Posted by Helen on: 09.05.2007 /
Elaine sent me these guidelines for democratic dialogue the other day.
What do you think of them? I like them, especially this one:
Listen to what others are saying; be prepared to restate their point of view and its rationale, even (especially) when you do not agree with it.
I like the implications behind it, which are: “when people disagree with you they have reasons for disagreeing. We want you to pay enough attention not only to pick up on their point of view but also their reasons for holding that point of view”.
Comment by: Steve S
1Interesting…
…I had this conversation just the other day with my brother (he just finished some post-grad work). He had attended a debate where the two parties had laughingly remarked, “A rare and tremendous breakthrough has been made when two parties can actually come to a point of disagreement.”
Their point being that, due to the nature of language and personal communication, rarely are disagreements actually disagreements, but rather a failure to understand what the other person’s point is.
I find this too true…
Comment by: Helen
2Steve, I do think people sometimes misunderstand each other in such a way that they think they’re in disagreement, but they aren’t.
However, there are lots of situations in which people really do disagree. Like atheists and Christians, for example…