On the Art of Dialogue, Good Argument, and Healthy Communication:
True wisdom, like true vision, is dialectic – like “lines converging on a common center,” Plato said. We gain depth of understanding the same way a second eye adds depth to what can be seen with only one. This is a lesson we need rather desperately to remember in our war wrought world – the insight that our diverse perspectives are complementary, and that we must learn from one another…if the whole truth about living well is our goal.
We are like the blind men of ancient lore who all ‘see’ the same elephant differently – like a snake, a tree trunk, a wall – but the whole truth about that elephant can only be understood by those who share their respective perspectives and take the perspectives of others. And to be thorough, no number of outside-looking-in perspectives would be complete without the elephant’s inside-looking-out point of view as well. The whole truth about reality includes the subjective as well as the objective view. And since none of us sees the whole truth about anything, we would all do well to learn from those who see what’s in our blind spot. And the more we are able to understand, the more of the whole truth we will see. (*connect infinity)
Because we are all born in different places, have unique skills and talents, face idiosyncratic life challenges and moral dilemmas, and so follow unique paths through life, we all see the same world from very different points of view. This does not entail that it is a different world we see, that some are right and others wrong, or that our diverse eclectic perspectives are somehow irreconcilable – as some pure relativists might conclude. It does rather illustrate that truth is cumulative, and shows learning to be an ongoing process to which each new point of view adds depth to our understanding. Together these voices are, as Plato so eloquently put it, “like lines converging on a common center.” And it is by this gathering and weighing of diverse perspectives that the human mind grows. So two heads are better than one, three better than two, four better yet, as we approach the more complete truth by incremental growth.
We all follow different paths, face different challenges, learn different lessons, and ultimately see the same world differently. “People’s lines of vision are different,”(I Ching, p.313) but the world we share is the same.
Therefore, the whole truth about anything comes to light only by way of dialogue between them all, or at least as many as are available to us. In this way, what the ancients called dialectic thinking resolves much unnecessary conflict, sometimes before it even begins. For it gives rise to the recognition that opposing points of view are but complementary perspectives on what Einstein calls “reality in the round,” to which every voice and perspective contributes something.
Hence, the reason we need healthy dialogue in all relationships, if the whole truth is our goal. We cannot learn it all from any one path, which is all we can travel in one life. But we do all learn things along our way that others need to know, just as others can see what’s in our blind spot. So we are all teachers, just as we are all students, and we have much to learn from one another. Since it’s true that we never really learn something until we try to teach it - or as Socrates put it, “until we hear our own voice say it,” the art of dialogue is essential to both teaching and learning. (And perhaps this book should be made available with blank pages for this reason, so that each reader can add his or her own voice to this timeless dialogue so to pass it too on to their progeny.)
Who knew? The ancients did – this, and much more that didn’t survive the game of telephone that has been education through time. Consult almost all and any ancient (written and oral) literature, and you’ll see that they understood much that we’ve forgotten, and would do well to remember, given the challenges we face. And after a career teaching philosophy and the history of ideas, this is one thing I can do, and something that might not get done at all if I don’t do it. I’ve been fortunate to have had the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Buddha, Confucius, & Lao Tzu *
So after thirty years of research and writing, and twenty years of teaching – I offer this collection of essays in the hope that you will come to find the treasure buried herein (in lieu of inheritance, perhaps – which you might consider to be the really bad news J).
In my experience, there is only a small minority of those who teach philia (the love of or search for) sophia (truth or wisdom) the way the ancients did – that is, dialogically. This does not only that we discuss and actually argue over the ideas of old, but that we put the voices of the sages of the ages into dialogue with one other - as if the world’s great teachers were sitting around a campfire together, discussing all the most important lessons they would like to pass on to us, for the sake of their own children’s children’s children.
If the history of philosophy teaches us anything, it should be never to underestimate the power of a single voice! Rather, we must put our minds together, like elders sitting around a fire, and teach our young to do the same. Unfortunately, given our habits, we tend to think of dialogue as competitive, and of argument as creating conflict, rather than resolving it. It’s our responsibility to pass on the ancient wisdom that might add perspective to their vision and depth to their understanding, because they’re going to need it in their own hero’s journeys. Especially since the path ahead that we’ve destined them for is so fraught with difficulty. Our poor communication habits need not continue to be one of them.
