To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman brain is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all errors, but from silly errors. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women Jiave fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. Thinking that you know, when iii fact you do not, is a bad mistake to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do, but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one enjoying this diet. Aristotle, however, was less cautious. Ancient and medieval writers knew all about unicorns and salamanders, not one of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them.
The writer believes that

Options

A. most people could avoid making foolish mistakes if they were clever
B. through observation we could avoid making many mistakes
C. Aristotle made many mistakes because he was not observant
D. All errors are caused by our own error in thinking