СНАР.
XXIV

Oral Dialectic Stimulating to Thought,

But Dimcult to Manage Well

Advan

tages and Disadvan

tages of

in Print

I myself have never had such free and onward thinking as in the thronged noisy streets of far, strange cities, where I knew not a word nor a soul.

Solitude is needed, to be sure, for working out and fusing together ideas, but usually one's mind leaps and mounts best in discussion with a few kindred spirits who have like intellectual background and interest, attach the same meaning to words, and recognize the same rules of thought. The visible effort of each suggests a like effort to the rest. Challenge rouses the emulative spirit, and there is incitement in the evident zest of one's fellows in the sport of chasing ideas.

Such dialectic is, however, rare, for it presupposes a technique which few know, or, knowing, will observe. Apart from such obvious pitfalls as lack of real mental sympathy among the participants, use of terms in different senses, neglect to define the issue, straying from lack of leadership, we see countless discussions end in nothing because there has been, in fact, no cooperation. One welcomes the opportunity to air his prejudices. Another loves to hear himself talk. This disputant thinks he is in a tourney, while that one knows nothing on the subject, but will display his versatility. If any one participant lacks respect for others, good manners, or a love of truth greater than love of self, the discussion turns into fireworks, a sparring match, or a monologue.

Discussion conducted in print eliminates personal factors appearance, voice, manners, etc.- which in oral discussion often Discussion prove a stumbling-block to concerted thinking. On the other hand, it is less stimulating to the minds engaged, and the participants may miss a close grapple. Sophistry, insincerity, and pose are not so promptly unmasked as in oral intercourse. Contrasting the mode of organizing thought in government departments with the oral methods of Parliament, Mr. Wallas observes:

The total effect, therefore, of a modern official organization based solely on writing is the combination of great efficiency in the handling of detail on established lines, with the existence of an "official atmosphere" which may be incompatible with some of the finer intellectual requirements of government, and has, in fact, often produced a general dislike of official methods among the outside public. "The Great Society," p. 270.

СНАР.

XXIV

Formal

as a

Arriving

How formal disputation has fallen into discredit as an instrument for ascertaining truth! Recall the breathless interest in theological and metaphysical disputes in Christian Alexandria, DisputaAntioch, and Byzantium. In the Middle Ages it stood in high on No favor, and it was not until well into the modern era that Sir Trusted Henry Wotton expressed his belief that "the itch of disputing Method of makes the scab of the churches." Once scholars could think of no better feat for the budding Doctor of Philosophy than to take Truth an intellectual position and maintain it against all comers. Years ago in the University of Berlin I saw a youth qualify for his doctorate by defending his "thesis" against three friends, each attacking it in a speech prepared in advance by the candidate himself and gracefully surrendering after his objections had been neatly bowled over!

Students

Have

by Totally

Method

That we now see disputation as conflict rather than cooperation, The with the waste that antagonistic effort always entails, is owing, of Nature no doubt, to the triumphs of science. The students of nature Advanced have got on so wonderfully, not by wielding sharper wits than the ba schoolmen had, but by resorting to observation, experiment, meas- Different urement, and record. Their technique for interrogating the concrete succeeds even in the attack upon the problems of mind, government, and society, so that every year sees it carried into new fields of inquiry. Research leaves, to be sure, a place for the arena, but we realize now that full knowledge of the relevant facts is a prerequisite for profitable discussion. It is just because they were unprovided with the results of impartial, welldirected investigation that the intellectual athletes of the Middle Ages did not get far with all their clever debates and polemics.

Their Disbut Point Fresh

cussions

the Way to

Investiga

on to

Doubtful

When men of science meet, how much time is given to presenting the results of investigation, how little to discussion! Such difference of opinion as may develop touching the correct interpretation of these results is presently traced to some flaw or ambiguity in the data, which can be removed by ascertaining certain facts not yet brought to light. Instead of running on with- Points out getting anywhere, discussion but points the way for a fresh sally into the concrete. If genealogies and herd books leave students of heredity still in doubt, they devise crucial breeding experiments which will settle the question one way or another. If geologists differ as to the number of glacial periods the deposits indicate, instead of wrangling they scatter to renewed study of

СНАР.

XXIV

In Courts
Laboratory
Methods

Are Gain-
ing upon
Forensic
Disputa-

tion

Parliamentary Discussions

moraine and drift. Let sociologists disagree as to whether fewer births mean declining fertility or limitation of the family, and soon some one settles the matter by drawing out confidential information from some hundreds of married couples. The continual expansion of government statistical inquiries testifies to the growing demand for adequate data as a basis for the profitable discussion of proposed laws and policies.

What of forensic disputation as a means of organizing the thought of judicial bodies about a lawsuit?

