 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
We become impervious to new truth both from habit and from desire; we find it hard to disbelieve what we have emphatically believed for a number of years, and also what ministers to self-esteem or any other fundamental passion. Open-mindedness should therefore be one of the qualities that education aims at producing.
Source: Bertrand Russell: On Education, especially in early childhood, 1926, chap. 2 The Aims of Education
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Extending Russell's argument, we can say that "any nation will be reluctant to accept new truths because of both the habits and desires of the majority of its people." Furthermore, because habits and desires change with the times, we can also say that "many people in the world will be reluctant to accept new truths because of both the habits and desires of the people of that time."
If that is the case, we can say that "an open intellect (an open mind) should be one of the qualities that education should aim to produce" in any era.
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