“It is often asserted that discussion is only possible between people who have a common language and accept common basic assumptions. I think that this is a mistake.”

— Karl Popper

Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), p. 352
Context: It is often asserted that discussion is only possible between people who have a common language and accept common basic assumptions. I think that this is a mistake. All that is needed is a readiness to learn from one's partner in the discussion, which includes a genuine wish to understand what he intends to say. If this readiness is there, the discussion will be the more fruitful the more the partner's backgrounds differ.

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Karl Popper 82

Austrian-British philosopher of science 1902–1994

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted (1994)

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Among the most striking things that I have learned is how much we have in common. I’ve sat down with people everywhere, discussing what was in their hearts and on their minds. And it doesn’t take long to find commonality, which is often overlooked, ignored, dismissed, and rejected otherwise.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Frontlines and Frontiers: Making Human Rights a Human Reality (December 6, 2012) http://www.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2012/12/201618.htm
Secretary of State (2009–2013)

“Men frequently think that the evils in the world are more numerous than the good things; many sayings and songs of the nations dwell on this idea. …Not only common people make this mistake, but even many who think they are wise.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12

“The theory of the Aryan race is just an assumption… based on a philological proposition… that a greater number of languages of Europe and some languages of Asia must be referred to a common ancestral speech… (From this) are drawn two inferences: (1) unity of race, and (2) that race being the Aryan race. The argument is that if the languages are descended from a common ancestral speech, then there must have existed a race whose mother tongue it was… From this inference is drawn another inference, which is that of a common original habitat. It is argued that there could be no community of language unless people had a common habitat, permitting close communion.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

Who were the Shudras? (1946)

“It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.78-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

Campaign rally, Madison, Wisconsin, CSPAN: Campaign 2008 (18 February 2008)
2000s
Context: What we've learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.

“In contrast, traditional Catholic churches serve vast numbers of people who have little or nothing in common, and they are often impersonal supermarkets for the sacraments.”

Penny Lernoux (1940–1989) American writer and journalist

The Fundamentalist Surge in Latin America; The Christian Century, January 20, 1988; p. 51.

“Whoever estimates the sensible sameness by the verbal identity of their common name will commit the error of mistaking for physical what is only intellectual. …the sensible signification of language is strictly limited by the sensible knowledge of the hearer.”

Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786–1867) United States philosopher and banker

Part II. Of the Extent of Sensible Knowledge.
The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)

“The basic mistake people make is to think that happiness is the goal!”

François Lelord book Hector and the Search for Happiness

Source: Hector and the Search for Happiness

“It is often asserted that discussion is only possible between people who have a common language and accept common basic assumptions. I think that this is a mistake.”

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Karl Popper 82

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