• http://liberalarts.wabash.edu/home.cfm?news_id=2331

Richard Gunderman of Indiana University's School of Liberal Arts asks hard questions about how faculty may allow debate (more light than heat) to interfere with the more important work of encouraging dialogue, which he characterizes as more heat than light. While some of us may take issue with Professor Gunderman's notions of truth and beauty, and the possibility of 'genuine conversation,' the essay (the second of a three part series that the Center of Inquiry at Wabash College ran within its Liberal Arts Online monthly publicaction) rings true when one thinks not only of the changing nature of classroom discourse, but also of how certain technologies, in particular email, tend to interfere with more nuances, and often result in misunderstandings and conflict. Is it the technology or the general culture that is causing this decline?