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Know a great resource that would serve the People Beyond Politics™ community well? Please let us know all about it here!
Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician and scientist, says that the missing ingredient from political discourse today is mathematical logic. It not only helps create better arguments; it also fosters common ground. Her newest book is titled: The Art of Logic in an Illogical World.
She recently gave a 20-minute interview to CBC Radio, in which she describes a process of exploring the context and building blocks of someone else's argument. While I come from an intercultural perspective and she uses mathematical logic as a framework, we arrive at a remarkably similar place. The interview is well worth listening to. (Thank you for forwarding this, Ingrid!)
Interview with Mahzarin Banaji
Krista Tippett of On Being interviews Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of social ethics in the psychology department at Harvard University, co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, and the creator of the Implicit Association Test.
“TIPPET: She’s helping us see how the mind is a “difference-seeking machine” – and in this way, it helps us order and navigate what could be the overwhelming complexity of reality. Yet this same gift creates blind spots and biases as we fill in what we don’t know with the limits of what we do know. This is science that takes our grappling with difference out of the realm of guilt and into the realm of transformative good.”
What if journalists covered controversial issues differently — based on how humans actually behave when they are polarized and suspicious?
By Amanda Ripley / Solutions Journalism Network
This is an outstanding article about the importance of spending time to explore complex narratives, because doing so will give us a different understanding of any given issue and make us less prone to binary thinking. Thank you, Francesco, for forwarding it!
Guy Raz, host of the TED Radio Hour, interviews four people who have a particular perspective on free speech. This is a very interesting exploration of what to do when we find some views offensive. You can read the transcript or listen to the podcast.
These are pearls of wisdom, expressed in a way that makes a lasting impression. George Saunders is a gifted writer because he writes about familiar ideas in new ways. This is George Saunders' convocation speech at Syracuse University for the Class of 2013. Watch the video of his speech or read the transcript. It is well worth the time. Thank you, Cindy, for forwarding it!
“Do all the…ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers… — as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.”
By Lou Marinoff
This is a useful explanation of why and how to conduct a Socratic dialogue, for questions such as: “What is justice?” Thanks for forwarding, Gerry!
“Socratic dialogue helps a group to discover what something is, as opposed to what it isn’t.”
In this TEDx Talk, Shauna Shapiro, psychologist and researcher, discusses the neuroscience behind mindfulness. Extensive research on the brain now shows that “what you practice grows stronger.”
She also points out that shame never works, whether applied to others or ourselves. “Shame literally robs the brain of the energy needed to do the work of changing.”
Finally, she emphasizes the importance of kindness in all we do. “Mindfulness is intentionally paying attention with kindness.”
This is a fascinating TED Talk by Lisa Feldman Barrett, neuroscentist and psychologist. It will forever change how you think about emotions.
For the past 25 years, psychology professor Lisa Feldman Barrett has mapped facial expressions, scanned brains and analyzed hundreds of physiology studies to understand what emotions really are. She shares the results of her exhaustive research – and explains how we may have more control over our emotions than we think.
By Elizabeth Kolbert
“New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason.” This is an excellent article by Elizabeth Kolbert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, published in The New Yorker.
June 20, 2017
Zach Wood explains the importance of hearing and debating controversial ideas, even those we find offensive. He gives an important and eloquent 5-minute speech before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
“For me, free speech is not about grinding a partisan axe or advancing any set of enduring ideological preferences. I care deeply about my education and I value the freedom to interrogate all manner of contentious ideas and beliefs in hope of gaining a deeper understanding of the world and using that knowledge to one day make a positive difference in the lives of others. Free speech and intellectual freedom matter to me because they are among the founding principles that animate the vibrancy and ensure the sustenance of our democracy.”
Debate hosted and sponsored by Intelligence Squared. Debaters for the motion: Howard Dean and Melissa Harris-Perry. Debaters against the motion: David Brooks and Robert George.
[The two debaters against the motion are well known for their lucid, eloquent, and cogent arguments.]
David Brooks writes that moderates “… believe creativity happens when you merge galaxies of belief that seem at first blush incompatible. They might combine left-wing ideas about labor unions with right-wing ideas about local community to come up with a new conception of labor law. Because they are syncretistic, they are careful to spend time in opposing camps, always opening lines of communication. The wise moderate can hold two or more opposing ideas together in her mind at the same time.”
[No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, this short article is well worth reading. Very thought-provoking.]
Krista Tippett (host of On Being) interviews Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “The surprising psychology behind morality is at the heart of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s research. He explains “liberal” and “conservative” not narrowly or necessarily as political affiliations, but as personality types — ways of moving through the world.”
[Among his many important contributions, Haidt highlights the extent to which emotions drive our rational thought.]
Read these international perspectives from The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland, a European graduate school and think-tank. “…democracy continues to be acclaimed everywhere, but indicators of political and civic freedom show it to be in deep trouble. This paradox of democratic success but liberal decline calls for a more fine-grained analysis…”
[Always refreshing to step out of a U.S.-centric perspective on global affairs and see issues through a different lens.]
Know a great resource that would serve the People Beyond Politics™ community well? Please let us know all about it here!
The Flip Side provides a summary of daily news items from sources on the left and the right. It’s not just about politics. For example, I learned something new when reading all of the perspectives on Amazon’s decision to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. The sources they choose for both the left and right columns provide thought-provoking commentary. (Thanks for forwarding, Brian!)
"The Flip Side is on a mission to help bridge the gap between liberals and conservatives. We're a one-stop shop for smart, concise summaries of political analysis from both conservative and liberal media. Our goal is to become a news source for liberals, moderates, independents, conservatives, and even the apolitical."
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