What Socrates called dialectic thinking is the process of education through which the human instrument is fully developed, our moral compass is fine-tuned, and we each learn healthy communication habits, so to add our voice to this cumulative dialogue, and thus do our part to improve the whole. Dialectic thinking involves taking multiple perspectives whenever possible. Like the blind men and the elephant, we need to consider many perspectives to get closer to the whole truth about anything. The ancient Vedic Hindus used the metaphor that there are ‘many paths to the same summit’ This is why all these schools of thought emphasize the primary importance of dialogue between complementary voices, in order that the whole truth might be found – “like lines converging on a common center,” as Plato put it.
For this reason, we each and all have a part to play! There is, for all of us, something that needs doing, and that won’t get done if we don’t do it. It may not seem that we make much of a difference in a life, but that is more perceptual illusion than actuality. Even the most humble of lives will have butterfly effects it can never perceive. I am often reminded of a character in a popular novel, a blind monk who reflects on the high expectations he’d had in his youth, when he thought he might be the person who would ultimate change the world. Now, after a long life of dutiful service to his ideals, he’d come to lament that his part hadn’t turned out to be as heroic as he’d once dreamed it might be. In fact, he would probably die thinking he’d failed in his quest. Even still, those of us reading the book, who had an overview to all the characters and their interactive stories, could see perfectly well that this one blind monk, while he’d done nothing but leave a door open on a hunch, turned out to have been key to letting all the other characters in the book do their best, their part.
The good news is, the butterfly effects of even just one person’s creativity can be huge, as anyone who studies the great souls can see. While none of us changes the world by ourselves, each of us is key in some way to helping others do their part. Our children, and their children, are going to need all these ancient survival skills in their psychological backpacks, given that we’ve destined them down a path that is fraught with difficulties. Our poor communication habits need not be among them. So this book is my part. I cannot know how much good it might do – probably far less than I would like – but if it encourages, or inspires, or uplifts even one, or only a few, or YOU to do your part, then it will have accomplished at least that. And that could be a big deal! It does not intend to be a heavy-handed manifesto – but is put forth as an open letter, so to encourage a gentle, reasonable, and progressive discussion that might inspire empathy and humility in you and other readers, and ideally, encourage dialogue between us all. For dialectic thinking contributes to the depth and breadth to our understanding only by way of the will to learn, which turns out to be the source of more joy than most understand. It hopes to inspire each and all to see and take aim to actualize their own higher potentials, for that is where change begins – inside each and all of us! It aims to open the heart, awaken the imagination, and to generate curiosity and to educe creative solutions for what turns out to be the most urgent crisis humanity has ever come up against. We face it together, but we must each do our own part!
And, since there’s a good chance (if your world is like mine has been) that nothing else in your education is going to teach you much of any of this, it falls to me to do what I can to inspire you to want to learn more from the world’s ancient wisdom traditions, more than your recent ancestors thought worthy of passing on. None of this is meant to be the last word, of course, or even to be a comprehensive appraisal of ancient literature. It is, however, a collection of the most useful aspects of their practical wisdom, meant only to whet your appetite, so you might want to look further. Every word we have uncovered is, after all, available at your fingertips – readily (and democratically!) available, in fact, for the first time in human history.
As I write, our world is self-destructing. Not gradually or metaphorically, but quite literally and before our eyes. While we can apparently ignore the implications of sky-rocketing temperatures, towering wildfires, monstrous hurricanes, unprecedented torrential rainfall, and the worst draught since the dust bowl, we will have more difficulty ignoring the food, water and energy shortages that are all too likely to follow, if we do not act, not soon, but now. And the knowledge of how we might have prevented this is sure to dawn on us then, but must we wait until it’s too late to make changes?
“Like everything else you have a reason to be here. Your mind, your awareness may not yet have discovered that purpose, but it is in your being nevertheless. In your instructions.”(OI, p.14) And when you find it, take the ancient’s advice and “Give one’s all till one’s heart stops beating.”(I Ching, p.52)
Ancient cultures teach us that the wisdom that we need is “to be found only in the book of nature,”(OI, xx) But we are also part of nature, and so “the truth of Creation is within you, within us all.” So there are three ways to learn to live in balance with the world around us, and these are:
1. by learning from the natural world
2. by looking inside ourselves
3. by way of learning from each other and those who came before us, who had themselves learned from these natural sources. (OI, xvi)
So, as Socrates says, to "let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining myself and others is really the very best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living..."(Plato, Collected Dialogues, p.23)
This book is a dialogue about dialogue, an argument for the value of healthy argument. It makes a case, by way of the humanity’s greatest voices, for why we must and how we might remember our higher potentials, and stop teaching our young the same bad habits we find so difficult to change in ourselves. We might teach them instead, and at last, the good habits that the sages of the ages lived, and sometimes died, that we might learn.
