It tells inspiring stories of productive disagreements, from the invention of the airplane to the success of The Rolling Stones, and combines them with fascinating insights from the science of human communication.
Conflicted | Ian Leslie and Russ Roberts
We don’t have a good word for engaging in a non-hostile disagreement with the shared aim of moving the participants towards a new understanding, better decision or new idea.
- Debate implies a competition with winners and losers.
- Argument comes tinged with animosity.
- Dialogue is too bland.
- Dialectic is too obscure.
We talk about argument as if it is war: we say that her claims are indefensible, that he attacked the weakest point of my thesis, that I demolished his argument, that she shot down my idea .
We see the person we are arguing with as an enemy who must be defeated.
It's possible though to experience argument, very differently.
Instead of finding it stressful and unpleasant, we can find it stimulating and enjoyable.
Instead of driving us apart, it could draw us together.
Resources
- Aeon: A good scrap
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- Disagree Constructively How to disagree well
- Ian Leslie on Conflicted Ian Leslie (2021)
- Productive Disagreement Depends on How People Feel About Each Other Ian Leslie
- The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially
- We Don’t Have a Good Word for Engaging in a Non-hostile Disagreement Ian Leslie
Quotations: Ian Leslie (2)
Videos: Ian Leslie (1)
Book Purchased: 19 July, 2021
Tags: conflict (5) | constructive disagreement (17) | disagreement (12) | Ian Leslie (5) | reasoning (55) | social reasoning (20)
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Photo Credits: Midjourney (Public Domain)
Online Knowledge Café: Conversational Leadership — Beyond Knowledge Management
Wednesday 17th March 2026, 14:00 - 15:30 London time
Knowledge Management gives us access to information, but it does not decide or act. In this Knowledge Café, we will explore how Conversational Leadership builds on KM by strengthening shared reasoning, judgement, and agency. Join us to examine how we think together when knowledge alone is not enough.