Value of Dialogue
I was invited to give a talk at an Iranian school during an event joining philosophical practice and debate. The idea that there is a middle ground between these two activities that I passionately engage in was odd to me at first. While in practice the two look to be in conflict, they share many similarities in qualities such as argument building and playing with ideas. They exercise dialogue. And so I decided to address the value of dialogue in my talk. I have the fortune to experience the value of dialogue in my active learning style classroom, in competitive debate, and in my training in Socratic questioning. But to create this list, I wanted to set aside the assumption that someone might have the same interest in a liberal arts, classical Great Books education. I wanted to speak to adolescents who might be interested in pursuing university studies in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. I wanted to appeal to the next generation who are being told that computers and artificial intelligence will make redundant or become an essential part of many of our traditional occupations. I wanted to demonstrate that dialogue is intrinsic to being human, interacting with others, participating in public life, and finding fulfillment in the years we have.
My favorite characteristics of dialogue will be different from what others like. If a few resonate with you, or maybe you have more to add, please share—I would be pleased to participate in dialogue with you.
Life. We are beings seeking occupation, meaning, and expression. It would be easy to follow the lead of others and become stuck in routine in order to survive and fulfill duties. But we do more. Something pulls us to create, to desire something beyond, to exercise and push our limitations. Dialogue is the mode that enables us to do this. When we act in routine and duties, we attend to practical needs. When we go beyond, we feel alive, as if the blood pulses through us for a reason—we are happy to discover vitality, dynamism, and animation. This, once in motion, finds the opposite of inertia, creating energy from the momentum, joy of life, and desire to reach this vitality more and more.
Learning. We are fallible creatures, limited in knowledge, resources, and life. When we actively read, we are in dialogue with the text; when we converse with acquaintances, we share different perspectives; when we travel the world, we are open to the unknown. We are also curious creatures, constantly testing and revising our hypotheses about how the world works. Dialogue is an essential format for this expansion of knowledge to acquire and refine from alterity.
Construction. We have the opportunity in dialogue to voice one position, and then to be open and interested in hearing other perspectives. We learn from listening to each other, being available to being wrong, wanting to create some idea that is greater than our limited perspective and knowledge. The result is greater than the sum of the parts because it relies on collaboration, where one thesis is met with an antithesis and a synthesis can be reached.
Agility. We have abilities we can train to exponentially increase with some practice. With exercise, the work of thinking becomes easier, the flexibility of recognizing and trying different perspectives can be explored, and our availability to the pleasures of thinking becomes prominent and desirable. The more we engage in dialogue, which offers opportunity and accountability for this exercise, the more agile we are in thinking.
Expression. We have ideas that we want to share as creatures who desire to have some effect on the world and leave some significant contribution so that life is not meaningless. So we express ourselves, but not in isolation. The freedom of speech does not equal the right to be heard. Others desire to express themselves as well, and when we respect and share with each other, the other cares to listen in turn.
Participation. We are social beings, with desires to share, commune, and develop culture and legacy. No man is an island. We even define ourselves in relation to each other, whether familial, occupational, or communal. Dialogue allows us the platform to take part in these relationships and recognize our place among the billions of other souls.
Civility. We must acknowledge that the self does not exist in isolation in order to dialogue. In society, we give up some natural rights and freedoms in order to benefit from sharing within community. When we practice dialogue, we exercise respect for each other, listening to the other’s ideas, maturing and developing civility, and arriving at some conclusion that can benefit many.
Persuasion. We want to persuade others often: to like, to agree, to believe, to invest, to contribute, to vote. One important way we put our dialogue skills to use is to advocate for ideas. We do this with modes of logical reasoning, evidence and authority, storytelling and relatability. Practicing dialogue allows us to exercise persuasion skills to improve in applying effective methods. The more we refine and try again with routine, the better our ability to persuade becomes.
Exercise. Our brain works like a muscle, in that the more we challenge it, the more agile and strong it becomes, the easier it is to use it. Like an athlete, creating routine, trying new strategies, and varying the moves all contribute to increasing abilities. Building arguments can be difficult and intimidating in the beginning, but with practice we find joy in accomplishing, taking on increasingly challenging tasks, and discovering the ease that comes from our efforts. The exercise need not be result oriented, as the life it creates and atrophy it avoids is joy in itself.
Improvement. Our desire to improve ourselves is something we can work towards with dialogue. The growth mindset comes from our position to do something more than live, work, eat, sleep, and die. Growth mindset is the cognitive position that we are not bound by current limitations, we have some incentive to be better than what we have been before. We can achieve, affect others and the world around us, and leave some small impression. Dialogue helps, for instance by comparison and discovery, to see ways in which we can improve, and we are inspired to emulate and progress as a result.
