Like a lot of advice of this sort, this benefits from being flipped around: become able to lose arguments so you can learn from them (which is the real winning). I don’t have much concrete advice on doing that, but I know it’s possible because some people are more capable than others. Being surrounded by a community that respects mind-changing helps. Simply being aware of the problem also might. As might having something to protect (though probably only when you actually do).
One tactic I use to avoid avoid argument is to make conditional claims that are correct as a matter of structure without committing myself to any particular premises.
I also use the following strategy for avoiding a certain kind of wrong statement (which seems to help me concede arguments): I try to avoid making statements about the way the world is; instead I make statements about my thoughts and beliefs about the way the world is. If something changes my mind, my previous statements remain correct as descriptions of what I thought at the time. The effect is that when I surrender to the truth, I say things like,”That prior belief of mine was wrong, and you’ve convinced me to discard it,” but not things like, “That previous statement of mine was wrong.”
Like a lot of advice of this sort, this benefits from being flipped around: become able to lose arguments so you can learn from them (which is the real winning). I don’t have much concrete advice on doing that, but I know it’s possible because some people are more capable than others. Being surrounded by a community that respects mind-changing helps. Simply being aware of the problem also might. As might having something to protect (though probably only when you actually do).
One tactic I use to avoid avoid argument is to make conditional claims that are correct as a matter of structure without committing myself to any particular premises.
I also use the following strategy for avoiding a certain kind of wrong statement (which seems to help me concede arguments): I try to avoid making statements about the way the world is; instead I make statements about my thoughts and beliefs about the way the world is. If something changes my mind, my previous statements remain correct as descriptions of what I thought at the time. The effect is that when I surrender to the truth, I say things like,”That prior belief of mine was wrong, and you’ve convinced me to discard it,” but not things like, “That previous statement of mine was wrong.”