Skepticism: Skepticism can be appropriate and almost necessary in certain situations, but if it is taken up as a permanent attitude then it can have the opposite effect. If one enters every situation already skeptical, it "subverts the reasoning process before it even gets started." There are two kinds of skeptics, the extreme skeptic and the moderate skeptic. The extreme skeptic claims there is no actual truth. The moderate skeptic claims the truth can exist but the human mind cannot attain it.
Evasive Agnosticism: An agnostic, often heard about when talking about religious beliefs, is someone who claims that they don't have enough knowledge to make a solid judgement about it. They "claim ignorance" in a sense. Agnosticism can be appropriate when there is not enough evidence to make a clear judgement, but mistakes in reasoning come in with evasive agnosticism, when one uses ignorance as an excuse. If there is enough evidence to make a judgement, or if one hasn't even looked into the matter, agnosticism becomes a mistake in reasoning.
Narrow-Mindedness: In order to learn more about the truth, one should keep their mind open to all possibilities. If someone is narrow-minded, they are limiting their scope and closing opportunities for finding the truth.
Hypothetical Situation with Narrow-Mindedness: If I've noticed that my friend is a bit out of sorts lately, and I want to find out why without directly asking her so not to put her on the spot, I would need to consider all the aspects of her life that could be influencing her. If I'm a narrow-minded person though, I might completely eliminate the possibility that her friends, including myself, could be causing her sadness. This would limit my scope and lessen my chances of finding the truth.
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