Especially when it comes to politics and religion, almost everyone remains intractably glued to their positions or beliefs.
Even in the realm of philosophy, where examining and re-examining ideas are part and parcel of the enterprise, you would anticipate finding countless examples of thinkers who have changed their minds. But that's not the case. However, I present today for your consideration four great minds who have done precisely that: Emperor Asoka, Laurence BonJour, Simone Weil, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Ashoka the Great (c.268-232 B.C.) was a formidable military leader whose rule was marked by expansion and conquest, notably the Kalinga War, which resulted in massive suffering. Witnessing the devastation caused by his military campaigns, he experienced a moral and spiritual crisis. Understanding that his previous mindset was cruel and misguided, he underwent a profound transformation, abandoning violence and embracing Buddhism.
He repudiated conquest as a means of statecraft, adopting principles of nonviolence and compassionate governance. He issued edicts promoting religious tolerance, charity and respect for all life. He established hospitals, built stupas and sponsored Buddhist missions — all reflective of his philosophical shift from power to compassion.
Ashoka’s transition exemplifies the willingness to reevaluate dominant values — in his case, conquest and empire — favoring humility and moral responsibility. His life demonstrates that even deeply ingrained beliefs and policies can be fundamentally transformed through genuine reflection. Don’t we wish that our leaders today could exercise such self-reflection?
At the beginning of his career, Laurence BonJour, who was born in 1943, adamantly asserted that we could know the world from our own internal mechanisms without worrying that we are mistaken. He dedicated his early years to defending this rationalist view. However, he encountered significant criticisms about the limitations of “internalist epistemology,” and instead of brushing them off, he changed his mind.
His revision was less of a single epiphany and more of a gradual recognition driven by engagement with negative critiques. Through his open-minded interaction with his critics, BonJour reevaluated everything he had previously asserted and then incorporated his critics' point of view into his new understanding of epistemic justification. I know this may sound a bit complicated, but you don’t have to understand the intricacies of his old and new positions to appreciate that his transformation is a wonderful example of intellectual humility — realizing that your initial theories need refinement, considering new arguments and evidence. This principle of trial and error is not only a useful tool in philosophy, but it is at the very heart of scientific research.
Simone Weil was a philosopher whose career took a dramatic turn when she witnessed the horrors of the Nazi regime in the early 1940s, especially during her time working with refugees and prisoners in France and Britain.
Diving deeply into suffering, both in herself and others, Weil confronted the limitations of her earlier spiritual ideas, which emphasized moral perfection and divine transcendence. She realized that true compassion requires active engagement with the suffering of others and humility about human limitations. She is famous for saying, “The only power that can save the world is love.”
Her life experience led her to reflect and then reject her previous acceptance of abstract dogmatism in favor of lived compassion, humility and attentive services. She reoriented her entire spiritual outlook on real, immediate engagement with human suffering, drastically revising her earlier, more otherworldly focus.
Ludwig Wittgenstein's initial major work, "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," was written during World War I. It was rooted in logical positivism and the idea that language could depict reality precisely. It was a dense treatise that I struggled through at least five times. When I was in graduate school, this book was talked about more frequently than any other. The method I incorporated while reading this incredibly difficult book was to follow each paragraph with a pause for a moment of intellectual digestion. I took months to go through it once. I should have stopped reading it because Wittgenstein himself eventually vigorously repudiated most of it. What on earth happened?
In the 1930s and 1940s, Wittgenstein experienced a series of personal crises — his retreat from academic life, struggles with mental health and profound engagement with traditional language use. He began to understand that language’s primary function was not to mirror reality but to serve various human activities. This led him to radically revise his philosophy in "Philosophical Investigations," where he openly criticizes his earlier work as too rigid and formalistic.
This shift demonstrates that even the most systematic philosophies are subject to self-criticism and evolution, especially when their practical limitations become evident through lived experience and deeper reflection.
Each of these thinkers' transformations was prompted by a different — sometimes external, sometimes internal — moment of crisis or insight: Ashoka’s remorse after witnessing suffering caused by war, BonjJur’s engagement with externalist critiques and epistemic limitations, Weil’s confrontation with the depths of human atrocity and her commitment to active compassion, and Wittgenstein’s personal struggles and realization of language’s complexity beyond formal logic.
These thinkers teach us all a lesson in humility and openness to change. Of course, there are countless other famous thinkers who have demonstrated an ability to do about-face when confronted with new evidence. The world is a complex place, and the idea that any of us got it all figured out the first time around is preposterous.
If we can glean anything from the four thinkers above, it is that true growth involves openness to change— a trait necessary for genuine philosophical and ethical progress. I know it’s not easy; we tend to identify with the beliefs we hold and are reticent to change. But keeping an open mind is vital because it allows us to learn, adapt and grow. It prevents dogmatism, fosters empathy, and encourages new perspectives. Open-mindedness enables continuous self-improvement and helps us navigate complex issues with humility, ultimately leading to wiser, more inclusive, and more resilient beliefs.
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