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What does it mean to be "open minded"?

Edgar

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Open mindedness is : "not looking down on others for being or thinking different" except when they step on your values.

The "except" part of the sentence negates the previous part of the sentence.

Here's an example: My values involve subjugating everyone to my religion.

Doesn't sound very open minded does it?
 

Rainman

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It is what I said it was! There are no other definitions other than the one I said. :D
 

Mal12345

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Being receptive to new data.

I also like to think of "openness to experience" when I think of open mindedness. It's correlated to a lot of traits, like creativity and intelligence, and having a liberal political philosophy and being more likely to use marijuana.
Openness to experience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, but people who use marijuana are, in my experience, closed to arguments used by those who are against it. It becomes all about the addiction. The addictive thought-process shuts out all ideas opposed to it.
 

Giggly

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Open-minded is following your own curiosities wherever they might lead.

Being receptive to other's views or ideas is called conforming which frequently leads to closed-mindedness.

Really?
 

mikamickmac

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To me, being open-minded means keeping my mind open to influences that might change my opinion on a matter. But when I see a female describe herself on an internet-dating website as being "open-minded", I think...kinky!
 
G

garbage

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What about.. open-mindedness is the quality of being receptive to new ideas, whether they originate from oneself or another?


One can be open-minded and receptive to new ideas to a fault, though. We build up our ideas and defend them for a reason.

Although, recent arguments (which I can't find right now, sorry dudes) for the idea that we are rational like lawyers who want to defend our ideas, not like scientists who want to objectively study the world are pretty convincing.. and telling.
 

lunalum

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I think he was testing our open-mindedness towards what open-mindedness is ;)

Yeah... I'm having trouble seeing pure receptivity as conforming. Can there really be an open mind without being receptive?
 

Mal12345

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What about.. open-mindedness is the quality of being receptive to new ideas, whether they originate from oneself or another?


One can be open-minded and receptive to new ideas to a fault, though. We build up our ideas and defend them for a reason.

Although, recent arguments (which I can't find right now, sorry dudes) for the idea that we are rational like lawyers who want to defend our ideas, not like scientists who want to objectively study the world are pretty convincing.. and telling.

Scientists are very closed-minded. They reject all non-scientific ideas. Who said they aren't?
 

Mal12345

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I think he was testing our open-mindedness towards what open-mindedness is ;)

Yeah... I'm having trouble seeing pure receptivity as conforming. Can there really be an open mind without being receptive?

You can't have one without the other. But I am open to any arguments to the contrary.
 

Synapse

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Open minded means understanding more than your self-indulgance in whatever you do first.

Science is self-indulgance, religion self-indulges. people self indulge and anything new is seen as scary. Science and religion are from the same base fear, fear of the unkown and so different criteria for trying to unravel superstition are formulated. One tries to control it via emotions the other tries to control it via logic. both miss the mark big time and whopping gaps happen that are in no way related to the correlation of being open minded. Now the terms of themselves are entities, thought forms that is self-indulgence and its global.

When this collapses it becomes epic like the financial crisis, whopping self-indulgance mind meeds emotions. and the shockwaves resound globaly because the whole system is shut down, not at all open minded to positive ways of being, but selfish and close minded as an entity when it comes to all things that money represents.

Its the same here, everywhere, it is a form of conditioning that limites the use of true power of self purpose, self direction and hence being open minded means not being afraid of anything for there is nothing to be afraid of. It is an illusion created by the mind for the mind. A trap in a box, the reality we live in is good like that, tried and tested without fail.
 

crimsonhaze

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For me open mindedness is when you don't automatically judge an idea or a situation, or what was said. Also opening yourself up to new experiences and waiting to see if you liked it or not then stating your case. Open mindedness is also being able to see the opinions of other people and not judging them for it.
 

animenagai

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I'm not sure I buy science being close minded. The scientific method in a sense is the most open minded thing there is. Being open minded doesn't mean you can't choose not to believe something, it means that you are willing to test many new ideas, even if they look silly at first sight. Of course, there are scientists that are close minded, but that's not a fault of the scientific method.
 

Orangey

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I truly believe that "open minded" is nothing but a meaningless scare word that gets deployed in argumentation as an ad hominem attack. If someone seems "closed minded" because they reject all other ideas that they're not familiar with, the problem isn't that they need to open their minds...the problem is that they need to not be stupid. If they weren't functionally retarded to begin with, then they'd already have the positive qualities that we associate with having an "open mind."
 

OrangeAppled

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I think it simply means to give an argument a fair chance, not to reject something before you have enough info on it. I realize that "enough" is a vague term, and I think it's difficult to say when "enough" becomes enough to constitute giving a fair chance, but that's my basic idea of "open-minded".

I think people who go around calling others close-minded are possibly massive hypocrites because they seem unable to grasp that someone else could possibly come to a different conclusion with the same info they have (and does that statement make me one? :p). There seems to be an assumption that someone only holds a different view because they are closed to hearing the "facts" or alternate viewpoints, as opposed to giving the benefit of the doubt that the person has thoughtfully considered many views before settling on the one they hold.

I don't think being blown with the wind or having no standards makes a person "open-minded" in a positive way. This goes hand-in-hand with people flinging the term "judgmental" around, as if having any standards or opinions on whether something is good/bad automatically makes you closed-minded and, well, mean.
 

Mr. TickTock

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Not to dismiss a possibility based on your own personal perception of the universe.
 
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