Episode 14 - I WAS WRONG - or - I CHANGED MY MIND

Many of us become attached to our core beliefs, including social
and political convictions. It becomes easy to dig in our heels,
and to not be open to re-examining a cherised conviction you have
held for many years. But this is not an intellectually admirable
quality. We should be open to persuasion if we encounter good
reason or reasons to abandon that which we have always regarded
as correct (until now). The quality of our public debate depends
in part on our collective willingness to be less hard-headed and
more intellectually humble. 





In this episode of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser, critical
thinking lecturer Jacques Rousseau (University of Cape Town)
joined me, and we both shared several examples of when and why we
had changed our minds on a range of issues. We also examined the
reasons why it is not a weakness to be open to counter-evidence,
and the implications for society if we fail to do so. At the
beginning of the discussion, my good friend and fellow writer and
broadcaster Redi Tlhabi shared a fascinating perspective and
personal example of how she approaches the burden to self-examine
an established conviction.