The Enigma of Reason by Dan Sperber

Author:Dan Sperber
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846145582
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

Here Michelle produces a piece of information that Enrico believes on trust: Michelle wouldn’t say that Sylvain is out of town if she didn’t know it for a fact. This piece of information, however, is a reason for Enrico to revise his conjecture about who might be ringing the doorbell.

A good way to convince addressees is to actively help them check the coherence of your claims with what they already believe (including what they have just unproblematically accepted from you) or, even better if possible, to help them realize that given their beliefs, it would be less coherent for them to reject your claims than to accept them. In other words, as a communicator addressing a vigilant audience, your chances of being believed may be increased by making an honest display of the very coherence your audience will anyhow be checking. A good argument consists precisely in displaying coherence relationships that the audience can evaluate on their own.

As an addressee, when you are provided not just with a claim but also with an argument in its favor, you may (intuitively or reflectively) evaluate the argument, and if you judge it to be good, you may end up accepting both the argument and the claim. Your interlocutor’s arguments may be advantageous to you in two ways: by displaying the very coherence that you might have to assess on your own, it makes it easier to evaluate the claim, and if this assessment results in your accepting relevant information, it makes communication more beneficial.

How does a communicator display coherence? She searches among the very beliefs her addressee already holds (or will accept from her on trust) for reasons that support her claim. In simple cases, this may involve a single argumentative step, as in this dialogue between Ben and Krisha, two neighbors of Tang, Julia, and Mary:

Krisha: Tang just called. He is inviting us to come over to their place for dinner with him, Julia, and Mary.

Ben: Mary is there? Then she must have finished the essay she had to write.

Krisha: I would be surprised if she had.

Ben: Surely, if she hadn’t finished her essay, she would be working late in the library.

Krisha: But you told me yourself this morning that the library would close early today.

Ben: Ah, yes, I had forgotten. So, you’re right—Mary might still not have finished her essay after all but be at home all the same.

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