An Essay in the Instrumentalist Tradition Dialogue is a major tool in the resolution of conflict situations. Its effectiveness is a function of our ability to utilize elements within the conflict situation that draws the participants into discussion. Effective dialogue uses the authority of the life process as a guide. It takes up any facts or aspects of the situation that are relevant to the solution of the conflict. They are factors in a continuum of inquiry that eventually leads us to focus upon the practical problem.
Many political disagreements are deeper than mere differences of opinion.
People who simply differ in their opinions can understand and argue with one another, but between liberals and conservatives there is a often a kind of mutual incomprehension. Employing different rules of relevance and inference, they find the views of their opponents to lack plausible grounds. By describing these forms of thinking in some detail, it is possible to better analyze intransigent problems of political dialogue and competing ideals of political association. The results of analysis also indicate that it is possible to describe further forms of thinking in addition to those that have enjoyed dominance in the past, in particular a form of democratic thinking that is distinct from the conservative and liberal forms. It is not possible to show that one form of thinking is inherently superior to the others, so that problems of dialogue will continue, but democratic thinking has resources that permit discussion to yield a firmer practical consensus than the alternatives.