We have hitherto considered only two possibilities: that the received opinion may be false, and some other opinion, consequently, true; or that, the received opinion being true, a conflict with the opposite error is essential to a clear apprehension and deep feeling of its truth. But there is a commoner case than either of these; when the conflicting doctrines, instead of being one true and the other false, share the truth between them; and the nonconforming opinion is needed to supply the remainder of the truth, of which the received doctrine embodies only a part.
Both of these quotes come from John Stuart Mill, the granddaddy of liberty and (as it happens) respect for a multiplicity of opinions and an intellectual humility that seems astonishing for his era.
Would that both sides of politics could refrain from screaming at each other long enough to study his very succinct work “On Liberty” and then re-frame their debates via his rational, respectful, humble and very constructive lens.
Or perhaps the dumb white Anglo mansplainer should just shut his fat face, f..k off and die. Again.
P. Julian
3 March 2019
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