How to test yourself in the battle of ideas | Nicholas Christakis | Big Think

[Music] If you're so convinced of the truth of your idea, sometimes it's very seductive to believe, "Oh, I'm clearly true. I'll just articulate my idea and all opponents will fall; they'll immediately see the wisdom of my idea." But that's not often what happens.

So, actually paradoxically, the idea that you really need to understand well is not so much your ostensibly true idea, but you actually need to understand your opponent's ostensibly false idea. So, it's almost through falsehood that you arrive at the truth. That is to say, understanding your opponent's objections to your idea is what's necessary if you're going to persuade them as to the truth of your own.

In fact, one of the problems that I have with a lot of people who decry academic freedom, or the opponents of academic freedom, or the people who think that we should advance by prohibiting the expression of ideas, or so severely sanctioning them that people self-censor themselves, which is another serious problem, is one of the criticisms I have with such people.

If you are so convinced as to the rectitude of your ideas, win the battle of ideas; go out and fight! If you're actually right, you will win. But the only way you can do that is to have a confidence and engage in that kind of battle, not in censoring your opponents.

So, I guess there are two components there. First, you really need to understand what are the objections to your idea. And second, you really need to engage in a kind of conflict—it's too strong a word—but you need to engage in a kind of conversation that puts your ideas to the test. [Music]