You Need Fighting Friends

Question: What exists, but is nowhere to be found?

Answer: Intellectual Honesty

The search for intellectual honesty today is elusive.

We should admire and revere those who practice it, but the plague of intellectual dishonesty runs rampant. In a world where everyone is pressured to take a side, people choose acceptance over truth and validation over progress.

We’re witnessing an explosion of Straw Man Arguments, the distortion of an opposing position into an extreme version of itself and the argument against that extreme position instead of working to uncover the truth. This process strips all nuance from learning and eliminates the opportunity for the development of any applicable wisdom. Opposing sides continue to paint each other in their most extreme, caricature-like form.

But there is another way for those who seek discovery over dogma… the Steelman Argument.

A Steelman Argument does the exact opposite of a Straw Man Argument. Instead of distorting an opposing view to validate your position, a Steelman Argument works diligently to define the strongest form of an opposing position before arguing against it. Only when we can arrive at the best form of a counter argument do we become qualified to engage.

This requires intellectual honesty. It’s not about winning.

It’s about working with others, especially those with differing viewpoints, to inch closer to the truth, to a better way, and to progress.

But there is also an opposite extreme to protect against: The Pollyanna view that somehow everyone is right, that everyone has their own truth. This also brims with Intellectual Dishonesty.

Intellectual honesty is a muscle to be grown. If I were your intellectual honesty trainer I would prescribe you the following training program:

1. Define your core beliefs.

2. Define the counter, or opposing, beliefs.

3. Research the opposing beliefs until you can articulate the strongest argument for that belief in a clear and simple way. You don’t understand something until you can communicate it simply, jargon removed.

4. Find a trusted sparring partner who is willing to engage in conversation on each topic while holding the position of the opposing belief (whether they believe it or not).

5. Debate without allowing either side to leverage intellectually dishonest tactics, such as straw manning. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not to win.

6. At the end of this (hopefully lively) conversation, evaluate where, how and why you’ve shifted your thinking, if at all.

One of the benefits of engaging in this training program is that you’ll soon find yourself surrounded by other intellectually honest friends who are willing to push how you think, what you believe, and how you communicate.

Intellectual honesty isn’t for the faint of heart. You may need to change your mind. You may begin to believe things that are contrary to those around you. You may begin to realize just how little you know.

But isn’t that what we’re all here for?

Wisdom is knowledge that has help up under the concentrated pressure of experience and scrutiny.