“There is a path to the end of suffering,” Buddha said. “Tread it!” For enlightenment is possible in a single life, but "He who would may reach the utmost height, but he must be eager to learn." But do not let others mislead you. Rather, “be lamps onto yourselves.” For enlightenment is not an end, but a way of living – a path, the tao. And just as walking is back and forth, left and right, yin and yang, so the journey to your higher self is dialogic, dialectic, give and take.
And this is why the ancients emphasized the value and importance of dialogue – because true intelligence is gained by bringing “all minds together as one.” The power of a few well-chosen words in a dialogue, indeed, in a life, can uplift us for a lifetime by reminding us when we forget.
So this blog/book has its fundamental purpose in promoting the almost lost art of dialogue – what Jim Veninga called, “an age old cure for things gone wrong.”
Ancient wisdom begins in the art of dialogue and healthy argument – not to win, but to understand one another and the world around us. Two heads are better than one for the same reason that two eyes are better than one – we gain depth of understanding the same way we gain depth of vision. For mutual understanding grows in this way. It stands to reason that any and every object of our study might be seen from any of many, even infinite, points of view (and if it’s alive, then infinity plus one!)
Just as the Vedic Hindus put it, there are many paths to the same summit of human excellence. And understanding this, our ancient betters spoke to us, and one another, in dialogue. They are not arguing to win the war over who is right, but teach us how to climb to ever higher understanding of what is simply true. But for too long since, we have been taught that there is only one way - rather than encouraged to discover our best way. Indeed, it may even be that religions (too often confused with wisdom traditions) are primarily responsible for the collective forgetting of this ancient wisdom that is our true legacy. Indeed, since history has been told by the winners, there’s no telling what might have become of the world had the voices of our ancient betters been passed forward through the centuries, rather than hidden high in abbey towers and deep in papal vaults. Fortunately, the world has a way of uncovering hidden truths like buried treasure, and for this reason, we might one day enjoy a great remembering.
True wisdom, like true vision, is dialectic – like “lines converging on a common center,” Plato said. We gain depth of understanding the same way a second eye adds depth to what can be seen with only one. This is a lesson we need rather desperately to remember in our war wrought world – the insight that our diverse perspectives are complementary, and that we must learn from one another…if the whole truth about living well is our goal.
We are like the blind men of ancient lore who all ‘see’ the same elephant differently – like a snake, a tree trunk, a wall – but the whole truth about that elephant can only be understood by those who share their respective perspectives and take the perspectives of others. And to be thorough, no number of outside-looking-in perspectives would be complete without the elephant’s inside-looking-out point of view as well. The whole truth about reality includes the subjective as well as the objective view. And since none of us sees the whole truth about anything, we would all do well to learn from those who see what’s in our blind spot. And the more we are able to understand, the more of the whole truth we will see. (*connect infinity)
Because we are all born in different places, have unique skills and talents, face idiosyncratic life challenges and moral dilemmas, and so follow unique paths through life, we all see the same world from very different points of view. This does not entail that it is a different world we see, that some are right and others wrong, or that our diverse eclectic perspectives are somehow irreconcilable – as some pure relativists might conclude. It does rather illustrate that truth is cumulative, and shows learning to be an ongoing process to which each new point of view adds depth to our understanding. Together these voices are, as Plato so eloquently put it, “like lines converging on a common center.” And it is by this gathering and weighing of diverse perspectives that the human mind grows. So two heads are better than one, three better than two, four better yet, as we approach the more complete truth by incremental growth.
We all follow different paths, face different challenges, learn different lessons, and ultimately see the same world differently. “People’s lines of vision are different,”(I Ching, p.313) but the world we share is the same.
Therefore, the whole truth about anything comes to light only by way of dialogue between them all, or at least as many as are available to us. In this way, what the ancients called dialectic thinking resolves much unnecessary conflict, sometimes before it even begins. For it gives rise to the recognition that opposing points of view are but complementary perspectives on what Einstein calls “reality in the round,” to which every voice and perspective contributes something.
