Changing your mind: seven prompts to write down

An original editorial exercise

Choose one claim you want to reconsider. Try the prompts below on paper, keeping your first answers so you can compare them with your later ones. You can finish with a changed view, a narrower claim, or an open question.

• Name the claim. Write it in your own words. If it contains several claims, choose just one for this exercise.
• Record where you stand. Would you accept it, doubt it, or leave it undecided? Write your reason beside that choice.
• Name what you are relying on. List the observation, argument, or source you would want someone else to examine. Mark anything you have not checked.
• Give the objection room. Write the strongest objection you are willing to consider. Avoid substituting a judgment about the person making it.
• Describe a possible turning point. What finding or argument would lead you to reconsider? If nothing comes to mind, leave this prompt open rather than inventing an answer.
• Choose the next check. Pick something you can actually read or inspect, then decide when to pause. You need not settle the whole subject today.
• Leave a record. After that check, write what changed and why. If your view stays the same, record what remains unresolved and what you would still like to examine.

For a worked subject to read alongside your notes, see Is antimatter real, or just science fiction?.