Since we've got some time before our next session, I decided to put the Kroll readings on the backburner for a few days. This post is going to try and make some sense out of the wonderful conversation we had on the first day of class.
For those who haven't read Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors we Live By, I would certainly recommend it. Some of the other metaphors these two theorists examine include: Love as war, Social Organizations as Plants, and Love and Life as a Journey. Lakoff and Johnson trace cultural roots of these metaphors, and indeed examine them in an American context. Since class on Thursday I've been thinking a lot about why this particular cultural context leads to so many metaphors that stem from violence, aggressiveness, and war. What do you think? Do conceptual metaphors in Japan revolve around Peace? Do the ideas for this course stem from non-western traditions? Will we learn more about this from Kroll?
I also looked into the Climate Study that Donna mentioned as part of the Difficult Dialogues program here at Mizzou. There was no mention of the study on the website, so I emailed them asking for a copy of the study that concluded the two contradictory statements about Christians on campus. Hopefully something comes back, and I'll certainly post it here if it does. However, this portion of our conversation got me thinking about how practical our inquiry throughout the semester could be. Yes, there are Peace Studies programs, there are Conflict Mediation programs, there are non-violent rhetoric courses out there. But only a small percentage of students wind up in courses like that. If Arguing Differently leads our small group of (soon to be) faculty members to adapt more non-aggressive argumentation styles, and Difficult Dialogues is actively promoting faculty development programs that train teachers how to incorporate this type of mediation in their classrooms, that is many, many students who will be exposed to this kind of pedagogy and philosophy. To me, this course can lead to important changes in the way our collective conscious sees argumentation.
Wow. Way over 250 words. I hope these ramblings didn't 'set the bar too high' :)
Wow, I didn't even get to the circle conversation we had after all that. I hope we talk about our teaching and learning in relation to argumentation throughout the semester on the blog and in class!
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