Q&A: On the Absorption of Beliefs Through Uncritical Listening and Reading
On the Absorption of Beliefs Through Uncritical Listening and Reading
Question
Do you think that when a person listens to all kinds of people without having the tools for critical analysis, and without having the necessary information on the subject, he is to some extent bound to absorb certain beliefs that are not necessarily correct? Because if so, most of us are like that—we don’t have information about everything, and many times, in order to understand something easily, we listen to “experts” on the subject, who sometimes ramble endlessly and don’t speak in an orderly way. How, in your opinion, can one organize one’s thinking and know how to extract what is right and what is not?
Answer
The question is too general. Obviously there is no necessity, but there is a danger. You have to use your head. The main thing is to distinguish between facts and evaluations or judgments.
Discussion on Answer
You can see, in the speaker’s words, which parts are facts and which are not. There’s no point in this general discussion. If you want to discuss it, raise a concrete question.
How do you make such a distinction when the facts are not laid out before me?