistaken? If someone points out a logical flaw or an inconsistency, haven't they performed a service? For one to feel threatened because personal ideas are being questioned is to fall into a psychological trap. People ought to question ideas because they are interested in the truth. Should someone ridicule your ideas have they harmed you? If you learn from it they have done you a service.6
I enter into conversation and argument with great freedom and facility, since opinions find in me a soil into which they cannot easily penetrate or strike deep roots. No proposition astounds me, no belief offends me, however much opposed it may be to my own. There is no fantasy so frivolous or extravagant that it does not seem to me a natural product of the human mind. Those of us who deny our judgment the right of making final decisions, look mildly on ideas that differ from our own; if we do not give them credence, we can at least offer them a ready hearing. . . . Contradictions of opinion, therefore, neither offend nor estrange me; they only arouse and exercise my mind. We run away from correction; we ought to court it and expose ourselves to it, especially when it comes in the shape of discussion, not of a school lesson. . . .7
‘It was Epicurus who said that,’ you protest. ‘What business have you got with someone else's property?’ Whatever is true is my property. And I shall persist in inflicting Epicurus on you in order to bring it home to the people who take an oath of allegiance to someone and never afterwards consider what is being said but only who said it, that the things of greatest merit are common property.8
As Montaigne said, "I'll run to the truth and embrace it as soon as I see it coming."
Even when walking in the company of two other men, I am bound to be able to learn from them. The good points of the one I copy; the bad points of the other I correct in myself.9
How much is too much
It seems in one's best interest to learn as much as one can, but it may not be fruitful to study exclusively in one particular direction.
(How long?) The Master said, ‘After a good man has trained the common people for seven years, they should be ready to take up arms.’10
For instance, having read little Karl Marx. I am interested in learning more. But what is my responsibility is to read more? Constantly I must ask myself, "Am I headed in a good direction? Is my time better spent elsewhere?"
Confucius said, `To know what you know and know what you don't know is the characteristic of one who knows.'11
To the extent that someone might point out something in Marx that is considered a valid objection to my ideas I am obliged to study it. And continue to study it until I can weave his validity into my fabric or understand where it is flawed.
Consistency
Where others seek the reputation for an active and ready mind, I would be praised for my steadiness; what others aspire to gain by some brilliant and noteworthy deed, I claim for the uniformity, consistency, and moderation of my opinions and conduct. `If there is one quality truly admirable, it is a uniform consistency in our whole lives and in our several acts; and this cannot be maintained by imitating the natures of others and neglecting our own.[Cicero, De Officiis,I,31.]12
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1 ++++Quote?
2 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters from a Stoic. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1969. . Letter XXXVIII,I.
3 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters from a Stoic. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1969. Pg. 34.
4 ++++Expand.
5 Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: New American Library, 1961, 1964. Pg. 77.
6 ++++Someone can ridicule or point out a flaw.
7 Montaigne, Michele de. Essays. Translation and introduction by j. M. Cohen. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1958. Pp. 287-288.
8 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters from a Stoic. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1969. Pg. 59.
9 Confucius. The Analects. Translation and introduction by D. C. Lau. Harmondsworth,. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1979. Pg. 88.
10 Confucius. The Analects. Translation and introduction by D. C. Lau. Harmondsworth,. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1979. Pg. 123.
11 Confucius. The Wisdom of Confucius. Lin Yutang, ed. New York: Random House, 1938, 1966. Pg. 178.
12 Montaigne, Michele de. Essays. Translation and introduction by j. M. Cohen. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1958. Pg. 220.
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