By way of illustration, let us take an issue which is very much at the forefront of people’s minds today – the Corona virus epidemic. National governments are embarked principally on a policy of “lock down followed by test, track and trace” in order to remove the danger to people’s health in the absence of a vaccine.
Logical thinking: A person thinking logically might see such a policy as very sound on the basis that identifying those who have the virus and who they have been in recent contact with would lead to isolating carriers and limiting the further spread of the disease. At this point the person would stop, being satisfied that they had landed on the solution to the problem. Job done!
Dialectical thinking: A person thinking dialectically would think differently. To start with, the person thinking dialectically might consider the bigger picture and the different contexts in which the test, track and trace operation was to be carried out, seeing these as having a direct influence of the success of such efforts. The bigger picture would necessarily require some assessment of the social and economic conditions and their impact on the overall national healthcare as well as the capability to conduct effective operations. Some contexts might be seen as a very conducive to the success of such operations, others less so – for example, areas where people did not want to be identified. Next, the person thinking dialectically would consider how such operations might need to evolve over time, recognising that some people might evade testing or tracing, and considering the possibility (or not) of improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of procedures. Thirdly, the person thinking dialectically would focus on the relationship of test and trace operations with other activities in the social world, thinking for example on the reciprocal influence and impact of people’s movements for work, shopping, sport and social ceremonies. Finally, the person thinking dialectically would consider how a test and trace operation might be transformed into a more general public health management system, able to cope with new viruses or mutations of the Corona virus.
In summary, the person thinking dialectically would embrace a much broader sense of the complexity of the problem and see the need for managing the solution in a multi-faceted way.
