{"id":149,"date":"2017-07-17T06:20:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T06:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/?p=149"},"modified":"2017-09-18T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T10:22:42","slug":"arrogant-pride-and-alternative-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/arrogant-pride-and-alternative-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrogant Pride and Alternative Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Pride…is a very common failing” (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice<\/i>). What Austen calls “pride” is these days better described as arrogant pride to distinguish it from the rightful pride of those opposing discrimination on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Austen characterises it as “a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary.” Those who are arrogantly proud, then, are full of themselves and possessed of a feeling of superiority. They dominate conversations, interrupt other people, and are dismissive of views opposed to their own. We are sadly confronted with these\u00a0behaviours\u00a0on a daily basis. We observe them among work colleagues; we see them exhibited by those who are meant to represent us in complex political negotiation. We exhibit them ourselves.<\/p>\n

Arrogance is an obstacle to rational debate and is particularly pernicious when diplomacy, moderation, flexibility and the ability to compromise are required. There are two features of arrogance in debate that are particularly harmful. When we converse with we acquire obligations toward our interlocutors. For example,\u00a0everything else being equal,\u00a0we should avoid lying or misleading them; we owe them to be helpful when helpfulness is not costly to us. In addition, we should be careful with any statement we make. Speakers who make claims, rather than offer mere suggestions or put forward a\u00a0conjecture, have obligations toward their audiences. They must make themselves answerable and accountable for their claims. They make themselves answerable by being prepared to justify their views in the face of legitimate challenges. They make themselves accountable by\u00a0acknowledging\u00a0that they are to blame if it turns out that their claims are mistaken.<\/p>\n

Arrogant individuals in their sense of superiority do not think of themselves as answerable; they respond to challenges with anger and dismissal. Some supremely arrogant people also take themselves to be unaccountable. They behave as if the world should reflect their opinions, rather attempting to adjust their views to reality. They imagine themselves the umpires of what is true, proudly declaring that things are as they call them (but forgetting that they should call them as they are). From here to ‘alternative facts’ the gap is small.<\/p>\n

If you would like to read more about arrogance and assertion check out my paper ‘”Calm Down, Dear”: Intellectual Arrogance, Silencing and Ignorance\u2019,\u00a0Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume<\/i>\u00a090 (1), 2016, pp. 71-92. You can find a final draft on my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image ‘“Alternate Facts” van<\/a>‘ by Claire Uziel<\/a> licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"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 […]","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[56,4,55,23,33,5,31],"custom_author":[75],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-for-debate","tag-alternative-facts","tag-arrogance","tag-assertion","tag-changing-attitudes-in-public-discourse","tag-communication","tag-debate","tag-philosophy","custom_author-tanesini-alessandra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KPlM-2p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":386,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/explaining-the-puzzle-of-national-shame\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":0},"title":"Explaining the puzzle of national shame","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"February 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the aftermath of the EU Referendum, I encountered many people who said to me, \u201cI am ashamed to be British\u201d, or, when confronted with the fallout of the referendum such as the lack of diplomacy exhibited by David Davis, May\u2019s use of EU citizen rights as bargaining chips, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/02\/flag2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/02\/flag2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/02\/flag2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/02\/flag2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/what-makes-arrogant-people-so-angry\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":1},"title":"What makes arrogant people so angry?","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"April 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Arrogant people are often intolerant of questioning or criticism. They respond to genuine and even polite challenges with anger. They are bullies that attempt to humiliate and intimidate those who do not agree with, or explicitly defer to, their opinions.\u00a0The arrogant\u00a0feel superior to other people and arrogate for themselves special\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/04\/light.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/04\/light.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/04\/light.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2019\/04\/light.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":365,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/arrogance-and-the-space-of-reasons\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":2},"title":"Arrogance and the Space of Reasons","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"January 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoining communicated experience. ---John Dewey[1] \u00a0 One of the truly baffling things about the Trump era in the United States is that just when you think our political life could not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2018\/01\/Hawk.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/reducing-arrogance-in-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":3},"title":"Reducing arrogance in debate","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"May 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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 strongly opposed to each other treat discussions as duels or shouting matches. We are now used to\u00a0observing\u00a0debates where participants are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Changing Attitudes"","block_context":{"text":"Changing Attitudes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/changing-attitudes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/04\/stop-1616145_1920.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1527,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/the-ambivalence-of-cynicism\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":4},"title":"The ambivalence of cynicism","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"September 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cynicism seems to have an ambivalent status. On the one hand, \u2018being cynical\u2019 might mean dogmatic scepticism about people\u2019s moral character. A cynic can be arrogant \u2013 too smart, too savvy, to be taken in by illusions the rest of us pathetically take to be the truth. Some cynics work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Open for Debate"","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2022\/09\/crazy-cake-08vpbfpq_II-unsplash.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/the-vices-of-truthlessness\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":5},"title":"The Vices of Truthlessness","author":"Charlie Crerar","date":"August 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From \u2018post-truth\u2019, to \u2018fake news\u2019, to \u2018alternative facts\u2019, truthlessness is everywhere at the moment. These phenomena present us with a huge array of questions. How do we separate fact from fiction? How can we tell which sources of information are credible? Is there even such a thing as objective truth?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/in-the-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/08\/truth-2069846_960_720.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/08\/truth-2069846_960_720.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/08\/truth-2069846_960_720.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/08\/truth-2069846_960_720.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2017\/07\/Alternative_facts_are_falsehoods.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}