Charles Darwin, English biologist, revolutionised of course our thinking on natural selection with his masterpiece “On the origin of species” in 1859. His thesis that mankind is descended from the ape naturally met with a great deal of resistance in the nineteenth century. Yet his thesis and his arguments held up very well. And he owed this in large part to his golden rule. His golden rule was his very simple habit of thought that he paid special attention to collecting facts which did not agree with his prior conceptions. In his autobiography he writes: “I had, also, during many years, followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from memory than favorable ones. Owing to this habit, very few objections were raised against my views which I had not at least noticed and attempted to answer.” In these days of fake news and self-congratulation on Twitter or Facebook, this golden rule is very relevant and enlightening. Darwin not only makes a plea to be open to someone else’s opinion, but also argues that this obliges you to make your own arguments stronger and more watertight
