Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Disagreement

  • Sam Harris and the Problem of Disagreement: Is Conversation Our Only Hope?

    Sam Harris: More and more, I find myself attempting to have difficult conversations with people who hold very different points of view. And I consider our general failure to have these conversations well—so as to produce an actual convergence of opinion and a general increase in goodwill between the participants—to be the most consequential problem…

  • Break Contact with Political Opponents?

    Should one break off contact with those whose social and political views one finds abhorrent?   Let me mention one bad reason for not breaking off contact.  The bad reason is that by not breaking off contact one can have 'conversations' that will lead to amicable agreements and mutual understanding. This bad reason is based on the…

  • Why the Right-Left Divide is Unbridgeable: Three Reasons

    One reason is that we differ over values.  That's bad. Worse still is that we differ over what is true and what is false.  Disagreements about values and norms are troubling but not surprising, but nowadays we can't even agree on what the facts are. Worst of all is that we differ over what truth…

  • Trump’s Inauguration

    Journal entry of 21 January 2017: A drizzly day yesterday, but memorable. A strong speech by the man. I was moved by it. Ah, but the depth of disagreement! One acquaintance of mine is in mourning, wearing a black arm band, while another speaks of Inauguration Day as the happiest day of his life.  Both…

  • Should We Discuss Our Differences? Pessimism and Optimism about Disagreement

    Our national life is becoming like philosophy: a scene of endless disagreement about almost everything. The difference, of course, is that philosophical controversy is typically conducted in a gentlemanly fashion without bloodshed or property damage. Some say that philosophy is a blood sport, but no blood is ever shed, and though philosophers are ever shooting down…

  • We are Bothered by Different Things

    Brian Kennedy, A Passion to Oppose: John Anderson, Philosopher, Melbourne University Press, 1995, p. 141: Melbourne intellectuals came to regard [John] Anderson 'as the man who had betrayed the Left, a man who had gone over to the other side.  Melburnians wanted Anderson to answer a simple question: was he or was he not interested in…

  • The Ashtray Has Landed: Errol Morris versus Thomas Kuhn

    Talk of philosophy being a blood sport is usually and rightly metaphorical. But on occasion, actual weapons are brandished even if not deployed. You will recall Wittgenstein's poker. But perhaps you haven't yet heard of Thomas Kuhn's ashtray.   Curiously, pokers and ashtrays have something to do with fire and smoke, devilish elements.  A philosopher's devil,…

  • Conflict Resolution, Troubling Trends, and ‘Liberal’ Bias

    This from a New York Times article: “People are making up stories about ‘the other’ — Muslims, Trump voters, whoever ‘the other’ is,” she said. “‘They don’t have the values that we have. They don’t behave like we do. They are not nice. They are evil.’” She added: “That’s dehumanization. And when it spreads, it…

  • Takes on Trump

    It is astonishing how wildly diverse they are. For example, compare this to that of the average lefty.

  • The Sad State of Public Discourse in an Age of Ideology

    The inability to follow an argument and respond reasonably and civilly to what an author actually maintains is a mark of the present miserable state of public discourse. Even prominent conservative commentators display this inability. A recent example is the Never-Trumper and NRO contributor David French's febrile flailing at Tully Borland.  Professor Borland ignited a…

  • bridgeUSA

    Patrick Kearney, president of bridgeUSA, writes, This transcends left and right, progressive and conservative. This is a movement to shed labels and engage in politics as free thinkers.   I sympathize with the sweet sentiment while remaining deeply skeptical. Indeed, I am more than skeptical: I consider the aims of this project incoherent. First of all,…

  • On the Supposed Political Equivalence of the Two Tribes

    As I  read Andrew Sullivan's recent tribalism essay, he is bravely attempting to maintain an equivalency thesis: roughly, the two tribes, the Left tribe and the Right tribe, are equally tribal and equally in the wrong. But in some places in his long essay he does a pretty lame job of it. Here is one:…

  • Come and Take Them, Bret Stephens

    David Harsanyi's refutation of Bret Stephens' call to repeal the Second Amendment begins like this: The idea that gun-control advocates don’t want to confiscate your weapons is, of course, laughable. They can’t confiscate your weapons, so they support whatever feasible incremental steps inch further towards that goal. Some folks are more considerate and get right to the point. Exactly right. …

  • Should We Discuss Our Differences? Pessimism versus Optimism about Disagreement

    Our national life is becoming like philosophy: a scene of endless disagreement about almost everything. The difference, of course, is that philosophical controversy is typically conducted in a gentlemanly fashion without bloodshed or property damage. Some say that philosophy is a blood sport, but no blood is ever shed, and though philosophers are ever shooting…

  • Disagreement in Philosophy: Notes on Jiří Fuchs

    That philosophers disagree is a fact about which there is little disagreement, even among philosophers. But what this widespread and deep disagreement signifies is a topic of major disagreement. One issue is whether or not the fact of disagreement supplies a good reason to doubt the possibility of philosophical knowledge.   The contemporary Czech philosopher…