Well, imagine you’re reading something you radically disagree with, perhaps even getting angry and offended in the process, but then you wonder if maybe you’ve been reading it in a biased way, eagerly looking for flaws while failing to consider the arguments seriously. Then you imagine that a space alien visits you at that moment, who is altogether ignorant of humans and their ways but interested in them in an anthropological sort of way, and asks what exactly the disagreement is about and why you believe that this stuff you’re reading is so wrong.
The key is to avoid unintentionally assuming that the alien shares a lot of your knowledge and presumptions. If you can come up with a coherent explanation under these assumptions, chances are you’ve gone a long way towards actually understanding the opponent’s point of view, rather than just dismissing it in an instinctive and biased way.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What am I explaining to the alien? How does that exercise help me to benefit from reading stuff that I disagree with?
Well, imagine you’re reading something you radically disagree with, perhaps even getting angry and offended in the process, but then you wonder if maybe you’ve been reading it in a biased way, eagerly looking for flaws while failing to consider the arguments seriously. Then you imagine that a space alien visits you at that moment, who is altogether ignorant of humans and their ways but interested in them in an anthropological sort of way, and asks what exactly the disagreement is about and why you believe that this stuff you’re reading is so wrong.
The key is to avoid unintentionally assuming that the alien shares a lot of your knowledge and presumptions. If you can come up with a coherent explanation under these assumptions, chances are you’ve gone a long way towards actually understanding the opponent’s point of view, rather than just dismissing it in an instinctive and biased way.