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debate

Is JK Rowling transphobic?

Is JK Rowling transphobic?

Posted on 30 November 2020 by

Is JK Rowling transphobic? According to many transgender activists and their supporters, including Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne she is. The LGBTQ+ organisation […]

Political Debate in the Digital Age

Political Debate in the Digital Age

Posted on 10 February 2020 by

In an ideal democratic world, all citizens are invited to debate political necessities and possibilities to the best of their knowledge and to forge their country’s future in this way. […]

Argument Repair

Argument Repair

Posted on 3 June 2019 by

It’s easy to blame current problems with public discourse on the brevity of on-line communication. People are moving away from blogs to image exchanges. TLDR. Limited word counts (such as […]

Epicurus on Losing Arguments

Epicurus on Losing Arguments

Posted on 11 March 2019 by

Epicurus’s Vatican Saying #74 runs: “the one who loses in a philosophical dispute gains more the more he learns.”  I remember reading that line as an undergraduate, thinking it curious […]

Public Debates – Testing your Intellectual Abilities?

Public Debates – Testing your Intellectual Abilities?

Posted on 14 January 2019 by

Engaging in public debate can be a scary thing.  You make yourself vulnerable to criticism when you express your views in public – risking a critique not only of the […]

Why even bother with political debate?

Why even bother with political debate?

Posted on 8 October 2018 by

Debates about politics, whether in public forums or in private conversations, often seem to go nowhere. This is particularly true when the participants have diametrically opposed perspectives on how the […]

The Heart of Justice

The Heart of Justice

Posted on 4 June 2018 by

The ancient Greeks all thought of morality in terms of the virtues: justice, courage, temperance, and wisdom. And they all thought of the virtues as if they are like skills […]

Good Democracy Needs Good Questions

Good Democracy Needs Good Questions

Posted on 25 September 2017 by

“If you were president, what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo?” This question was asked to both candidates at the second U.S. presidential debate, during […]

Arguing Virtuously

Arguing Virtuously

Posted on 14 August 2017 by

I recently found out that I had been collecting books by accident. Rearranging some shelves, I discovered I had several books with similar titles, all acquired at different times, and […]

Arrogant Pride and Alternative Facts

Arrogant Pride and Alternative Facts

Posted on 17 July 2017 by

"Pride...is a very common failing" (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice). What Austen calls "pride" is these days better described as arrogant pride to distinguish it from the rightful pride of […]

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate

Posted on 19 June 2017 by

Debate is a social process of interactive communication. We can distinguish at least four roles associated with parties to a debate. First, there are the debaters themselves — at least […]

Collaboration versus point scoring

Collaboration versus point scoring

Posted on 5 June 2017 by

Last Monday we held the first workshop associated with the project Changing Attitudes in Public Debate. The workshop was by invitation and designed to bring together some philosophers, social psychologists […]

Reducing arrogance in debate

Reducing arrogance in debate

Posted on 19 May 2017 by

In many Western democracies, public opinion seems to have become bitterly divided over increasingly divisive topics like immigration, Brexit, and the qualities of Donald J. Trump. People whose convictions are […]

We are now open for debate

We are now open for debate

Posted on 18 May 2017 by

Welcome to 'Open for Debate', a blog associated with the project Changing Attitudes in Public Discourse. We hope to use this space to debate all aspects and forms of debate. Ultimately, […]