...those conflicting viewpoints was essential in the pursuit of truth: "Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied."3 Conflict of ideas, then,...

...John Stuart Mill, and I recall — with the help of my research assistant — his saying: 'Even if received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who...

...error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth. And since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only through the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being confirmed....