19 Basic Premises
1 - 4
We do not seek to "win";
we seek to persuade.
1
Questions are the answer.
"The only people who quarrel are those who don't know
how to argue."
- G.K. Chesterton
Declarations are not conversations, and conversations
are not discussions.
We aim for discussions.
2
3
4
5 - 8
5
Discussion are exchanges of ideas based on trust and intellectual integrity.
6
Many failures in communication are the result of not properly defining words, concepts, and ideas.
7
You must often build a bridge for your partner in a discussion to retreat across.
8
Wisdom is:
"men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown, proposed as things forgot"
-A. Pope
9 - 12
9
A man should be judged by his questions rather than by his answers.
10
We strive to free a man from parroting another man's ideas and words; we want to free a man to think for himself. We seek HIS point of view.
11
"Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humbled that it knows no more."
- William Cowper
​
"There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man."
- Aristotle
12
Normally folks change their minds
one yard at a time.
Is an incremental change fine with you?
13 - 16
13
14
It is not wise to start a conversation with precise questions. You have to earn the right to become precise in a conversation or discussion.
15
"You should never argue
with stupid people, they drag
you down to their level and
beat you with experience."
- Mark Twain
What Twain said about stupid
people I echo about deceitful people.
It is not wise to argue with
a deceitful person.
​
Are you capable of being taught? Persuaded?
And being proven wrong?
"A man ought never be ashamed to admit he's been wrong, it's just another way of saying I'm wiser today than
I was yesterday."
- A. Pope
16
We abhor half-truths.
"The half-truth is the most immoral
of all lies"
- Mark Twain
17 - 19
17
18
"Courage is not the absence
of fear, but the triumph over it."
-Nelson Mandela
​
19
"Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs with facts."
- Henry Rosovsky
"The truth must be served
like a coat and not thrown into
the face like a wet towel."
-Mark Twain
