Open-mindedness

Defining Open-mindedness - Laying the foundation for further discussions hosted by "The Insight to Wellbeing Initiative”.   

We hope that you can join us as we discuss this topic further, laying the ground for insight to develop unimpeded.

Being open-minded does not mean we are open to different things but unable to choose one from another. We are still capable of making moral judgments about what is good and what is bad, or what is beneficial and not beneficial. We can take an interest in social issues, but open-mindedness is not particularly a view as far as social structure is concerned, 

Open-mindedness is the necessary condition for any kind of opinion to be formulated without falling into the extreme of dogmatism or fanaticism.  Actually, there is a general basis or background for opinions to be formulated properly.

There are two things that we have to deal with in terms open-mindedness - intolerance and prejudice.

Intolerance leads us to defend a particular cause or viewpoint to the extent that we feel we are defending ourselves. This type of intolerance is regarded as an opposition to open-mindedness.  In other words, an intolerant person cannot practice or even develop open minded critical thinking, it's as simple as that.

The other thing that we have to deal with is prejudice as it leads to all kinds of mis-judgments - where people are unable to make a proper assessment of the whole situation.

We cannot help others if our mind is infiltrated with all kinds of prejudices and vested interests. Some sense of calm and serenity, which are characteristic of open-mindedness, is a necessary condition in the approach to helping others.