Hence, the reason we need healthy dialogue in all relationships, if the whole truth is our goal. We cannot learn it all from any one path, which is all we can travel in one life. But we do all learn things along our way that others need to know, just as others can see what’s in our blind spot. So we are all teachers, just as we are all students, and we have much to learn from one another. Since it’s true that we never really learn something until we try to teach it - or as Socrates put it, “until we hear our own voice say it,” the art of dialogue is essential to both teaching and learning. (And perhaps this book should be made available with blank pages for this reason, so that each reader can add his or her own voice to this timeless dialogue so to pass it too on to their progeny.)
Who knew? The ancients did – this, and much more that didn’t survive the game of telephone that has been education through time. Consult almost all and any ancient (written and oral) literature, and you’ll see that they understood much that we’ve forgotten, and would do well to remember, given the challenges we face. And after a career teaching philosophy and the history of ideas, this is one thing I can do, and something that might not get done at all if I don’t do it. I’ve been fortunate to have had the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Buddha, Confucius, & Lao Tzu *
So after thirty years of research and writing, and twenty years of teaching – I offer this collection of essays in the hope that you will come to find the treasure buried herein (in lieu of inheritance, perhaps – which you might consider to be the really bad news J).
In my experience, there is only a small minority of those who teach philia (the love of or search for) sophia (truth or wisdom) the way the ancients did – that is, dialogically. This does not only that we discuss and actually argue over the ideas of old, but that we put the voices of the sages of the ages into dialogue with one other - as if the world’s great teachers were sitting around a campfire together, discussing all the most important lessons they would like to pass on to us, for the sake of their own children’s children’s children.
If the history of philosophy teaches us anything, it should be never to underestimate the power of a single voice! Rather, we must put our minds together, like elders sitting around a fire, and teach our young to do the same. Unfortunately, given our habits, we tend to think of dialogue as competitive, and of argument as creating conflict, rather than resolving it. It’s our responsibility to pass on the ancient wisdom that might add perspective to their vision and depth to their understanding, because they’re going to need it in their own hero’s journeys. Especially since the path ahead that we’ve destined them for is so fraught with difficulty. Our poor communication habits need not continue to be one of them.
What Socrates called dialectic thinking is the process of education through which the human instrument is fully developed, our moral compass is fine-tuned, and we each learn healthy communication habits, so to add our voice to this cumulative dialogue, and thus do our part to improve the whole. Dialectic thinking involves taking multiple perspectives whenever possible. Like the blind men and the elephant, we need to consider many perspectives to get closer to the whole truth about anything. The ancient Vedic Hindus used the metaphor that there are ‘many paths to the same summit’ This is why all these schools of thought emphasize the primary importance of dialogue between complementary voices, in order that the whole truth might be found – “like lines converging on a common center,” as Plato put it.
For this reason, we each and all have a part to play! There is, for all of us, something that needs doing, and that won’t get done if we don’t do it. It may not seem that we make much of a difference in a life, but that is more perceptual illusion than actuality. Even the most humble of lives will have butterfly effects it can never perceive. I am often reminded of a character in a popular novel, a blind monk who reflects on the high expectations he’d had in his youth, when he thought he might be the person who would ultimate change the world. Now, after a long life of dutiful service to his ideals, he’d come to lament that his part hadn’t turned out to be as heroic as he’d once dreamed it might be. In fact, he would probably die thinking he’d failed in his quest. Even still, those of us reading the book, who had an overview to all the characters and their interactive stories, could see perfectly well that this one blind monk, while he’d done nothing but leave a door open on a hunch, turned out to have been key to letting all the other characters in the book do their best, their part.
The good news is, the butterfly effects of even just one person’s creativity can be huge, as anyone who studies the great souls can see. While none of us changes the world by ourselves, each of us is key in some way to helping others do their part. Our children, and their children, are going to need all these ancient survival skills in their psychological backpacks, given that we’ve destined them down a path that is fraught with difficulties. Our poor communication habits need not be among them. So this book is my part. I cannot know how much good it might do – probably far less than I would like – but if it encourages, or inspires, or uplifts even one, or only a few, or YOU to do your part, then it will have accomplished at least that. And that could be a big deal! It does not intend to be a heavy-handed manifesto – but is put forth as an open letter, so to encourage a gentle, reasonable, and progressive discussion that might inspire empathy and humility in you and other readers, and ideally, encourage dialogue between us all. For dialectic thinking contributes to the depth and breadth to our understanding only by way of the will to learn, which turns out to be the source of more joy than most understand. It hopes to inspire each and all to see and take aim to actualize their own higher potentials, for that is where change begins – inside each and all of us! It aims to open the heart, awaken the imagination, and to generate curiosity and to educe creative solutions for what turns out to be the most urgent crisis humanity has ever come up against. We face it together, but we must each do our own part!
