Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Thinking in Third Person

"Speak the truth of today and don't worry about tomorrow. If tomorrow contradicts today, tomorrow can stand up for itself."


When a student asked me why I forced him to write in the third person, I said something that surprised me, something I think is highly debatable. For that reason, I think it is a good idea to discuss it. After all, science advances through the process of elimination, why shouldn't the softer sciences?

I said, "We teach students to write in third person because we are hoping that they will learn to think in third person."

To begin with, to think in third person is ridiculous. We are always human beings, from a culture, from a father and a mother, from a hometown, and from DNA which, like a snowflake, has never been duplicated.

I think many of us think of objectivity like a light switch. Either we are objective or we are not. Either we are fair or we are biased. But it is not a light switch. Even if it was, postmodernism has reminded us that human beings don't have the ability to turn it on.

Instead of imagining objectivity like a light switch, what if we entertain the idea that it is a dimmer. Even if the switch is broken, even if it cannot get to total light or total darkness, compared to the alternative, it is much better to have your hand upon the switch.

That is what we hope to teach you.
This is a skill that does not come naturally; evolution doesn't prepare you to think like this. Presenting your ideas to diverse groups of people, people who do not share your culture, your parents, or your hometown, people who will not accept your ideas because of how you look or who you are, is how you prepare to think like this.

This is why writing about "boring" topics are better practice that writing about something you choose.
This is what businesses want from you, to think about a situation clearly. No one will pay you to keep talking about and thinking about yourself.









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-Noone speaks Standard English
-Noone writes Standard English
-Everyone has a limited perspective
-Everyone has a biased perspective.
-Everyone writes from a birds "I" view.

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The brain is a jump to conclusions machine.   Trying to explain one's thoughts in detail is one method of thinking more objectively.   A second method is by focusing on the evidence before creating an interpretation of the evidence.

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