Would it be a good thing to be completely open minded ?

Question

No one is completely open minded, but if someone was, would that necessarily be a good thing?

Julian - If I was an omniscient god I would not need to be open minded. I would know what is true and what is false, therefore, I would not have to consider others’ ideas.

farien3 - "There are no absolutes" sounds like an absolute statement to me.

Answer 1

Depends how you define "open-minded" and how you define "good." It could be argued that, if your goal is to lead a happy life, you might be best off conforming to the values of your peers and closing yourself off from non-conforming thoughts or ideas. The only way to be open-minded successfully is if you have a core set of morals or logic structure that you are not open to changing, and from there you can give all other possibilities consideration. If you're so open that you don't even grant yourself a moral or rational framework, then you will lead a life of indecision and directionlessness. That is not good by any definition.

The question is, how large of a framework are you willing to close off from being altered? Early 20th century scientists were typically open about any social, spiritual, or religious philosophies, but they held Newtonian physics to be absolute (which ultimately wasn't the case). Some people may be willing to reconsider certain aspects of their religious beliefs, but they may never be willing to accept an atheist philosophy, or a non-Christian philosophy. Another person may be open to any religion, but they may have grown up in an Islamic country and may hold their social customs and laws as absolutes that are not open to debate.

So it depends what you mean by open minded. Even tolerance has limits: who would agree that being tolerant of pedophilia or murder is a good thing? Those are things we can agree we should remain closed off to. I think it's admirable to PONDER all sides of a debate and all possible points of view. I will CONSIDER whether or not pedophilia is ok and listen to views expressed by a pedophile... but then I will most certainly decide those views are not valid and reject them. Does that make me open-minded? If so, then I suppose there's nothing wrong with it. But if being open-minded precludes sound judgement, then it is not a good thing.

Answer 2

Let's consider the alternatives.

The exact opposite would be completely closed-minded. Not open to any new ideas at all of any kind. Thinking about this, I'm not sure such a person could even function in the world... they might not be open to the information from their senses and the like! Certainly we would think a completely closed-minded person from a thousand years ago was hopelessly backward in today's world.

This, perhaps, gives us a framework for the rest of our consideration. Is there some situation in which the closed-minded person would be better off than the open-minded one? Are there ideas that should be completely accepted and never questioned or re-evaluated in any way?

I can only think of a couple such circumstances:

There are occasions where time is a factor. Where even a wrong decision made quickly is better than the right decision made slowly. And arguably, this is not even necessarily a matter of open- or closed- mindedness, but just of prioritizing properly... it's just that the closed-minded person won't have to prioritize decision-making because the decision is already made.

Likewise, if your reasoning ability is of questionable accuracy, then it is probably better to doggedly stick to someone else's reliable views than to be open to generating your own. I personally don't like the taste of alcohol, so if I were generating a price list for a wine menu, I might be tempted to give them all the same low value. But that would be a foolish thing to do... I'm better off just trusting other people who can actually appreciate such things.

So except for those caveats, I am perhaps not creative enough to think of any circumstance where it would be better to be closed-minded rather than open-minded. It seems to me that just about any idea good enough to be followed should be strong enough to withstand any amount of questioning that you can throw at it. I find that sometimes I infer the opposite on those who are closed-minded - that what they believe is so weak that they have to constantly protect it from destruction by better ideas.

That's my take anyway, for what it's worth. Peace.

Answer 3

Being completely open minded actually is a good thing. People often mistakenly equate it with complete tolerance. To be completely open minded is to be completely pragmatic.

The pragmatic person makes no assumptions and views all sides of issues equally. The person then can make a totally unbiased decision which could anger people who think they're open minded because the truly open minded person is a pragmatic who is able to reach an intelligent conclusion. Such conclusions could lead to the decision not to tolerate particular things.

Answer 4

This is a good question and I think you are right, no one is completely 100% open minded. We must try to as objective and accepting as possible without losing sight of our convictions and beliefs. This can be difficult, but I think there can be a distinction of being "open-minded" and being value free when considering someone else's point of view or life style. Being understanding while retaining your own character and your own feelings is a balance that is difficult, yet insightful and important.

Answer 5

Well, I think that the things that "close" your mind, are what helps you in making a decision. A person who is completely open-minded, I find, is a person who agrees with whatever was last said. And then if someone answers again, agrees with that person. My theory is: "Don't be too open-minded- your brain might slip out!"

Answer 6

I do not think it is a good i dea to be open minded to a fault.But opportunities should be allowed to probe different kinds and sources of knowledge.Human conscience could be a correct parameter to measure the truth.Being open and allowing anything to influence one is like a rolling stone,it gathers no moisture.

Answer 7

In my experience we can "open up" which is similar to belief in a higher power, but we still have to be subject to that force of opening up. It would be very hard to open up to everyone around you, and in my opinion would be something that takes tremendous amount of will to actually do. You would have to be so accepting and loving of everything and everyone that you might as well call yourself God.

Answer 8

to be completely open minded would not be a good thing in my opinion... mostly because if someone was truly completely open minded they would be unable to make up their mind... they would not have a complete opinion about things and so they just sit there... not knowing

Answer 9

LOL, depends on what the mind was "open" to. Some things lead away from truth and some lead toward truth. Open the mind to Soul and God, and be discriminating toward earthly things.

Answer 10

I think if a person was completely open-minded it would be difficult for them to ever form opinions or make decisions.
They'd always be saying or thinking, "....but, on the other hand,...."