Willard Van Orman Quine and J.S. Ullian on the difference between being right and having been right

vutran | Sept. 6, 2020, 4:15 p.m.

"The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires, and the sooner we separate them the better off we are. The desire to be right is the thirst for truth. On all counts, both practical and theoretical, there is nothing but good to be said for it. The desire to have been right, on the other hand, is the pride that goeth before a fall. It stands in the way of our seeing we were wrong, and thus blocks the progress of our knowledge."

— Willard Van Orman Quine and J.S. Ullian