Abstract

All too often, when faced with difficult questions, people ignore, dismiss, and marginalize dissent. The speed at which political disagreement is recast in terms of the intellectual failings of opponents is astounding, and religious dialogue, from the orthodox to the militant, remains tinted by a terrifying and dehumanizing arrogance and dogma. Even we scientists and other scholars often find ourselves stubbornly defending “our” ideas rather than pursuing truth, willfully blind to evidence challenging our positions and uncharitable toward the views of rivals. The world, it appears, needs more intellectual humility. But the significance of intellectual humility is not merely practical—it also has important theoretic and scientific implications and is central to various projects in both philosophy and psychology.