{"id":50538,"date":"2026-10-07T15:38:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/how-to-criticize-with-kindness-philosopher-daniel-dennett-on-the-four-steps-to-arguing-intelligently\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T15:38:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:38:03","slug":"how-to-criticize-with-kindness-philosopher-daniel-dennett-on-the-four-steps-to-arguing-intelligently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/how-to-criticize-with-kindness-philosopher-daniel-dennett-on-the-four-steps-to-arguing-intelligently\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJust how charitable are you supposed to be when criticizing the views of an opponent?\u201d<\/h3>\n
\n

<\/a>\u201cIn disputes upon moral or scientific points,\u201d<\/em> Arthur Martine counseled in his magnificent 1866 guide to the art of conversation<\/a>, \u201clet your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.\u201d<\/em> Of course, this isn\u2019t what happens most of the time when we argue, both online and off, but especially when we deploy the artillery of our righteousness from behind the comfortable shield of the keyboard. That form of \u201ccriticism\u201d \u2014 which is really a menace of reacting rather than responding \u2014 is worthy of Mark Twain\u2019s memorable remark<\/a> that \u201cthe critic\u2019s symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in somebody else\u2019s dung, otherwise he could not hatch it.\u201d<\/em> But it needn\u2019t be this way \u2014 there are ways to be critical while remaining charitable, of aiming not to \u201cconquer\u201d but to \u201ccome at truth,\u201d not to be right at all costs but to understand and advance the collective understanding.<\/p>\n

Daniel Dennett<\/strong> (March 28, 1942\u2013April 19, 2024), whom artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky has called \u201cour best current philosopher\u201d and \u201cthe next Bertrand Russell<\/a>,\u201d poses an apt question that probes some of the basic tendencies and dynamics of today\u2019s everyone-is-a-critic culture: \u201cJust how charitable are you supposed to be when criticizing the views of an opponent?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Daniel Dennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 the same fantastic volume that gave us Dennett on the dignity and art-science of making mistakes<\/a> \u2014 he offers what he calls \u201cthe best antidote [for the] tendency to caricature one\u2019s opponent\u201d<\/em>: a list of rules formulated decades ago by the legendary social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport, best-known for originating the famous tit-for-tat strategy of game theory. Dennett synthesizes the steps:<\/p>\n

\n

How to compose a successful critical commentary:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You should attempt to re-express your target\u2019s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, \u201cThanks, I wish I\u2019d thought of putting it that way.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).<\/li>\n
  3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.<\/li>\n
  4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    If only the same code of conduct could be applied to critical commentary online, particularly to the indelible inferno of comments.<\/p>\n

    But rather than a naively utopian, Pollyannaish approach to debate, Dennett points out this is actually a sound psychological strategy that accomplishes one key thing: It transforms your opponent into a more receptive audience for your criticism or dissent, which in turn helps advance the discussion.<\/p>\n

    Compare and contrast with Susan Sontag\u2019s three steps to refuting any argument<\/a>, and treat yourself to Dennett\u2019s wholly excellent Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n

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    \u201cJust how charitable are you supposed to be when criticizing the views of an opponent?\u201d \u201cIn disputes upon moral or scientific points,\u201d Arthur Martine counseled in his magnificent 1866 guide to the art of conversation, \u201clet your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-life"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 11:19:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}