美國哈佛大學校長德魯・吉爾平・福斯特（Drew Gilpin Faust）於開學禮進行了一場例行的致辭──
以下節錄：
（追求真理）這要求我們具備勇敢、寬容和謙遜的品質，願意參與到知識社群的辯論，願意包容他人的想法，並願意基於理性和證據改變自己的觀點。
不過，這些不僅僅是我們希望在你們每個人身上培養的重要智力技能，它們還是至關重要的基本能力——即做出判斷和評估事實的能力，以及在新事實面前虛心學習和自我成長的意願。
......This requires all of us to work with courage and generosity and humility — to be willing to engage in the great debate that is an intellectual community, open to others’ ideas and willing to change our views based on reason and evidence. But these are not just important intellectual skills that we hope to nurture in each of you.
These are critical human capacities as well — the ability to make judgments, to evaluate facts, and the willingness to be open to learning and growth as new truths unfold.
也正是在這個一年一度的歡迎新生大會上，前藝術與科學學院院長，已故的傑里米·諾爾斯（Jeremy Knowles），曾經形容他所認為的高等教育最重要目標就是，「確保畢業的學生能分辨有人在胡說八道」。
你會在不斷地挑戰和被挑戰中學到了這種能力，在面對各種分歧和異議中找到自己的方向。
It was on this annual occasion of welcoming the incoming College class that a former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the late Jeremy Knowles, described what he saw as the most important goal of higher education: it was, he said, to ensure that graduates can recognize when “someone is talking rot.”
You learn this through challenging and being challenged, through being confronted by disagreement and difference and amidst it all finding your way.
也許他說的是對的──在他的世界裡是對的，
但如果不適合你，
你就要當他是胡說八道。
胡說八道的定義，
要能獨立思考。
有時你自己說的是對的──在你的世界是對的，
但如果你對另一個不適用的人去說，
就可能會成為某種胡說八道。
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