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On Dialogue: An Essay In Free Thought by Robert Grudin published by Houghton Mifflin Company

On Dialogue: An Essay In Free Thought is a book about freedom -- the mind's freedom to escape the tyrannies of ritualized thought, the constraints of "logical" thought, and discover its own potential for inventive solutions. Robert Grudin, author of the popular Time And The Art Of Living, here considers the crucial role that dialogue plays in creativity. Drawing his examples from widely various sources, from Renaissance art to modern science, from the feedback loops of nature to the social interactions of daily life, Grudin demonstrates how to follow the great advice of E.M. Forster: "Only connect". On Dialogue embraces what might be called the generous ways of thinking (metaphor, paradox, ambiguity, copia) ways that lead to multiplicity and diversity of ideas. In its broadest implications, Grudin's work is about the nature of the self and its place in society. Grudin celebrates the paradox that self-transcendence can lead to greater connection with others and ultimately to grater self-knowledge. On Dialogue, true to its own nature, is a book not easily categorized: of great importance to the academic specialist in philosophy and cognitive studies, it is also a practical and pleasurable resource for the general reader. Robert Grudin is a professor of English at the University of Oregon. A Guggenheim Fellow in 1992-1993, he is an authority on the literature of Shakespeare and his period and of the Renaissance. His recent books include The Grace Of Great Things and Book, a novel. In 1995 he founded the Endowment for Civic Humanism, a foundation to support civic service programs in schools and research in civic humanism at universities.

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