Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Believing Game Or Methodological Believing, Peter Elbow
The Believing Game Or Methodological Believing, Peter Elbow
Peter Elbow
The kind of thinking most widely honored is often called "critical thinking." I call it "the doubting game" because the premise is that we should test ideas by subjecting them to the discipline of doubt. It's a valuable and necessary methodology for good thinking because it trains us to find hidden flaws in ideas that sound attractive or that are widely assumed to be true.
In this essay I suggest a different kind of thinking that is equally important but little honored or even noticed. I call it the believing game because the premise is that we should test ideas …
The Uses Of Binary Thinking, Peter Elbow
The Uses Of Binary Thinking, Peter Elbow
Peter Elbow
When thinkers encounter a contradiction they have traditionally tended to take one of three courses: to try to figure out which side is right; to figure out which side should be seen as hierarchially dominant; or to figure out or how to use a dialectic process synthesize them into a higher concept. In this essay I argue for the value of trying to learn to affirm both sides in all their contrariness.