What is an "open mind," and what is it’s purpose?

Open-mindedness is possibly one of the most openly promoted traits in western intellectual society (here I am not trying to be exclusionary--it's just that I, as a westerner, can only speak to what I know). What is the definition of this broadly interpreted term? What are the fruits of possessing an open mind? How does having an open mind help/hinder historical discussion? Above all, what is its purpose?

Have fun .

-Akolouthos

I agree with everyone who has posted here to a certain extent. I do feel that "be open minded" is something that we say to often when we mean "agree with me"--a value that we want others to show solely in deference to our own opinions. I also believe, as many of you do, that in a more pure form it entails trying to seperate your opinions from your identities--a process that can never, I feel, be perfected, but which we must try to engage--and to try to understand where others are coming from even when you disagree with them. Someone, I forget who, once said something like this: "The purpose of opening the mind is to shut it, once again, on something more true."

-Akolouthos

Open-mindedness as oppose to narrow-mindedness, it is a state of the mind where one considers all possibilities that he/she encounters without immediate discrimination.

Being open-minded is not always a good characteristic, sometime it pays for one to immediately discriminate against certain possibilities (self-preservation issue comes to mind) and not allow the mind to be poisoned by conflicting possibilities. But on a long term basis, open-mindedness is always preferable to narrow-mindedness. However, Narrow-mindedness and open-mindedness aren't two separate, discrete states of the mind, they do coexist at time and both are necessarily for the survival and evolution of an individual. But being too narrow-minded makes one less flexible, adaptable a person and more disaster prone.

Freud speaking