Transformation through Dialogue

Doebke, Roger

Etd

Transformation through Dialogue Public Deposited

Creator

Doebke, Roger

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

In this thesis, I develop historical and contemporary data to show (a) How our culture has developed like-minded groups designed to oppose other like-minded groups who engage in behavior that is often destructive to society; (b) How mass communication aids and ebets like-minded groups, causing increased polarization and diviseness; (c) Insights into the nature and form of the human argumentative proccess; and (d) The innate epistemic vigilance humans possess to evaluate arguments and how this unique human characteristic can be employed to produce opportunities for both individual and societal change and transformation through dialogue. The commonly held belief that people can't change which condemns us all to accepting the miseries and dysfunction so apparent in the world. This study will re-phrase this misbelief to say that people can't change unless (a) they are open to change and (b) they are provided with the tools to change. Current literature in both psychology and neuroscience rebuts the idea that humans are fixed and inadaptable. Research in both medical and nonmedical therapies show not only that people can change but also that humans are biologically built to change. This occurs both as a result of the brain's ability to re-assign physical tasks from a nonfunctioning area of the brain to another functioning area, and also the capacity to change a brain function from what was previously thought to be useful in a singular way, such as a visual function to a sensory function. But o f equal importance is research that shows that the mind's simple thought processes can change the brain, resulting in behavioral changes. As a platform for further discussion and experimentation in the field of civil discourse, this author suggests the development of dialogical methodologies without which the dysfunctional nature of our current conversational model will continue to divide us into groups of like-minded people competing against other groups of like-minded people.

Year