Lasch also recognizes that debate is the best method of learning. In “The Lost Art of Argument” he states, “It is the act of articulating and defending our views that lifts them out from the category of “opinions,” gives them definition, and makes it possible for others to recognize them as a description of their own experience as well. In short, we come to know our own minds only by explaining ourselves to others” (321).
Lasch also says, “argument is risky and unpredictable, therefore educational” (321). A student of a foreign language may be put on the spot, asked a question in Chinese and expected to answer in Chinese, and their response is an accurate assessment of their grasp of the language – whether they understood the question and if they can answer without over-thinking. When we debate, the questions we may face are rarely known beforehand, but our response is a reflection of how well we understand how our unique knowledge fits into the context of the question. During debate however, it is the content rather than the form of the response that is important. When learning a new language we struggle to perfect structure and syntax, when we are re-learning our own language, we struggle to perfect its significance and meaning for others and ourselves.
Where can one experience this method of self-evaluation? Fortunately, it is making progress in America’s school system. Discussion often follows the reading of texts, allowing a student to respond and perhaps even debate a point of view with their peers. Not only does this give the educators a better assessment of how their students understand the material, it gives the student an opportunity to hear their own thoughts put up to questioning. Questioning that leads them to know what information is truly relevant. As Lasch puts it, “We do not know what we need to know until we ask the right questions, and we can identify the right questions only be subjecting our own ideas about the world to the test of public controversy” (316). School could become a far more enriching experience for the average student. Given a chance to argue his perspective, the student assigns a passion and unique meaning for that once boring information – he is given a chance to place himself in a world of endless knowledge. He not only remembers, he involves himself, paving a road to wisdom early in life.
School is not the only place to begin this road. The chance for debate is everywhere – within our communities, families, and political systems. The same discoveries for the student can occur for anyone, as we contribute to the decision making at the town meeting, church gathering, or the dinner table. Our own “rhetorical education” means that in the process of teaching others our views, we learn more about ourselves, and our desire to be heard and to influence others further fuels our drive to study the colloquial language, vocabulary, syntax, and other elements of speech. As long as we continue to discuss, our educations will never cease.
What Ingham and Lasch both elaborate on, is Chomsky’s idea that language is a key to the complexities of human nature. “When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the ‘human essence,’ the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man” (1). Our language influences and is influenced by our behaviour, our words are a part of who we are, and language opens a window into how our minds are organized. Examining the evolution of a foreign language gives us an understanding of how those people thought and how the development of their language was influenced by their culture. Writing systems based on pictographs, like Chinese, show us how the Chinese people saw an image like the sun, and duplicated it in their writing. We gain their perspective of the world by observing their language. We often fail to realize that our own language is the same way. Questioning why we say things like “as beautiful as the day is long,” or “green with envy,” can serve as a cultural history lesson, because somewhere in time, people thought that days were long and Shakespeare’s green-eyed monster was transformed.
When sharing their experiences within the community, the citizens of Red Lodge gave each other a lesson on the history of their town from many perspectives. They benefit in the same way student does when studying a war from many countries’ point of view. They gain an objective approach to a very subjective subject. Also, the citizens have further developed their identities by relating their own unique experiences to the greater picture of the community. To their fellow neighbors, they become a person with a story and a place in the community. In turn, that story and place becomes more significant for the individual because it no longer belongs to just them, it belongs to everyone.
Personally, language gives form to the abstract ideas and complex feelings inside us, enabling us to share them with the world. Lasch and Ingham wish for us to debate more, not to convince others that we are right, but to affirm those ideas and feelings for ourselves. We are privileged to have a system for communication in which such complicated concepts can be exchanged between us. In the short time that complex language has existed, the world has changed considerably. The question remains, did our progress bring a need for language, or did the development of language pave the way for progress? It is important to ask ourselves such things, because as Lasch believes, it is only by questioning that we can find the answers, and to question our language is to question ourselves (316). Exploring a new way to use language, in the form of rhetoric, song, or poetry, is taking our thought to a new level, like discovering that our hands can not only work, but create a piece of art as well. Our words can do much more than inform, they have the power to break someone’s will, praise a child, change society, tell a story, and everything else that determines our unique human experience.
Works Cited
Chomsky, Noam. “Language and Mind: Current Thoughts on Ancient Problems.” Bad News: The Noam Chomsky Archive. 2002. 9 Nov 2002. <http://www.monkeyfist.com/Chomsky/archive>
Ingham, Zita. “Landscape, Drama, and Dissensus: The Rhetorical Education of Red Lodge, Montana.” Making Sense: Constructing Knowledge in the Arts and Sciences. Ed. Coleman et al. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 259 – 276.
Lasch, Christopher. “The Lost Art of Argument.” Making Sense: Constructing Knowledge in the Arts and Sciences. Ed. Coleman et al. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 315 - 323
