Questions Open Dialogue LO484
kent_myers@smtplink.sra.com
Mon, 20 Mar 95 12:04:56 EST
[Responds to 446 on what is a good question, and to 440 on a model of
dialogue.]
A true question opens dialogue. The mark of a true question is that a
person has an authentic desire to know, and does not know. Also, the
questions has a horizon, meaning that it admits of an answer and a
direction is known, but the answer is not yet visible. The question
becomes the shared object of those in dialogue.
Questions that are not true come in the following varieties: floating
(no answer), rhetorical (no questioner), false (direction is other
than what is said). This material is a damaging extract from Gadamer,
Truth and Method. I offer Gadamer's as another model of dialogue, but
one that is not amenable to packaging and hence not practical in one
sense.
Kent Myers kent_myers@smtplink.sra.com