Stephen H. Linder, Ph.D.

This means building together certain habits of mind that unsettle convictions, contest assumptions and discomfort beliefs and their supporting conventions; moreover, these habits are meant to apply as equally to one's own positions as to the authors one reads. The basic strategy is to subvert what is comfortably known as a means of hastening systematic reassessment and reconstruction. When this works, it not only inspires a healthy skepticism, it allows us to think and do things with fresh eyes, inventive arguments and confident knowledge.