Critical dialogue and its variants

Second-order Dialogue and Higher Order Discourse for the Future (Part #4)

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There is continuing reference to the value of "critical thinking" -- if not its necessity (Appreciating the value of critical thinking in time of crisis, 2021). Less evident is the relation between critical thinking and recognition of critical factors engendering crises (Critical Factors for the Long-term Survival of Humanity, 2000).

Ironically the absence of such thinking during the recent pandemic crisis is increasingly remarked -- with recognition of the extent to which it has been repressed (Blanca Puig, et al, "Fake News" or Real Science? Critical Thinking to Assess Information on COVID-19, Frontiers, 3 May 2021; Stephen J. Sterlitz, et al, Promoting Critical Thinking during a Pandemic, Journal of Dental Education, 85, 2021, 1). There is a case for recognizing the distinction from specious argument and "uncritical thinking" (Web resources: Critical thinking vs. Specious arguments, 2001; Mapping the system of uncritical thinking? 2016). As a form of meta-communication, it is also appropriate to recognize how vital critical thinking tends to be repressed under conditions of crisis.

Reference to "critical" can be understood as implying a form of "meta-perspective". There is then the concern with enabling "critical dialogue" on highly controversial questions, as separately argued (Guidelines for Critical Dialogue between Worldviews, 2006)

• Mary Jane Collier and Brandi Lawless: Critically Reflexive Dialogue and Praxis: academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles (Journal of Applied Communication Research, 44, 2016 2)
• J. A. Lucy (Ed.): Reflexive Language: Reported speech and metapragmatics(Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• Suresh Raval: Metacriticism (University of Georgia Press, 1981).

Reflective dialogue: This is presented by David J Voelker as:

Reflective dialogue is a special kind of discussion that can be used strategically in the classroom to build community, expand the capacity for listening, and cultivate individual reflection... A reflective dialogue opens space for students to work through the intellectual and emotional implications of the content that they are studying, without the pressure for everyone in the room to arrive at the same destination. Reflection (with listening) can be especially productive when students are confronting difficult issues. (Reflective Dialogue)

Voelker refers to related resources in the form of:

• Reflective Discussion: Why, Who, When, and How (for facilitators) (shareable PDF)
• General Principles for Participating in Reflective Discussion (1-page, shareable PDF)
• Annotated Resource Guide on Reflective Dialogue and Transformative Education (shareable PDF)
• The Center for Civic Reflection on Reflective Discussion

Self-criticism: Considerable importance has been variously and controversially attached to the process and role of self-criticism, most notably as cultivated by Marxism-Leninism, and clarified by Joseph Stalin (Against Vulgarising the Slogan of Self-Criticism, 26 June 1928).

Such criticism is potentially to be understood as a form of meta-communication. In psychology it is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. A valuable exception is offered by Paul B. Woodruff (Self-Ridicule: Socratic Wisdom, Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy, 2019).

It is of course remarkable that many in positions of authority exhibit little capacity to adopt a critical perspective -- a meta-perspective (?) -- with regard to their own behaviour and failure to learn from strategic disasters in which they have been complicit.

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