“If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out.”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
There is a desirable balance between exploring novel ideas with an open mind and maintaining a healthy skepticism.
Prof. Walter Kotschnig told Holyoke College students to keep their minds open—“but not so open that your brains fall out.” He condemned the purpose of students who go to college merely to learn skills and urged his listeners to find the “real aim of education, to acquire a philosophy of life, intellectual honesty, and a constant search for truth.”
The comical notion
he employed the metaphor of an open mind humorously
It came to this ingenuous confession of an “open mind.” The mind was indeed so open that it had nothing in it at all. Cursed is he that does not know when to shut his mind. An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it. It should be capable of shutting its doors sometimes, or it may be found a little draughty.
Let us keep our minds open by all means, as long as that means keeping our sense of perspective and seeking an understanding of the forces which mold the world. But don’t keep your minds so open that your brains fall out! There are still things in this world that are true and things which are false; acts which are right and acts which are wrong, even if there are statesmen who hide their designs under the cloak of high-sounding phrases.
Dr. Neilson, former president of Smith College, once said to a graduating class, “Go out and face your new job with an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.” Viewpoints must not be so fixed that there is no possible chance to investigate new and sometimes better ideas. We must be ready to receive the new ideas of our new world.
