THE READINGS · VIII
Seek to understand before passing judgment. Examine your own motives. No person, tradition, or teaching is beyond question, including these tenets.
READING A · Confucian teaching
James Legge's English translation.
to allow that you do not know it
Confucius counsels recognizing both what one knows and what one does not know. Examine the occasions on which admitting uncertainty might feel like a loss of standing.
Read Confucius, Analects 2.17 in the source edition · new tabREADING B · Classical Greek Socratic philosophy
Benjamin Jowett's English translation.
I neither know nor think that I know.
In Plato's portrayal, Socrates compares his acknowledgment of ignorance with another person's confidence in knowledge he does not possess. The account occurs within a defense that also discusses a divine oracle.
Read Plato, Apology 21b–d in the source edition · new tabWITHIN THE ORDER
Consider what makes a claim trustworthy and what could lead you to revise it. Apply those questions to the Order's interpretations as well as to the readings themselves.
What could lead us to reconsider a belief we hold strongly?