- Question
Do people learn from their mistakes?
Do people actually learn from their mistakes? This entry sets out the two positions on the question — that people learn from their mistakes, and that they do not — weighing reflection and growth against repeated error.
Position 1 of 2
Read this position →Yes, people learn from their mistakes
Proponents of this position hold that people do learn from their mistakes: that error is the ordinary mechanism by which skill and judgement develop, and that visible cases of repetition reflect missing feedback or unacknowledged error rather than an inability to learn.
Position 2 of 2
Read this position →No, people do not learn from their mistakes
Those who hold this position argue that people largely do not learn from their mistakes: that the same errors recur across lives, institutions and generations, and that the mind is better at protecting a person's account of themselves than at revising it.