Location
Room 2
Document Type
Paper
Keywords
Conditions for argument, deep disagreement, intellectual colonialism, Ludwig Wittgenstein, non-rational persuasion, persuasion, rational resolution, responses to evil, Robert Fogelin
Start Date
3-6-2020 10:00 AM
End Date
3-6-2020 11:00 AM
Abstract
Robert Fogelin has introduced the concept of a deep disagreement as one that makes rational argumentation impossible. People who think of themselves as enlightened may use this concept to dismiss the positions and arguments of those who seem to them misguided. I argue that there is always a basis for a rational discussion between people who disagree. If there are no external impediments to argumentative discussion, it is a form of intellectual colonialism to abandon argument for non-rational persuasion on the basis of a diagnosis of deep disagreement.
Reader's Reactions
Matthew W. McKeon, Commentary in David Hitchcock’s, “Deep disagreement as intellectual colonialism” (June 2020)
Included in
Deep disagreement as intellectual colonialism
Room 2
Robert Fogelin has introduced the concept of a deep disagreement as one that makes rational argumentation impossible. People who think of themselves as enlightened may use this concept to dismiss the positions and arguments of those who seem to them misguided. I argue that there is always a basis for a rational discussion between people who disagree. If there are no external impediments to argumentative discussion, it is a form of intellectual colonialism to abandon argument for non-rational persuasion on the basis of a diagnosis of deep disagreement.
