Suspending Your Judgement

These are the abilities to analyse concepts and arguments, to play devil’s advocate and synthesise ideas and evidence from different sources to create new ways of looking at a problem, to construct consistent arguments, and to discuss and critically evaluate ideas and arguments. But to use these abilities we must have the opportunity to think and for this we must suspend our judgement: things must be up for grabs. As Paul Tillich once said, ‘The passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority.’1 Once we accept something as true, there is nothing more to think about, nothing more to discuss. Therefore, there is no opportunity to use our higher cognitive abilities to analyse, synthesise and evaluate. The same is true if you assume that essays are simply about making up your mind before you start writing and then defending that point of view. You no longer suspend your judgement and, consequently, you stop thinking: you close down your higher cognitive abilities. Having to think about a proposition is to accept that there is doubt about it – that the discussion has not ended with one point of view prevailing. Instead, it is up for grabs and we must explore all the alternatives, critically evaluate all the competing evidence and arguments, and analyse the important concepts that shape the problem.