Despite the glowing testimonials lawyers give it, doubt is spreading as to the value of the time-honored contentious procedure of the courtroom. The best-qualified man there, the judge; it reduces to a mere umpire. Hence a rising demand that his rôle be magnified, if not to that of a Continental judge, then at least to that of an English judge. More and more, chemists, physicians, and alienists testify for the court, not for one side, and some of our courts retain such experts on their staff. In the juvenile court the methods of drawing out the truth and reaching a judgment resemble those of a clinic. Before the great administrative boards that have been set up lately in some of our states - public utilities commissions, industrial commissions, etc.— a direct, matter-of-fact procedure borrowed from science leaves small scope for the battle between opposing lawyers. On a question of grade crossing or factory ventilation, instead of hearing advocates, the commissions have their trusty agents get the lie of the land or analyze the factory air. It seems probable, then, that in adjudication the methods of the laboratory will gain upon the methods of the forum.

There is good reason why popularly-elected representative assemblies the world over have lost prestige, so that people are comInfluential ing to hearken more to intellectuals outside of public life — uni

Are Less

than Formerly

versity presidents, inventors, scholars, philanthropists, and captains of industry and less to parliamentary orators. Owing to the clamor of each locality to have its own man in the legislature, the lawmaking body is so large that only by courtesy can it be called "deliberative." It is there to register will, and this function keeps it bigger than any thinking group should be. It includes too many who are inert, or who clog the swollen current of discussion with "buncombe," for the " folks back home." The thinking members themselves are vitiated. Before an assembly

so large they fire off speeches of the lamp, which so poorly focus upon the issues developed in discussion that opponents glide past each other like locomotives on parallel tracks. They are tempted to oratory, the foe of logic, and to partisan debate, the foe of reasonableness. Candor well-nigh perishes, for it is harder to recede or accept correction before hundreds than before tens. Hence the "House" limits itself to ultimate decision, while the hammering of laws into shape goes on only in committees of a dozen men or less.

The democratic-looking proposal to make all committee sessions public is a proposal to hunt frank and fruitful discussion from its last refuge in capitols. The barrenness of the average full-dress legislative debate is due to pose, the participants addressing, not their fellow-members, but a less-enlightened outside public. Instead of candid man-to-man talk, we get claptrap and sparring for party advantage. Publicity would introduce a like. insincerity into committee discussions and oblige the majority representatives to talk matters over informally in advance in order to clarify their minds before the curtain went up.

The bodies charged with thinking upon the policies of business corporations, colleges, charities, associations, and clubs are small, rarely including more than a score of members. Such a group is not unwieldy, but still it is a problem how to get all the members to keep their minds taut. Thus Mr. Wallas testifies:

I have myself, during the last twenty-five years, sat through perhaps three thousand meetings of municipal committees of different sizes and for different purposes, and I am sure that at least half the men and women with whom I have sat were entirely unaware that any conscious mental effort on their part was called for. They attended in almost exactly the same mental attitude in which some of them went to church with a vague sense, that is to say, that they were doing their duty and that good must come of it. If they became interested in the business it was an accident. Of the remaining half, perhaps two-thirds had come with one or two points which they wanted to "get through," and meanwhile let the rest of the business drift past them, unless some phrase in the discussion roused them to a more or less irrelevant interruption.

Such persons are prone to follow the lead of dominating individuals who will spare them brain wear and tear. Not long ago

"The Great Society," p. 276.

CHAP.
XXIV

What a

Chairman

Invigorate
His Board

the governing boards of some great American corporations had so abdicated their thinking function that directors intrusted with the interests of thousands of stockholders would in ten minutes dispose of motions involving tens of millions of dollars. The arrogant order, "Vote first and debate afterward," shows how the magnate had come to look upon the board as his private rubber stamp. Says the Interstate Commerce Commission of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company: "A number of directors appear in many instances to have voted without knowledge and to have approved the expenditure of many millions without information. . . . They merely approved what had been done by some committee or some officers of the Company. The directors' minutes reveal that it was largely a body of ratification."

The evil and ruin that followed in the wake of such financial dictatorships show how barbarous it is in vast and complicated affairs to rely on individual judgment rather than on concerted thought.

A skilful chairman may do much to lift the intellectual torpor May Do to of which Mr. Wallas complains. By suggestion here and there a man gifted with imagination may so link the business in hand with vital persons and issues as to whet interest. By feigned skepticism or carping criticism of the good ideas put forth he may irritate the more inert members to the point of attention. Or he may dart a timely glance, a query, or a personal allusion that will rouse the flagging mind to effortful thought. The fact is that the psychology of small deliberating groups has never been properly brought to book.

Reading

Displaces

as a Source of Ideas

Thanks to our growing dependence on the vast impersonal orListening ganization that goes on far above our heads, reading is taking the place of oral intercourse as a source of ideas. Machinery and shop supervision are squeezing spoken discussion out of the working hours of wage-earners, while the reading habit restricts it in their leisure. Most urban minds feed on newspapers as silkworms feed on mulberry leaves. Upon the consciousness of multitudes the daily sheet stamps impressions, ideas, and beliefs, just as the Hoe press prints endlessly the same thing upon miles of white paper.

Even if the wider reading of magazines and books should check the manufacture of public opinion in this wholesale way by irre