Summary: The Believing Game by Peter Elbow

     In his essay entitled The Believing Game: Methodological Believing, author Peter Elbow discusses the power of the tools called, "the doubting game," and , "the believing game." Elbow explains that because they are only tools, they will not make a decision for us, only aid in our decision making process. Elbow defines the doubting game as being as skeptical and analytical as possible in order to discover flaws in reasoning, often seen as synonymous with critical thinking. The believing game on the other hand, is trying to accept and believe new ideas that are possibly not appealing in order to scrutinize them. Elbow goes on to discuss critical thinking and how it has a monopoly in the world of the doubting game and bow the doubting game has a monopoly in people's reasoning. Next, Elbow discusses how believing is what comes first, what comes naturally, and is present until someone is burnt enough and start doubting. The goal of the doubting game is not to reject everything, but as Descartes believed, to doubt everything to find something that survived this doubting; this is also called methodological doubting. This is how scientists test hypotheses, they cannot prove them to be true, they just test it until they reject it and if they fail to reject it then, then they trust it until they can disprove it. Elbow goes on to explain that methodological believing allows us to find flaws in our system by trying to believe another's, it allows us to weigh options we are presented with, and allows us to listen and observe. He also discusses how it helps with reading emersion,  discussions, and writing persuasively, pointing out that collaboration works best with the believing game. Elbow concludes by acknowledging that both the believing game and the doubting game are necessary tools in our lives.