{"id":201,"date":"2007-05-08T07:18:42","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T11:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/201"},"modified":"2007-06-19T09:44:42","modified_gmt":"2007-06-19T13:44:42","slug":"how-not-to-explain-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/201","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to explain things"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a previous post (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153On metaphors, analogies, and rigid thinking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a>(April 20th, 2007) I wrote about the limitations inherent in metaphors. I stated that while metaphors can be helpful to introduce a concept we do people a disservice in leaving them with the metaphor and not moving on to a more rigid understanding of the concept or principle under consideration. I wrote that when teaching a concept or principle we should avoid the trap of providing anthropomorphic, normative,<\/i> and teleological<\/i> explications\u00e2\u20ac\u201dall of which lead to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fuzzy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thinking or confuse cause with reason. <\/p>\n

My friend Bill asked that I provide examples of those three categories of explications we should avoid. Avoiding these three traps is most important when teaching principles (or what are called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Law-like statements\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Law-like principles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to fall into these traps because principles, by nature, are causal. <\/p>\n

Here are the three types of explications to avoid:<\/p>\n

Anthropomorphic explications<\/b> happen when we attribute human characteristics as an explanation for cause or as a reason. The classic example goes like, this:<\/p>\n

Teacher: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do wind-pollinated plants produce more pollen than insect-pollinated plants?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Student: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because they need to produce more pollen, since the wind wastes so much of their pollen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n

In that example the student has attributed anthropomorphic characteristics (purpose, intent, will, agency) to a plant as an explanation for cause. Which means the student really does not understand the concept of pollination, much less the characteristics of plant life. Or, for example, when people use the phrase, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Bible says\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they are attributing a human characteristic to a book or a text. As holy as Scripture is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not magical nor personable. <\/p>\n

Teleological explications<\/b> is when objectives, outcomes, or purposes are used as explanation for cause. Simply put, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when we cite the effect of something as the cause. For example, if we ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do we sweat?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d most people will answer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because it cools the body.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But cooling the body is the effect, not the cause. In terms of faith there are all sorts of unfortunate examples of this, many related to Christian behavior. The most blatant being, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why should we be good?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Answer: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go to heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (positive). Or, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why should we not sin?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Answer: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to hell.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (negative). Yikes! <\/p>\n

Normative explications<\/b> can be more confusing, but the fundamental error is the same. This is when we site a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rule\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the explanation for the cause (again, confusing reason with cause). The most blatant may be, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why should we ________ (fill in the blank for any behavior)?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Answer: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because God said so.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or, for a double whammy: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because the Bible says so\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (anthropological and normative). Parents, of course, are often most guilty of perpetuating this rationale when the child asks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the exasperated parent replies, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because I said so\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (normative authority rule). The problem is that the rule is not the cause. To claim justification by saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because everybody does it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as normative behavior is not to address the cause for why<\/i> everybody does it.<\/p>\n

(It took me years to figure out that the cause for why I was never able to learn grammar or higher algebra in school is that when I asked my teachers for an explanation as to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153why\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they never did\u00e2\u20ac\u201dinstead they gave me the normative explication (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The rule is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) without being able to explain WHY the rule is necessary. Like so many kids my brain could not accept \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the rule\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without grasping the reasons behind WHY the rule is necessary. But, I rant\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6). <\/p>\n

galindobanner3.jpg<\/p>\n

“Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a previous post (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153On metaphors, analogies, and rigid thinking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d(April 20th, 2007) I wrote about the limitations inherent in metaphors. I stated that while metaphors can be helpful to introduce a concept we do people a disservice in leaving them … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-education","category-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}