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About this quote

What does it mean?
The biggest risk in philosophy is choosing evidence that is too limited. A broad view is necessary to avoid narrow conclusions.
In plain terms
Philosophy fails if you only look at limited evidence.
What can you take from it?
Gather diverse evidence before forming views.

Where it applies

  • research
  • decision making
  • argumentation

Putting it to work

  • seek opposing views
  • check sources
  • broaden scope

Questions to consider

  • Are you ignoring evidence?
  • How do you avoid bias?

Another view

Some problems require focusing deeply on one area.

More from Alfred North Whitehead

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  2. There is a greatness in the lives of those who build up religious systems, a greatness in action, in idea and in self-subordination, embodied in instance after…

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  3. Without doubt, if we are to go back to that ultimate, integral experience, unwarped by the sophistications of theory, that experience whose elucidation is the …

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