this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
77 points (95.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27258 readers
1653 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Strategic concession? Or just a compromise, really, but stretched out over a long play.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If presented in an honest way, it can be a form of open-mindedness.

I’m not sure how to say it more gracefully, but it could be something like:

I’m willing to grant that assumption even if I don’t believe it, in the context of this conversation, in order to explore the implications of that assumption.

Sort of an application of the scientific method, in combination with an acknowledgement of how the unconscious works in regard to mental resources. People often won’t really think about something seriously unless they believe its real. But in order to test a scientific theory one must use it to generate predictions.

So sort of pretending something is true, pretending you believe it even if you don’t believe it, could be a way of activating all the resources of your mind to explore where it goes with the implications.

I guess one way to put this from the other person’s perspective is to say “Humor me for a second. Let’s say that …”