Quotation
Last reviewed:
“One should accept the truth from whatever source it proceeds.”
Maimonides · Jewish philosophy · Medieval · c. 1160s
What does it mean?
A claim is not true because it is ours, and not false because it is theirs: the duty he names is to hear the truth from the mouth that says it. The usual reading places the line in the introduction to the Eight Chapters, where ethical psychology may draw on philosophers as well as on rabbinic sources. A rival reading turns it into a soft relativism, as if every source were equally good, which he does not say. Origin is not a test of truth, and a test is still required.
Did Maimonides really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. From the introduction to the Eight Chapters, on the commentary to Avot. The Hebrew sense is secure. Joseph Gorfinkle's 1912 English is the usual scholarly rendering. He is explaining why ethical psychology may draw on philosophers as well as rabbinic sources.
Where it comes from
Introduction to the Eight Chapters (on the Commentary to Avot)
Approximate date: c. 1160s.
How to use it
In a union meeting in Liverpool, the clearest point about the rota comes from the manager everyone came prepared to distrust. Separating the point from the jersey is the duty he names, and rejecting it for the jersey is the failure. Accepting every other sentence from that speaker, out of a new fairness, would be the opposite mistake, and nothing in the line requires it.
A mindset reading
This is not a claim that all ideas are equal. It is a claim that origin is the wrong test, so some other test still has to be stated or the sentence becomes an excuse to stop judging. He uses it to justify a specific borrowing from philosophical psychology, not to close argument down.
Understand the philosophy
Maimonides is an Aristotelian philosopher and a Jewish legal authority at the same time, and the sentence is how he holds those roles together. The key term in the Hebrew is the truth, which is to be heard from whoever says it. Joseph Gorfinkle's English is the usual scholarly rendering of this introduction. The line is a translation of a secure Hebrew sentence, not a modern slogan about open-mindedness in general.
- knowledge
- virtue
FAQ
What does it mean?
A claim is not true because it is ours, and not false because it is theirs: the duty he names is to hear the truth from the mouth that says it. The usual reading places the line in the introduction to the Eight Chapters, where ethical psychology may draw on philosophers as well as on rabbinic sources. A rival reading turns it into a soft relativism, as if every source were equally good, which he does not say. Origin is not a test of truth, and a test is still required.
Did Maimonides really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. From the introduction to the Eight Chapters, on the commentary to Avot. The Hebrew sense is secure. Joseph Gorfinkle's 1912 English is the usual scholarly rendering. He is explaining why ethical psychology may draw on philosophers as well as rabbinic sources.
Which work is it in?
Introduction to the Eight Chapters (on the Commentary to Avot) Approximate date: c. 1160s.