Power. Our power is limited by many factors, including mortality, energy, focus, inertia, training, and the physical self. Yet in dialogue we are rather potent, and increasingly potent the more we engage in dialogue. Through dialogue we try different ideas, modes of persuasion, discover our strengths and weaknesses, and fail and succeed. Dialogue engages in thinking, with the added benefit of the feedback of the other. This practice and critique exercise allows us to make immediate adjustments and consecutive attempts to refine our work to reach success. We are empowered by recognizing potential, attempting with repetition, adjusting from feedback, and practicing to increase the potential.
Achievement. Our progress through life we mark with goals and milestones. Informed by dialogue we select, refine, and measure goals. Via dialogue we celebrate reaching milestones with each other. The comparison, emulation, motivation, and recognition of others offer inspiration to continue to take joy in winning and to seek the next challenge for improvement.
Creativity. We have many abilities as human beings, but based on interests and careers we can tend to focus on some and ignore others. Dialogue enables us to try new skills and challenge ourselves, which can have beautiful results. For instance, we can train our intuition in a way that we can trust it. We can discover that we care about social justice issues or that a friend also enjoys dance. Dialogue enables new paths to explore.
Stimulation. We can easily fall into regular habits, perspectives, and dogmas when we are stuck with ourselves. Dialogue creates some inspiration and emulation by participating with the other and being a part of a group. The ideas of others stimulate each other. In groups, the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts, such as with schools of philosophy. In turn, the participants can take this exposure to this stimulation to make the spirit in better shape.
Impression. We grow up reading famous authors, learning about significant leaders and politicians, and admiring the art of musicians and storytellers. By trying to emulate great communicators, we become good communicators ourselves. Whether facing a job interview, asking for votes, or wooing a lover, our developed skills of expressing and advocating for ourselves impress others. It is nice when others are impressed, and we can even feel pride to invoke the impression in others that we have for the greats.
Pleasure. We derive joy from thinking, from thinking with others, and from articulating ideas that did not exist before. Our gift of reason is almost magical. Like endorphins for the body, something is created in our soul when we put effort into a task, find it difficult, expand our perspectives, achieve something beyond the boundaries we think we have, and create something new.
Alterity. We can easily get lost in our own subjectivity, believing that how we were raised and what we believe is reality. But the world is full of other perspectives, ideas, beliefs, cultures, social norms, and values. Dialogue allows us to recognize our subjectivity, be available to the world, play with other positions and sides from various angles, and expand our thinking by taking an interest in discovering other perspectives. These exercises move us towards more objectivity.
Individuality. We discover our identity as a being, existing as an individual with our own needs, feelings, and ideas through dialogue. First, we are given a name at birth and we offer it to the other when we meet someone. One’s name is the sweetest sound to a person, as it recognizes the self as an individual worthy of respect. More broadly, we use identities and memberships in various categories, which we discover through dialogue, to acknowledge, realize, and appreciate memberships and distinctions.
Freedom. We enjoy natural and human rights as individuals born in democratic societies and times and as thinkers with agency. Thinking, expressing, and sharing is a form of exercising our freedoms. Many articulations of rights prioritize dialogue as essential, recognized before many other essential rights. This exercise gives us an enjoyment of feeling free in the process, an ability to question our limitations, and liberate where needed or desired. Both for the self and society, dialogue allows evolution of freedom.
Community. We practice recognizing the other with respect and dignity in dialogue. We take the others in consideration, we think together and construct a piece together of the different thinking that is greater than the sum of the parts. There is something we can call communion. Ideally each member is included and the needs of the disadvantaged are addressed first because dialogue allows for understanding and compassion for others.
Progress. We articulate, test, challenge, build, and refine ideas with each other in the process of dialogue. Synthesis, compromise, and construction allow progress in ourselves with personal goals and in society as we understand each other, differences, needs, compassion, and respect lead to benefits for humanity in general and a better world for future generations.
Skepticism. We have great capacities to think. Yet left to ourselves, we are good at taking our conclusions as not only true but also lacking need for revision or refinement. Think of individuals who live without a passport, consume the same news sources, and dominate the conversation instead of practicing good listening skills—they are rather dogmatic. When we practice dialogue, we ask questions, learn how to find joy in discovering when we are wrong, and develop an ability to explore what is being expressed beyond the literal meaning of the words. This can be in irony or joking, or more seriously in situations of persuasion or power struggle. We learn through practice of dialogue to observe when the physical, emotional, social, factual, or inciting factors overwhelm the literal.
Humanity. Aristotle argued that each animal is its best self when acting in accordance to its essence. Lions are their best lion-ness when being ferocious. Swans are their best swan-ness when being graceful. Dogs are their best dog-ness when defending the pack. Aristotle referred to humanity as the social animal and as the rational animal. So when we participate in exercising dialogue, both a social and rational activity, we are being our best human selves.