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3/31/14 How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently | Brain Pickings
www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapoport-rules-criticism/ 1/9
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How to Criticize with Kindness:Philosopher Daniel Dennett on theFour Steps to Arguing Intelligentlyby Maria Popova
“Just how charitable are you supposed to be when
criticizing the views of an opponent?”
“In disputes upon moral or scientific points,”
Arthur Martine counseled in his magnificent
1866 guide to the art of conversation, “let your
aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your
opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing
the argument, and gaining a new discovery.” Of
course, this isn’t what happens most of the
time when we argue, both online and off, but
especially when we deploy the artillery of our
righteousness from behind the comfortable
shield of the keyboard. That form of
“criticism” — which is really a menace of
reacting rather than responding — is worthy of
Mark Twain’s memorable remark that “the
critic’s symbol should be the tumble-bug: he
deposits his egg in somebody else’s dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.” But it
needn’t be this way — there are ways to be critical while remaining charitable,
of aiming not to “conquer” but to “come at truth,” not to be right at all costs but
to understand and advance the collective understanding.
Daniel Dennett (b. March 28, 1942), whom artificial intelligence pioneer
Marvin Minsky has called “our best current philosopher” and “the next Bertrand
Russell,” poses an apt question that probes some of the basic tendencies and
dynamics of today’s everyone-is-a-critic culture: “Just how charitable are you
supposed to be when criticizing the views of an opponent?”
3/31/14 How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently | Brain Pickings
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In Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (public library) — the same
fantastic volume that gave us Dennett on the dignity and art-science of making
mistakes — he offers what he calls “the best antidote [for the] tendency to
caricature one’s opponent”: a list of rules formulated decades ago by the
legendary social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport, best-known
for originating the famous tit-of-tat strategy of game theory. Dennett
synthesizes the steps:
How to compose a successful critical commentary:
1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s
position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target
says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.
2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if
they are not matters of general or widespread
agreement).
3. You should mention anything you have learned from
your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word
of rebuttal or criticism.
If only the same code of conduct could be applied to critical commentary
online, particularly to the indelible inferno of comments.
But rather than a naively utopian, Pollyannaish approach to debate, Dennett
points out this is actually a sound psychological strategy that accomplishes one
key thing: It transforms your opponent into a more receptive audience for your
criticism or dissent, which in turn helps advance the discussion.
Compare and contrast with Susan Sontag’s three steps to refuting any
argument, and treat yourself to Dennett’s wholly excellent Intuition Pumps and
Other Tools for Thinking.
3/31/14 How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently | Brain Pickings
www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapoport-rules-criticism/ 3/9
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