We don’t have to bring logic into it; I think logical reasoning is good and possible and there’s no need to insist that “most people don’t do it” (and thus that we shouldn’t either??)
Anecdotes are way better than arguments because they point to the history of how someone came to believe a thing (causally, why, how come you believe that) rather than focusing on the legitimacy of believing that thing.
If I want to understand your perspective, and figure out what I think about it, I can suss that out more efficiently by understanding what examples or details motivated you. Maybe the anecdotes will be enough to change my mind. Maybe I’ll be like “oh, ok, i’m familiar with those and ALSO many other things that point in the opposite direction, so my opinion is unchanged.” Definitely, if the claim being made is an abstract one like “class is important”, motivating examples help narrow down in what sense the person means they think class is important. You just get more new information faster, in most cases, if someone is honestly tracing the origin of their beliefs, instead of trying to convince you of them.
Agreed that more people should share anecdotes.
We don’t have to bring logic into it; I think logical reasoning is good and possible and there’s no need to insist that “most people don’t do it” (and thus that we shouldn’t either??)
Anecdotes are way better than arguments because they point to the history of how someone came to believe a thing (causally, why, how come you believe that) rather than focusing on the legitimacy of believing that thing.
If I want to understand your perspective, and figure out what I think about it, I can suss that out more efficiently by understanding what examples or details motivated you. Maybe the anecdotes will be enough to change my mind. Maybe I’ll be like “oh, ok, i’m familiar with those and ALSO many other things that point in the opposite direction, so my opinion is unchanged.” Definitely, if the claim being made is an abstract one like “class is important”, motivating examples help narrow down in what sense the person means they think class is important. You just get more new information faster, in most cases, if someone is honestly tracing the origin of their beliefs, instead of trying to convince you of them.