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  • Michael Edmondson

Do you express contempt prior to investigation?


Today is October 14 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you express contempt prior to investigation?”

People who navigate the chaos understand that they must think prior to prejudging someone.

This notion has been a point of observation for hundreds of years.

Writing in the 17th century, English philosopher John Locke wrote “To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes.”

In his 18th century work Evidences of Christianity, William Paley took a different approach to the same theme when he wrote “Contempt prior to examination is an intellectual vice, from which the greatest faculties of mind are not free.”

In 1938, the newly established Alcohol Anonymous organization published The Big Book that included the statement “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” For hundreds of years people have been writing about the value of not judging others unless they seek to understand.

Engaging in such a behavior is a demonstration of ignorance and those who navigate the chaos have little time to waste in such unproductive endeavors.

How often do you express contempt prior to investigation?

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