Surgeon
10.01.2006, 22:14
It looks important. Sorry for posting it in English.
James P Shannon [Late Executive Director of the Minneapolis Foundation], wrote this many years ago:
[The tradition of respectful argument. Shannon JP, 1976. In Controversy in Surgery. Varco RL, Delaney JP, eds. WB Saunders Company]
One mark of an educated man is his ability to differ without becoming angry, sarcastic or discourteous. Such a man recognizes that in contingent matters there will always be a place for legitimate difference of opinion.
He knows that he is not infallible, he respects the honesty and intellectual intergrity of other men and presumes all men are men of integrity until they are proven to be otherwise.
He is prepared to listen to them when their superior wisdom has something of value to teach him. He is slow to anger and always confident that truth can always defend itself and state its own case without specious arguments, and emotional displays of personal pressures.
This is not to say that he abandons his position easily. If his be a disciplined mind, he does not lightly forsake the intellectual ground he has won at great cost. He yields only to evidence, proof or demonstration.
He is neither angered nor shocked by new evidence of public vulgarity or blindness. He is rather prepared to see in these expected human weaknesses compelling reason for more compassion, better rhetoric, stronger evidence on his part. He seeks always to persuade and seldom to denounce.
The ability to defend one's position with spirit and conviction; to evaluate accurately the conflicting opinions of others and to retain one's confidence in the ultimate power of truth to carry its own weight, are necessary talents in any society, but espacially so in our democratic world.
In our day and in our land, there is some evidence that these virtues are in short supply. The venerable tradition of respectful argumenatation, based on evidence, conducted with courtesy, and leading to exposition of truth, is a precious part of our heritage in this land of freedom. It is the duty of dedicated men to understand, appreciate and perpetuate this tradition.
James P Shannon [Late Executive Director of the Minneapolis Foundation], wrote this many years ago:
[The tradition of respectful argument. Shannon JP, 1976. In Controversy in Surgery. Varco RL, Delaney JP, eds. WB Saunders Company]
One mark of an educated man is his ability to differ without becoming angry, sarcastic or discourteous. Such a man recognizes that in contingent matters there will always be a place for legitimate difference of opinion.
He knows that he is not infallible, he respects the honesty and intellectual intergrity of other men and presumes all men are men of integrity until they are proven to be otherwise.
He is prepared to listen to them when their superior wisdom has something of value to teach him. He is slow to anger and always confident that truth can always defend itself and state its own case without specious arguments, and emotional displays of personal pressures.
This is not to say that he abandons his position easily. If his be a disciplined mind, he does not lightly forsake the intellectual ground he has won at great cost. He yields only to evidence, proof or demonstration.
He is neither angered nor shocked by new evidence of public vulgarity or blindness. He is rather prepared to see in these expected human weaknesses compelling reason for more compassion, better rhetoric, stronger evidence on his part. He seeks always to persuade and seldom to denounce.
The ability to defend one's position with spirit and conviction; to evaluate accurately the conflicting opinions of others and to retain one's confidence in the ultimate power of truth to carry its own weight, are necessary talents in any society, but espacially so in our democratic world.
In our day and in our land, there is some evidence that these virtues are in short supply. The venerable tradition of respectful argumenatation, based on evidence, conducted with courtesy, and leading to exposition of truth, is a precious part of our heritage in this land of freedom. It is the duty of dedicated men to understand, appreciate and perpetuate this tradition.