October 2014 Open Thread

More thread.

More like this

By popular request. Comments from Brent and folks arguing with him are cluttering up more useful discussions. All comments by Brent and responses to comments by Brent should go in this thread. I can't move comments in MT, so I'll just delete comments that appear in the wrong thread.
By popular request. Comments from El Gordo and folks arguing with him are cluttering up more useful discussions. All comments by El Gordo and responses to comments by El Gordo should go in this thread. I can't move comments in MT, so I'll just delete comments that appear in the wrong thread.
This thread is for people who wish to engage Ray in discussion. Ray, please do not post comments to any other thread. Everyone else, please do not respond to Ray in any other thread.
By popular request, here is the Jonas thread. All comments by Jonas and replies to his comments belong in this thread.

How about something new to think about ?
What do you think about skepticism?
How about the art of debate?
~~~~~~~~~
I would suggest:

There are two kinds of skeptics,
complete skeptic (that includes self-skepticism) and
one-directional skeptic (aka contrarian types)

There are two kinds of debate,
one where
learning is the goal,
the other
debate for debate {and fortune'$} sake.

In the first
you listen to and weigh your opponent's information and arguments, with the goal being to use opposing arguments to better understand one's own reasoning and justifications.

To learn from evidence and arguments... allowing the best to inspire reevaluating our own understanding. That's how we learn, and evolve, how we get better and move forward as we travel through our short lives. Hey and sometimes it hurts and our egos get bruised but that's part of the game of life and growing... know what I mean?

The second is
all about personal point scoring
relying on tricks rather than a serious dialogue
it has no interest in learning or truth,
only in "winning".

By citizenschallenge (not verified) on 11 Dec 2014 #permalink