What does this Aristotle quote mean?

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" -- Aristotle.

 

[KitKatMatt]

Being able to look at different view points, understand them as those who hold them do, but not personally feel that way.

Just my interpretation.

 

[Paradoxum]

I think it means being able to understand an idea fully, consider the possibility it could be true, but nevertheless not have to believe it.

I suppose that is opposed against people who are so mentally narrowed by their beliefs, or thought patterns, that they can't seriously consider other beliefs as being possibly true.

 

[essentialsaltes]

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" -- Aristotle.

No idea should be accepted without testing it.

No honest test can be done without a sincere attempt to understand the idea.

One can entertain an idea as a hypothesis and see where it leads.

Entertaining a hypothesis is different from accepting it.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Some people are so locked within their own perspective that they find it impossible to consider an idea that they do not hold from a perspective that they don't hold. An educated man (or woman) is capable of considering the idea from some other perspective, reasoning from its premises, not one's own.


eudaimonia,

Mark