RichardKennaway comments on Rationality Quotes - June 2009 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: pjeby 14 June 2009 10:00PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 15 June 2009 05:48:24AM 17 points [-]

"The seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."

-- Alhazen (Abū 'Alī al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haitham)

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 16 June 2009 02:03:05AM 2 points [-]

...voted up for the beauty with which the interpretation of this particular quote, depends on knowing the time in which it was written.

Comment author: hrishimittal 16 June 2009 02:32:51AM 6 points [-]

It reminds me very much of this quote attributed to Gautam Buddha:

"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide."