All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of mastery of details, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
An unflinching determination to take the whole evidence into account is the only method of preservation against the fluctuating extremes of fashionable opinion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of considering all evidence rather than succumbing to popular opinion.
Alfred North Whitehead highlights the significance of maintaining steadfastness and critical thinking in the face of changing societal trends. He suggests that one must take a comprehensive view of evidence to avoid falling prey to the whims of fashionable opinions, which can often lead to superficial conclusions and misguided beliefs.
Themes
DeterminationEvidenceOpinionWisdomCritical Thinking
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on social media about climate change, one might quote Whitehead to emphasize the importance of considering all scientific evidence rather than following popular beliefs.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
All quotes βThe vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the Gospels would mean sudden death.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
I consider Christianity to be one of the great disasters of the human race... It would be impossible to imagine anything more un - Christianlike than theology.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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