English 301 Week 12

 “I recall that as a graduate student I wrote a critique of an important political philosopher. It was clear that I disagreed with him. My professor told me that my paper was good, but not good enough. Before you launch into your criticism, she said, you must first present the strongest case for the position you are opposing, one that the philosopher himself could accept. I redid the paper. I still had important differences with the philosopher, but I understood him better, and I saw the strengths and virtues, as well as limitations, of his belief. I learned a lesson that I’ve applied across the spectrum of my life.”

Robert S. Wood



GOALS

Links to an external site., April 2006

Leonid Dorfman, E., Pavel Machotka, E., & Vladimir Petrov, E. (2019). Integrative Explorations of the Creative Mind. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.


  • Walter Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, argues that we must not only allow opposing views, but that we must actively engage them:
    • “We miss the whole point when we imagine that we tolerate the freedom of our political opponents as we tolerate a howling baby next door, as we put up with the blasts from our neighbor’s radio because we are too peaceable to heave a brick through the window. If this were all there is to freedom of opinion, that we are too good-natured or too timid to do anything about our opponents and our critics except to let them talk, it would be difficult to say whether we are tolerant because we are magnanimous or because we are lazy, because we have strong principles or because we lack serious conviction, whether we have the hospitality of an inquiring mind or the indifference of an empty mind. And so, if we truly wish to understand why freedom is necessary in a civilized society, we must begin by realizing that, because freedom of discussion improves our own opinions, the liberties of other [people] are our own vital necessity. . . .This is the creative principle of freedom of speech, not that it is a system for the tolerating of error, but that it is a system for finding the truth.”
  • How does listening to those who oppose us improve our own opinions?
It helps me realize what exactly it is that I do or do not agree with and forces me to learn how to defend my positions. 
  • How does this type of discussion, what Lippmann characterizes as “all the speaking and listening, the give-and-take of opinions,” help us find the truth?
You would literally go in circles with people who do not want to listen or admit that they are wrong if you do not apply the out-of-the-box solutions offered in The Anatomy of Peace.

 If you were to offer one piece of advice to a writer just beginning the process, what would it be? Why?

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