street epistemology

[robvalue]

Changing someone's mind is certainly not always a bad thing. Sometimes completely ignoring their opinion for their own benefit can be a good thing.

A person believes they are safely crossing the road, whereas I can clearly see a car is going to hit them in about 5 seconds. Do I respect their belief, or shout out to them to try and change it?

Debate is all about changing people's minds essentially. There can be no progress without it. The important part is the reasons given, which then change someone's mind because they are good reasons.

Of course, forcing someone to change their mind needs justification; and may actually be impossible. The best you may get is them pretending to believe what you believe so that you stop hitting them. Someone can hit me with a stick all day and I'm not going to suddenly believe the world is flat because they say so. But I'll pretend I believe it to get them to stop.