taboo

If you want to understand a concept, then you must explain it / discuss it without referencing that concept.

For instance, suppose you were discussing judgement.

A hypothetical conversation:

JJ: It’s bad to judge people, because it makes you have negative feelings towards them and betrays your values of loving and helping other people. ST: No, it’s good to judge people, because it helps you learn what actions you want to avoid, and it also allows you to help other people course-correct when they are doing bad things.

Resolution

JJ: Oh, now that we’re using taboo, I guess what I really meant was that it’s bad to label people, because this results in you being negatively oriented towards them, harming both parties. ST: Oh I see. And what I meant was actually that it’s useful to appraise people’s actions and learn — personally and for others — what actions to seek and avoid. JJ: I’m glad we used taboo to see that we actually didn’t have differing viewpoints, we just were talking about different things. It would’ve been rather confusing if we had instead tried to convince the other person that we were right without being on the same page about the concept we were discussing.