I always like to try to be open to new ideas and ways of thinking, but that means being willing to change my mind if it’s different than what I already believe. I think that often comes along with having a good point of view. We can’t know everything and we definitely can’t be all that perfect all the time.
This is always true, but it’s more true with philosophy than with life. If you think the way someone else thinks, you can’t be sure that they are wrong. If you have a different opinion, you can always use that to be open to new ideas and ways of thinking. We are all just human, though people with strong philosophical views tend to make up a much larger population.
In the same vein, we don’t all agree with everything that we believe, but at least we can all agree on some things. The trouble is that we tend to believe what we know to be true. If you can’t say with certainty what a person is saying, you have to assume they are incorrect.
We can assume that someone can be wrong, but if you can’t be sure, then you need to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. For example, I think that we are all born with a certain set of beliefs and therefore that we are all born with a right to think.
So, if some of us believe that we are all born with certain beliefs, then we should be able to agree that we are all right to have those beliefs.
Some of us believe (or at least I think we do) that our beliefs should be based on evidence. So, if I cannot be sure that the person I am talking to is 100% correct, then I should be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
But then, that’s the problem. I am open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. But that is exactly the problem. We are all born with certain beliefs (our beliefs about ourselves and our world), and yet we are not all born with equal ability to think. There are some of us who are incapable of new thoughts. Some of us simply cannot think. In fact, there are some of us who are quite incapable of thinking.
There are different kinds of people with different capabilities. Some people are “hard” thinkers. These are the ones who are able to think in a concrete manner, like a math teacher or a chess grandmaster. Others are “soft” thinkers. These are the ones who can think in abstract terms in a way that’s not so concrete as to be meaningless. There are some people who are hard and some who are soft.
In my class we learned a great deal about philosophy. We were made aware of how the different types of philosophers think, what they believe, what their primary reasons are for that belief, and how we can make a more complete and nuanced statement about a particular philosophical theory. I think I do not need to tell you that you will find a lot of philosophy papers on our website.
In the end, I think philosophers are like artists. They create works of art that convey a message. They create works of art based on their beliefs, not necessarily what they think.
