“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

bwfan123 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> entertain a thought without accepting it

Entertaining an idea is understanding it. And, there is some research to show that understanding an idea is believing it. Hence, understanding an idea and not believing it is very effortful.

[1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...

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magicmicah85 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I see this quote a lot and can never find it in original sources for Aristotle. It seems to be a misattribution from the foreword of Religion and the Pursuit of Truth by Lowell L Bennion

https://archive.org/details/religionpursuito0000lowe/page/n5...

	▲	andsoitis 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Who cares? The idea is pretty powerful.

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pmdulaney 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

From Aristotle?

Along the same lines: "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." -- Robert Frost

	▲	john_strinlai 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>From Aristotle? apparently not, actually: "The earliest that this quotation appears in print is in Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (1959) by Lowell Bennion." or "First attributed to Aristotle in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (1959). Unfound as such. Sometimes thought (though I feel it's a bit of a stretch) a misinterpretation of Nicomachean Ethics 1.3.4 (1094b): "For it is the mark of an educated person to search for the same kind of clarity in each topic to the extent that the nature of the matter accepts it.""
	▲	notorandit 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Maybe, yes "maybe" Robert got inspiration from a guy who lived two thousands years earlier.