Do you get mad and yell?
Or do you ask questions?
Watch our Truth in Two, finding out how to counter another point of view (full text below).
Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, SnappyGoat
FULL TEXT
From time to time, I want to teach in these videos what I teach in classes. I believe it’s important for people to hear how universal truth applies in the public square. The ten principles I recite here are taught at a public university. But the principles can and could be applied in any communication. Here are my ten principles to consider when rejecting an argument or another point of view.
(1) Have you acknowledged your own assumptions, preconceptions, starting points, sources of and claims for truth?
(2) Have you recognized your own reasoning is susceptible to error, falsehood, bias, and that you, and those who agree with you, are not the final arbiters of truth?
(3) Have you heard, read, and watched the best sources of the other point of view, honestly listening to understand?
(4) Have you interpreted what you hear *not* through spokespersons sympathetic to your own point of view?
(5) Have you appreciated the best arguments from the other person’s perspective, unfiltered by your own prejudice or prior commitments?
(6) Have you compared and contrasted the best arguments from the other point of view with your best arguments?
(7) Have you asked questions which may illuminate truth or error?
(8) Have you tested the credibility and verifiability of your own point of view with the same vigor with which you have tested other perspectives?
(9) Have you rejected intellectual discrimination by those parties who ignore evidence, exclude by silence, or rely on unverified sources of information?
(10) Have you sought a simple, understandable explanation of your point of view which could be made clear to anyone?
You could be communicating with your spouse, boss, friend, or an online questioner. These ten questions could be a real help toward hearing another point of view. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.