“Learning alone without companions makes one narrow and poorly informed.” The sentence comes from the Xue Ji chapter of the Book of Rites, where it appears among six conditions through which education fails. It does not condemn concentrated study in solitude. It criticises learning that continues without companions who can compare, question and correct.
A friend need not supply the answer. One honest challenge may expose an assumption you did not know you were making, while judgement still remains your own responsibility. Independent thought and shared learning are not opposites: the first guards against conformity; the second stops us mistaking our blind spots for the boundaries of the world.
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