Street Epistemology International provides a breakdown of the key steps to guide successful conversations about beliefs, essential for anyone looking to practice Street Epistemology with confidence.

19 July 2022

By Joe Hitchens

Have you ever had a conversation with someone that just didn’t go to plan? You knew what you wanted to say going into the conversation but somehow, at some point, the plan fell apart, and you were left frustrated, not knowing how you could and should have proceeded.

Having a solid understanding of the key steps to follow in a typical conversation about beliefs is essential in order to feel confident and motivated to start practicing Street Epistemology with others. To begin with, you should feel comfortable that you have at least a basic knowledge of what the key steps are. We cover these steps in much greater detail in our free, self-directed course Navigating Beliefs: A Learning Course for Rational Conversations.

The following represents the typical steps of a Street Epistemology conversation:

• Step 0: Pre-Conversation Considerations
• Step 1: Establish Rapport and Informed Consent
• Step 2: Identify and Clarify Claim
• Step 3: Identify and Clarify Confidence Level
• Step 4: Identify and Clarify Main Reasons
• Step 5: Evaluating the Quality of Reasoning
• Step 6: End the Conversation
• Step 7: Post-Conversation Considerations

Understanding these steps will help you become better positioned to make progress during your interactions with your conversation partner, but these steps are not fixed in stone. Slight deviations are to be expected and could even be beneficial, depending on your situation.

Step 0: Pre-Conversation Considerations

This preliminary stage is dubbed ‘Step 0’ because there are many things you may want to reflect on in advance. While you can jump right into a talk without such considerations, we think it’s more responsible to give sincere thought about what you are attempting to do before doing it because, among other things, Street Epistemology interactions have the potential to profoundly impact everyone involved.

Step 1: Establish Rapport and Informed Consent

One of the most important parts of establishing and maintaining rapport is ensuring that we have informed consent from our conversation partner. We can demonstrate our desire for rapport and obtain informed consent through active listening, repeating back what we’ve heard, and providing genuine encouragement when deserved.

Step 2: Identify and Clarify Claim

Once rapport and informed consent are established, the next key step is to identify and clarify their claim by asking questions in a respectful and friendly way to confirm our understanding of what they actually believe is true. It’s okay if the claim evolves during the conversation.

Step 3: Identify and Clarify Confidence Level

After clarifying the claim, it can be beneficial to help our conversation partner identify a level of confidence in their belief. Different scales can be used to help measure confidence, as long as the scale is clear to both parties and represents a range of positions, rather than a binary true/false dichotomy.

Step 4: Identify and Clarify Main Reasons

Once we understand what our interlocutor believes and their confidence level, we should identify and clarify their main reasons for holding the belief. Reasons that impact a person’s confidence are the most important ones we focus on in Street Epistemology.

Step 5: Evaluating the Quality of Reasoning

After clarifying the main reasons, the next step is to assess the epistemology influencing their confidence level. We aim to identify the methods our conversation partner used to weigh their reasons, assessing them by their standards, not ours.

Step 6: End the Conversation

All conversations have to end at some point. Knowing when and how to conclude the conversation is the final step. A friendly ending can encourage future discussions and help your conversation partner recall key moments later.

Step 7: Post-Conversation Considerations

This step involves personal reflection on the conversation. Review any notes, audio, or video if available, and consider sharing your experiences with others in the various Street Epistemology communities for feedback and growth.

These steps, how they function together, and which ones should be prioritized are covered in greater detail in our free, self-directed course Navigating Beliefs: A Learning Course for Rational Conversations.