The Great Lesson: On being “wrong” (IM 981)

True wisdom requires the capacity to delight in being proven wrong

-Aristotle

And it is being "wrong" is "not-wrong"

It's hard to accept it as we all try to avoid being wrong.  Epicurus once said, "He gains most who is defeated, since he learns the most." And he can't be more true.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher in the 20th century, was wrong when he published his book the Tractatus. And he admitted it in his Philosophical Investigations. Jean-Paul Sartre was wrong  about the way of examining existentialism and the idea of absolute freedom. So was Socrates, Aristotle and Plato on morality.

Marcus Aurelius, the great stoic philosopher used to be pleased rather than being offended if someone showed him he was wrong. In Meditations, Marcus wrote:

“Be prepared to change your mind if someone is at hand to put you right and guide you away from some ill-grounded opinion.”

Antoninus, the mentor to Marcus and the wisest man he knew always welcomed criticism and was not angry when somebody showed him wrong. In Meditations, Marcus wrote:

"Remember that to change your mind and follow somebody who puts you on the right course is none the less a free action; for it is your own action, carried out in accordance with your own impulse and judgement, and, indeed, your own reason."

And here we are, two millennia after Marcus Aurelius, who become angry, raged, and feared when somebody proved us wrong. Trying to avoid wrong has become our habit, which in turn become our nature.

Being wrong does no wrong; it’s a opportunity to change and change is nature’s will and we all are delighted by change.