Accept the truth from whoever utters it

From A Darwinist Mob Goes After a Serious Philosopher by Leon Wieseltier. The context is that a long esteemed scientist, Thomas Nagel, has published a new book Mind and Cosmos which suggests that perhaps not all answers can be derived from a reductionist view of matter, energy and evolution. Wieseltier laments the science establishment attack on Nagel.

I find this delicious, because it defies the prevailing regimentation of opinion and exemplifies a rebellious willingness to go wherever the reasoning mind leads. Cui bono? is not the first question that an intellectual should ask. The provenance of an idea reveals nothing about its veracity. “Accept the truth from whoever utters it,” said the rabbis, those poor benighted souls who had the misfortune to have lived so many centuries before Dennett and Dawkins.