Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Yes, but...

Photo courtesy Gary Firstenberg.
I saw this Tweeted on social media. It's something that has been repeated often through the centuries. 

“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” --Arthur Schopenhauer

Copernicus and Galileo come readily to mind. Likewise Einstein with his radical Theory of Relativity. 

Even so...

Let's keep in mind that the corollary is not automatically true. Just because there is opposition to a new idea, we cannot draw the conclusion that that new idea is accurate or good. The idea must be tested and assessed. There really are bad ideas in the world.

* * * 

Truth is truth irregardless of who endorses it or derides it. What is needed is an open dialogue so an idea's merits can be evaluated from all sides. This has been the purpose of peer review in science. This is what make current Cancel Culture so appalling. It stifles the best ideas instead of ferreting them out. 

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