Intellectual Hospitality by Diana Pavlac Glyer, Ph.D.

Excerpts from an essay located here:

In the classroom, the concept of intellectual hospitality occurs when students engage with unfamiliar ideas, read books from unknown authors, and entertain new ways of looking at the world. Though they often resist it at first, I ask them to slow down, be patient, ask good questions, seek to understand. I want them to consider the possibility that even the most farfetched idea may contain something of significance. If nothing else, it may serve as a catalyst to help them clarify what it is that they truly believe....

Intellectual hospitality encourages us to engage with new ideas, not merely contradict, dismiss, dispute, reject, or ridicule them. When people react with skepticism and distrust, discussion often dissolves into a matter of winning and losing, a cycle of contradiction and strife. People are used to the Doubting Game—playing devil’s advocate or being argumentative or contrary. The Believing Game is harder—and more hospitable....

And, at its best, intellectual hospitality takes us deeper than mere tolerance. It calls us to something higher, something better, something that marks our character and transforms our souls. It teaches us to cultivate generosity, humility, kindness, and patience, and it helps us overcome selfishness, insecurity, suspicion, and shame.