And, since there’s a good chance (if your world is like mine has been) that nothing else in your education is going to teach you much of any of this, it falls to me to do what I can to inspire you to want to learn more from the world’s ancient wisdom traditions, more than your recent ancestors thought worthy of passing on. None of this is meant to be the last word, of course, or even to be a comprehensive appraisal of ancient literature. It is, however, a collection of the most useful aspects of their practical wisdom, meant only to whet your appetite, so you might want to look further. Every word we have uncovered is, after all, available at your fingertips – readily (and democratically!) available, in fact, for the first time in human history.
As I write, our world is self-destructing. Not gradually or metaphorically, but quite literally and before our eyes. While we can apparently ignore the implications of sky-rocketing temperatures, towering wildfires, monstrous hurricanes, unprecedented torrential rainfall, and the worst draught since the dust bowl, we will have more difficulty ignoring the food, water and energy shortages that are all too likely to follow, if we do not act, not soon, but now. And the knowledge of how we might have prevented this is sure to dawn on us then, but must we wait until it’s too late to make changes?
“Like everything else you have a reason to be here. Your mind, your awareness may not yet have discovered that purpose, but it is in your being nevertheless. In your instructions.”(OI, p.14) And when you find it, take the ancient’s advice and “Give one’s all till one’s heart stops beating.”(I Ching, p.52)
Ancient cultures teach us that the wisdom that we need is “to be found only in the book of nature,”(OI, xx) But we are also part of nature, and so “the truth of Creation is within you, within us all.” So there are three ways to learn to live in balance with the world around us, and these are:
1. by learning from the natural world
2. by looking inside ourselves
3. by way of learning from each other and those who came before us, who had themselves learned from these natural sources. (OI, xvi)
So, as Socrates says, to "let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining myself and others is really the very best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living..."(Plato, Collected Dialogues, p.23)
This book is a dialogue about dialogue, an argument for the value of healthy argument. It makes a case, by way of the humanity’s greatest voices, for why we must and how we might remember our higher potentials, and stop teaching our young the same bad habits we find so difficult to change in ourselves. We might teach them instead, and at last, the good habits that the sages of the ages lived, and sometimes died, that we might learn.
“There is a path to the end of suffering,” Buddha said. “Tread it!” For enlightenment is possible in a single life, but "He who would may reach the utmost height, but he must be eager to learn." But do not let others mislead you. Rather, “be lamps onto yourselves.” For enlightenment is not an end, but a way of living – a path, the tao. And just as walking is back and forth, left and right, yin and yang, so the journey to your higher self is dialogic, dialectic, give and take.
And this is why the ancients emphasized the value and importance of dialogue – because true intelligence is gained by bringing “all minds together as one.” The power of a few well-chosen words in a dialogue, indeed, in a life, can uplift us for a lifetime by reminding us when we forget.
So this blog/book has its fundamental purpose in promoting the almost lost art of dialogue – what Jim Veninga called, “an age old cure for things gone wrong.”
Ancient wisdom begins in the art of dialogue and healthy argument – not to win, but to understand one another and the world around us. Two heads are better than one for the same reason that two eyes are better than one – we gain depth of understanding the same way we gain depth of vision. For mutual understanding grows in this way. It stands to reason that any and every object of our study might be seen from any of many, even infinite, points of view (and if it’s alive, then infinity plus one!)
Just as the Vedic Hindus put it, there are many paths to the same summit of human excellence. And understanding this, our ancient betters spoke to us, and one another, in dialogue. They are not arguing to win the war over who is right, but teach us how to climb to ever higher understanding of what is simply true. But for too long since, we have been taught that there is only one way - rather than encouraged to discover our best way. Indeed, it may even be that religions (too often confused with wisdom traditions) are primarily responsible for the collective forgetting of this ancient wisdom that is our true legacy. Indeed, since history has been told by the winners, there’s no telling what might have become of the world had the voices of our ancient betters been passed forward through the centuries, rather than hidden high in abbey towers and deep in papal vaults. Fortunately, the world has a way of uncovering hidden truths like buried treasure, and for this reason, we might one day enjoy a great remembering.