The Believing Game Summary

In Peter Elbow’s 2008 paper, The Believing Game- Methodological Believing, Elbow discusses the differences and importance of both believing and doubting information. Elbow defines what he calls the doubting game as “…the disciplined practice of trying to be as skeptical and analytic is often called critical thinking and is used to discover weaknesses in ideas, especially ones that appear to be truthful or attract people. Elbow defines the believing game as the practice of attempting to be as welcoming or accepting as possible to ideas we hear. With this method there is no attempt to argue the ideas but an effort to strongly believe them on order to find hidden virtues. Elbow says from early on in life we start out believing everything we hear because our trust in others is strong. As adults, people believe the obvious things, what people they trust say, and what culture tells them to do. This is jeopardized when people are betrayed, which leads to doubt. Elbow mentions Methodological doubting which he believes is central to the definition of the scientific method and is used to try and disprove hypotheses. Elbow further emphasizes however that believing is a tool we also need to use but is seen as tainted with many problems. He claims that the believing game helps people find flaws in their own thinking, choose among positions, and achieve goals that the doubting game neglects. The believing game fills in the gaps that the doubting games misses, and allows people to dwell in an idea in order to understand it better.