{"id":123,"date":"2010-12-16T10:02:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T18:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=123"},"modified":"2010-12-16T10:02:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T18:02:58","slug":"the-adventure-of-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"The Adventure of Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a quality of dialogue that, when refined, illustrates an interesting dynamic: The superstars of Jesus\u2019 childhood were the wise elders of that culture, the scholars who debated the deeper meanings of the Holy Scriptures. Two were outstanding: Rabbi Shammai<\/a> and Rabbi Hillel<\/a>, the former being somewhat conservative, the latter somewhat liberal, but both were friendly and kind with each other. They might argue about, say, whether the candles on the Khanukiyya\u2014the Hanukkah menorah or special eight-candlestick holder that is used at that holiday\u2014should be lit in sequence from the right or left side\u2014each one using plausible arguments based on this and that scripture, certain modes of reasoning, etc. <\/p>\n

It might be wondered, which one was right. Those who feel there \u201cmust\u201d be a right answer are drawn to this, as well as those who want to ally with the one who is more right\u2014a sort of vicarious ego-investment. But this misses the point: It is the argument, the dialogue, ideally free of ego attachments, that is right. It is the dialectical process, purified, the search for synthesis, and then beyond that, in a new argument based on the limitations of the previous provisional conclusion, that carries forth consciousness into new adventures. It is the adventure that is right, not the specifics of the conclusions. Or as Whitehead put it, \u201cAll truths are half-truths. It\u2019s treating them as whole truths that plays the devil.\u201d The game is to find the edges of what one imagines to be the true and push further. It is a game, a challenge, a celebration of evolution and expansion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a quality of dialogue that, when refined, illustrates an interesting dynamic: The superstars of Jesus\u2019 childhood were the wise elders of that culture, the scholars who debated the deeper meanings of the Holy Scriptures. Two were outstanding: Rabbi Shammai and Rabbi Hillel, the former being somewhat conservative, the latter somewhat liberal, but both were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-papers","category-spirituality-and-philosophy","category-wisdom-ing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}