ON BEING OPEN-MINDED
[Quote: "It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle, Greek philosopher]
I have mentioned from time to time that open-mindedness is a trait that I value very highly. I wanted to elaborate on the meaning of open-mindedness and how being open-minded can increase the quality of your interactions with others. In particular, I want to show how this trait impacts romantic relationships.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE OPEN-MINDED
Simply put, open-mindedness is the willingness to entertain an idea or thought, regardless of whether you will eventually decide to accept it. Ideally, this means that you will accept new information without bias and subject it to critical analysis. If it proves to be reasonable, it will then follow that you will be willing to integrate it into your schema of the world.
PRACTICING OPEN-MINDEDNESS
In practice, open-mindedness often involves having the patience to hear out the other person’s point of view before jumping to conclusions. After indulging yourself with this new information, it means allowing yourself to view it objectively without preconceived biases and see if it is logical and rational. It also sometimes means that you can agree to disagree. There are arguments out there that cannot necessarily be proven valid or invalid. Being open minded can involve having the ability to understand how another person may have a different viewpoint and accepting that it is different from yours. This does not mean you have to accept their viewpoint, but merely that you have to accept that not everyone experiences the world in the same way you do.
ABUNDANCE vs RARITY
Our emotions and behaviors stem partly from physiological factors and partly from our view of the world (perhaps obtained via the interaction of those physiological factors combined with experience). Although we can’t change our genetic repertoire, we can still impact our physiology with what we think due to the incredible plasticity of the brain.
Our view of the world is critical in our daily functioning and ‘frames’ everything that we do and feel. For example:
You BELIEVE that you are capable of achieving something great if you put in the right effort.
If you fail at a particular goal (not getting the job you wanted), how will you FRAME this event?
-outlook: Although I did not get this job, I have had enough successes to know that I am capable of achieving something great
-attribution of failure: Perhaps I failed because I did not put in enough effort or perhaps because there is a greater reality out there for me
What EMOTIONS and BEHAVIORS would result?
-initial sadness at rejection, but swift resilience due to the positive outlook
-implement a goal where more effort can be devoted
-assess whether previous goal was well aligned with future goals
As you can see, framing can be very powerful. The example above is one where a person operates from an ABUNDANCE MINDSET, one in which the possibilities are plentiful and the limitations are only those which you impose on yourself.
So in this sense, open mindedness can be a seen as a state of mind that not only applies to how you deal with information that is thrown at you in an argument, but also how you deal with the constant flow of information that entails daily life. Being open minded allows one to respond in a way that expands and not limits your world. When interacting with others, this fosters understanding and the ability to respond to a person without trying to control them or impose on their mental space.
Tags: abundance, argumentation, mental states, open mindedness, philosophy, rarity