[escepticos] Consejo de Daniel Dennet: Respeta a tu oponente

[Pedro J. Hdez]

RESPECT YOUR OPPONENT

Just how charitable are you supposed to be when criticising the views of an
opponent? If there are obvious contradictions in the opponent's case, then
you should point them out, forcefully. If there are somewhat hidden
contradictions, you should carefully expose them to view – and then dump on
them. But the search for hidden contradictions often crosses the line into
nitpicking, sea-lawyering and outright parody. The thrill of the chase and
the conviction that your opponent has to be harbouring a confusion
somewhere encourages uncharitable interpretation, which gives you an easy
target to attack.

But such easy targets are typically irrelevant to the real issues at stake
and simply waste everybody's time and patience, even if they give amusement
to your supporters. The best antidote I know for this tendency to
caricature one's opponent is a list of rules promulgated many years ago by
social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport.

How to compose a successful critical commentary:

1. 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. List any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of
general or widespread agreement).

3. 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.

One immediate effect of following these rules is that your targets will be
a receptive audience for your criticism: you have already shown that you
understand their positions as well as they do, and have demonstrated good
judgment (you agree with them on some important matters and have even been
persuaded by something they said). Following Rapoport's rules is always,
for me, something of a struggle…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/19/daniel-dennett-intuition-pumps-thinking-extract


-- 
Pedro J. Hernández
http://gplus.to/pedroj