Mental
The Mathematics of not Knowing
Al-Bīrūnī noticed something peculiar about the human mind: we mistake familiarity for truth. The ideas we encounter repeatedly feel more correct, not because they are, but because they've worn comfortable grooves in our thinking.
The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and follows his natural disposition to have faith in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them.— Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī
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The thinker
Medieval Scholar of Cultures
Al-Bīrūnī (973-1048) was a Persian polymath who revolutionized the study of other cultures by refusing to impose his own categories on foreign ideas, instead learning Sanskrit to understand Indian thought on its own terms.
Based on Al-Biruni (973 - 1048) - Biography - MacTutor, summarised and reframed by Insights.
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