Against Persuasion
Boston Review,
Jul 29, 2021
Interesting argument: "His (Socrates's) politics of humility involved genuinely opening up the question under dispute, in such a way that neither party would be permitted to close it, to settle on an answer, unless the other answered the same. By contrast, our politics—of persuasion, tolerance, incentives, and punishment—is deeply uninquisitive." A long time ago I decided to cease attempting to persuade through argument, and instead to offer explanations for my thinking. I'm not always successful at this (for, after all, who doesn't want to be right?) but I've found that offering explanations allows people to have different beliefs and to help both me and themselves by asking me to make my explanations clearer.
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