Notes On Dialogue

accepter l'invitation au dialogue : invitation à nous exposer au beau risque de découvrir la mesure de notre ignorance et la force de la recherche en commun du vrai.

Leonardo became a disciple of both experience and received wisdom. More important, he came to see that the progress of science came from a dialogue between the two. That in turn helped him realize that knowledge also came from a related dialogue: that between experiment and theory.

In a democracy, we the people are supposed to be guiding the ship of state together. To do that, we need to be able to talk to one another, which suggests that engagement, rather than confrontation, can be a civic act. It can also be an act of friendship, because one thing we want to do is to save our friends from making serious mistakes. Just bear

Conversation is also “the soul of democracy.”9 Political theorists contend it is through conversation—discussions both formal and informal—that citizens “bridge their personal experiences with the political worlds out there.”