The dictionary definition of “persuade” misses some of the connotations. Persuading someone often means “get them to agree with you” and not “jointly arrive at what’s true, which includes the possibility that others can point out your mistakes and you change your mind.” Explaining usually means more something like “explain your reasoning and facts, which might lead someone to agree with if they think your reasoning is good.”
The key difference might be something like “persuade” is written to get the reader to accept what is written regardless of whether it’s true, while “explain” wants you to accept the conclusion only if it’s true. It’s the idea symmetric/asymmetric weapons in this post.
Sorry if that’s still a bit unclear, I hope it helps.
Yeah, what Ruby said. I might also point to the difference between what a scientist and a politician does when giving a speech. A scientist attempts to explain the information that they’ve discovered to help understand some domain, and a politician decides what they want you to do and then looks to find information that gets you to do that thing, sometimes regardless of whether it’s true, so that they can make you do what they want. (Scientists don’t always live up to the ideal, but it’s a good ideal.)
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The dictionary definition of “persuade” misses some of the connotations. Persuading someone often means “get them to agree with you” and not “jointly arrive at what’s true, which includes the possibility that others can point out your mistakes and you change your mind.” Explaining usually means more something like “explain your reasoning and facts, which might lead someone to agree with if they think your reasoning is good.”
The key difference might be something like “persuade” is written to get the reader to accept what is written regardless of whether it’s true, while “explain” wants you to accept the conclusion only if it’s true. It’s the idea symmetric/asymmetric weapons in this post.
Sorry if that’s still a bit unclear, I hope it helps.
Yeah, what Ruby said. I might also point to the difference between what a scientist and a politician does when giving a speech. A scientist attempts to explain the information that they’ve discovered to help understand some domain, and a politician decides what they want you to do and then looks to find information that gets you to do that thing, sometimes regardless of whether it’s true, so that they can make you do what they want. (Scientists don’t always live up to the ideal, but it’s a good ideal.)