What is the meaning of being open minded? “willing to consider new ideas” to look at things from a blank perspective without any preconceived ideas.
Why is it important to be open minded? Because I believe that the purpose of life is to grow and evolve, and we need to be open minded in order to do that. For these reasons:
1) We all make mistakes, because it is impossible to reason 100% accurately and sometimes mistakes can be passed to others who take them as truth – such as “The world is flat”. Mistakes of perception – understanding the terrain and situation, because we only see things through our senses which are electrical signals interpreted by the brain. We also make mistakes in logic, and we might miss things that we do not know. We might also be influenced by our emotions in making a mistake.
2) Because what we don’t know is infinitely larger than what we know. What we don’t know we don’t know is infinitely larger than what we know we don’t know. We have to be constantly on the search for new knowledge outside, because you’re very unlikely to be getting it from inside unless you really develop a unique “first principles” way of reasoning.
3) Challenges and new ideas that challenge your existing ideas is essential for progress. We need someone to challenge our thinking. If the challenger is wrong, then it is ok, but if they are right, then we can improve how we think. The dialetical method of historical and philosophical progress that postulates (1) a beginning proposition called a thesis, (2) a negation of that thesis called the antithesis, and (3) a synthesis whereby the two conflicting ideas are reconciled to form a new proposition.
4) Trade benefits all. Just like trading in goods and services, we can all benefit, trading of ideas also allows us all to benefit.
That’s why I think being open and open minded is extremely important for progress, and being closed minded will lead to decline.
