Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Disagreement

  • Does Your Disagreement Give Me Good Reason to Question My Position?

    In general, no. For you may be foolish or ignorant or otherwise incompetent with respect to the subject matter under discussion. Or you may be morally defective: a bully, a blowhard, a bullshitter, a quibbler, a sophist.  But suppose none of these predicates attach to you.  Suppose you are my moral and intellectual peer, and…

  • If Agreement is Out of Reach . . .

    . . . then I think there are two conclusions to be drawn. The first is that we ought not allow into our midst individuals and groups with radically different values and commitments.  The second is that we ought to be as tolerant as we can of the differences among those we do admit into…

  • Political Acrimony: Can Sextus Help?

    Our beliefs, political and religious beliefs in particular, divide us and ignite sometimes murderous passions. A radical cure would be to find a way to abstain from belief, to live without beliefs, adoxastōs. Is this possible, and if possible, desirable? No on both counts. Such is the interim conclusion of my ongoing series on Pyrrhonian…

  • Can Friendship Survive Deep Disagreement?

    Clearly friendship can survive deep disagreement if it is over some abstruse topic in the philosophy of language, say. The question I intend, however, is whether friendship can continue among those who find themselves in profound disagreement over matters that touch us 'existentially.' Politics and religion supply plenty of examples.  Here too friendship can survive…

  • On the Abysmal Depth of Disagreement

    Why do we disagree so fundamentally about so many things?  And can anything be done about it?  Jonathan Haidt offers a solution in terms of more proximity and interaction and less separation; if people in opposing camps just got to know each other they would find common ground.  Really?  Consider the following opposing views of…

  • The Left’s Hatred of Conservative Talk Radio

    At the moment the MavPhil commentariat includes a couple of sharp young philosophers whose views are to the Right of mine.  My brand of conservatism takes on board what  I consider to be good in the old liberal tradition.  Their brand looks askance at paleo-liberalism and sees it as leading inevitably to the hard leftism…

  • How Valuable is Ideological Diversity within Communities of Interacting People?

    Arthur C. Brooks  deplores the lack of ideological diversity and the prevalence of 'groupthink' in academia in an October 30th NYT editorial entitled "Academia's Rejection of Diversity."  He is of course right to do so. But this is nothing new as any conservative will tell you.  And we don't need studies to know about it,…

  • 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…