By Cassidy Lowman \u201927, Student Correspondent<\/p>\n
In an era of deep political and social division, Peace Ike challenged University of Scranton community members to replace judgment with curiosity during her interactive workshop. The key, she said, is exploring the personal values and experiences that shape one another\u2019s beliefs.<\/p>\n
Ike, a cultural and conflict strategist, embraces the difficulty that comes from polarizing conversations and encouraged members of the University community to do the same at her presentation. \u201cThe 3 Degrees of Why: Moving Beyond Positions to the Stories that Shape Us,\u201d a Collaborative Program between the Schemel Forum and the Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities, was held in the Rose Room of Brennan Hall on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n
Ike\u2019s \u201c3 Degrees of Why\u201d \u2014 Surface Why, Values Why and Story Why \u2014 build upon one another in the framework designed to help participants evolve past surface disagreements and welcome in a deeper understanding of one another\u2019s beliefs. By examining how beliefs are shaped by values, experiences and personal stories, individuals can better understand the people behind those beliefs.<\/p>\n
The Surface Why is the initial explanation offered to defend a belief. It is often generalized and impersonal and is where arguments stall. An interactive exercise started with the example of apples being better than oranges; that\u2019s the Surface Why. The Values Why dives deeper into the principles and values that guide one\u2019s beliefs. For instance, apples may taste better and may be a more commonly used ingredient.<\/p>\n
Ike said that the conversations that happen after the Surface Why are what make society flourish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the building block of human dignity,\u201d Ike said of getting past the Surface Why. \u201cIt is acknowledging that I can learn something from you, and you can learn something from me, and that we don\u2019t have all the answers. When we stop asking questions, we stop learning.”<\/p>\n
Finally, the Story Why is where humanization takes form in a personal story that shaped one\u2019s beliefs. For example, apple pie is a favored tradition in one\u2019s household and this deepened their appreciation for the fruit.<\/p>\n
Listening to the experiences behind viewpoints different from our own helps create a culture where difficult conversations can be approached with curiosity and grace, Ike said. The framework is meant to teach us that we have much more in common with one another than we realize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Cassidy Lowman \u201927, Student Correspondent In an era of deep political and social division, Peace Ike challenged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[131602,19769,178,180,179,274],"class_list":["post-324925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-peace-ike","tag-schemel-forum","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-the-university-of-scranton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}