Stinging quote of the day
If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix’d in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.
–Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Posted on January 31, 2011, in Quote of the Day and tagged Argue much?, Religious disputation. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
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This quote pretty much says it all with respect to reasoned debate versus ideology. When facts are just something that gets in the way of your opinions, you probably should be left undisturbed in the possession of your error.
True, Gary. Agreement on just what, exactly are the facts is generally the first layer of the dispute. Franklin’s comment states that if you seek information and improvement, you shouldn’t argue that your previous misconceptions of the ‘facts’ are in fact, more knowledgeable than are your teachers. By attempting to refute new information with demonstrably false data, we fight our own prospects of learning and understanding. Being presumably normal people, such teachers just shake their heads and walk away, thinking you cannot learn.
A sad, but rational, conculusion.