Merle...


Tom,

The derivation of the word "debate" is the Latin word "battere" (pound, beat, hit).  The derivation of the word "dialogue" is from the Greek "dialogos."  "Dia" can mean "through", and "logos" is "the word."  The point here is that debate is an old form of working through problems (although still with us like a vestigial tail) and ratchets up confrontation to a win-lose dance.  Dialogue seeks to open space for creative, non-bifurcated thinking, that leads to better outcomes on contentious issues.  I'd hate to see debate as a process reinforced  on the Internet.
<distractingly discursive diatribe>

    Are you trying to start a dialogue or a debate here?

</distractingly discursive diatribe>



Seriously... Tom, thanks for bringing this up and Tory and Merle for commenting on it (and Nick for discarding damnable debate from his discourse).

Personally, I'm not a big fan of "Debate" as a process but I accept it as one of many forms of discourse that are common in the world, and I believe that such has it's place, even if it might often be over-used in our culture.

I am a big fan of the general concept of Concept Mapping, Mind Mapping, etc. specifically for collaborative work.  My tool of choice is CMapTools (referenced by Tom).  I *am* interested in what looks like some "complementarity" between "debateGraphing" and "Concept" or "Mind" mapping.   It appears to actually capture some of the essence of the difference between Debate and Dialog.

I am also a big fan of  Bohm's ideas... starting with his language known as "the Rheomode" and including "Bohm Dialog".   I'm not sure how truly, realistically practical it actually is, but his heart was in the right place and I think he understood a lot about the "question" even if I'm not so sure about his "answer".

For the science geeks here, Bohm was a serious card-carrying quantum physicist long before he started publicly discussing language and before he met and befriended Jidu Krishnamurti and got all spiritual.

Some of you may know that Bohm was a "local" of sorts, spending quite a bit of time near the end of his life, at the Jemez Springs Buddhist Retreat.

- Steve
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