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May 26, 2003

Killing Axioms

Courtesy of Rook comes this article, which discusses why it can be so hard to convince someone to relinquish a belief regardless of evidence to the contrary. Go check it out, then come back. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Back so soon? Showoff.

OK, understanding why people have difficulty changing their belief structure is important, because it is key to successful argument. By successful argument, I do not necessarily mean winning arguments; while there is certainly some satisfaction to be found in winning an argument, there is far more in discovering the right answer. Even if it's not the one you would prefer. (Yes, this is an ideal, and not one I'd ever claim to reach more than a fraction of the time. But it is good to have a few ideals.) Learning to identify core beliefs is a critical piece of this process.

But identifying those core beliefs is harder than it sounds. For most of us, our core beliefs are so integral to our mindset, it can be difficult to separate ourselves from them enough to identify them. But do so we must, if we're to focus the arguments on the true issues.

To that end, I will attempt to sum up my own core beliefs, my personal axioms. By so doing, perhaps future discussions on this site will be just a bit better informed, and the signal to noise ratio will be reduced, if only a little. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to post it tomorrow evening.