Holistic Understanding Test
“You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.” (Dennett 2013)
We can define holistic understanding as:
“Having a reasonably well-informed understanding of a topic, meaning you are able to identify all of the key perspectives relevant to it and the arguments for and against each perspective.”
Similar to the ideological Turing test, the holistic understanding test is met if a person can:
- Identify all the major perspectives around a topic
- Provide the evidence or reasoning for or against all the major perspectives around that topic
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Do so convincingly enough that all relevant subject matter experts believe their perspectives are “reasonably presented”