-=Dark_Angel=-, P.I.2 Apr 2005

If there were a race of Liars, would it be closed minded to reject the propositions they spouted? A 'closed minded' person might reject Negroes as a source of information, because (for whatever reason) he has concluded that Negroes are an unreliable source of information. What is the difference between that, and, say, someone who rejects carbon dating as a reliable source of information? In both cases, the protagonist's actions are stupid if, and only if, his assertion about the information source being unreliable is based on insufficient evidence.

It's obvious we should avoid rejecting true propositions, and embrace rejecting false ones. Closed mindedness is neither here nor there, unless all you mean by 'closed minded' is 'a mind that makes assertions based on insufficient evidence.' It's almost a tautology that you shouldn't do that, unless you live on Planet Gay, where making an assertion based on SUFFICIENT evidence is punishable by bumming.