How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

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Philosophy Now
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How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Philosophy Now »

Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the entrants not included.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/151/How_Do_You_Change_Someones_Mind
Gary Childress
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Gary Childress »

Philosophy Now wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:54 pm Each answer below receives a book. Apologies to the entrants not included.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/151/Ho ... eones_Mind
In some sense, and in some cases, maybe the only way to change someone's mind is to pull out the brain stem and everything else with it and replace it with the brain stem and everything else of a person who thinks like you want them to think.
popeye1945
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by popeye1945 »

I think it rare, one could through rational argument change the opinion of anyone who has a long-held belief. I think everything is a process, and you may be an element in the process of changing another's mind, but it is their process. In these philosophy forums one's accomplishment is in refining one's own thoughts and hopefully advancing with them, also a process. The stronger the passions as in nationalism or religious faith, the more unlikely any transformation of thought will occur.
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Agent Smith
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Agent Smith »

It appears the all-time favorite analogy for a mind doesn't provide any clues. There's got to be a reason why Jamal didn't eat supper on 12/8/1879.
Flannel Jesus
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Flannel Jesus »

Best way to see how is to see how you've had your mind changed in the past.

We've all changed our mind about something, either gradually or rapidly, and most of the time someone else's thoughts might have helped us get there but we had to do the mental work ourselves to get the process started and the process finished.

Sam Harris had an interesting conversation with a woman who deconverted from westboro Baptist church (possibly the most notorious church in America). I thought it was interesting that the cracks in her beliefs started to appear to her after she was asked to handle their social media accounts. She was having daily arguments on Twitter, apparently, and some tweets towards her occasionally gave her something to think about, the seedlings of doubt sprouting. She eventually found questions that he church couldn't give her satisfying answers to, and that led to her leaving entirely eventually.

No single tweet changed her mind, but many of them played a part in the thought processes that she herself had to go through. She had to be in some way willing to go through the uncomfortable process on considering these ideas though.
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Agent Smith
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Agent Smith »

"He changed his mind."

"What? How? Didn't he say 'when pigs fly'?"

"Yeah he did!"

"Well?"

"What well?"

"What do you mean 'what well'?"

"Let's just say I was very persuasive."

"Aah! The art of persuasion, you read Minta's book!"

"Yessir I did!"

"Where is it? I wanna read it too!"

"It's where you hid it silly."

"I forgot where I hid it. It was a million years ago. Tell me where it is, please, pretty please!"

"Of course, of course. It's ... it's in ... I'll tell you ... when pigs fly"
Iwannaplato
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Re: How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?

Post by Iwannaplato »

Philosophy Now wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:54 pm How Do You Change Someone’s Mind?
Give that someone an experience that is qualitatively different from ones they've had before. If they've never met, done, been to, been in, tried to [fix, change, understand, improve, reduce.....], seen, felt, communicated with, experienced, spent time with....X.
Give them an experience of X and preferably an interactive experience of X.

That's your best shot.
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