{"id":2233,"date":"2025-03-31T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2025-03-12T15:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T15:26:18","slug":"being-pluralistic-about-philosophical-pessimism-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/being-pluralistic-about-philosophical-pessimism-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Being pluralistic about philosophical pessimism (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/being-pluralisti\u2026pessimism-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part one<\/a>, I argued that the conceptual core of pessimism is the twin judgments that the human condition is very bad and likely to remain so. However, this does not deliver a full philosophical doctrine of pessimism.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Content and context.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <em>philosophical pessimist<\/em> takes these judgements and tries to support them with arguments and rich detail. It\u2019s easy to announce \u2013 as people do on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Pessimism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reddit<\/a> \u2013 \u2018existence sucks\u2019 and \u2018life is a broken product\u2019. It is harder to explain such claims and make them philosophically compelling. Pessimists can therefore become philosophical and in the process develop <em>doctrines of pessimism<\/em>. Famous ones include the Buddha\u2019s and Schopenhauer\u2019s or the anti-natalist ones defended by contemporary pessimists such as <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/better-never-to-have-been-9780199549269?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David Benatar<\/a>. I think the best doctrines of pessimism need to do three things.<\/p>\n<p>The first is to provide <em>content<\/em> for the pessimistic claims. What are these bad-making features of human life? In what sense are they entrenched? How are they \u2018destructive of, or antagonistic to\u2019 deep human goods \u2013 and what are those goods? Looking across different pessimisms, the content is diverse and includes the following four:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Mortality<\/em> and the inseparability from human life of illness, aging, death and dying and the grief, sadness and fragility that goes with them. These inscribe into human life contingency, painful vulnerability, and a fragility whose existential impact is pithily captured in the title of one moving philosophical reflection on mortality \u2013 \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.waterstones.com\/book\/life-is-hard\/kieran-setiya\/9781529156164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">life is hard<\/a>\u2019. Recall the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accesstoinsight.org\/tipitaka\/an\/an03\/an03.038.than.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buddha\u2019s \u2018origin story\u2019<\/a> and his encounters with the three \u2018divine messengers\u2019 \u2013 an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Meaninglessness<\/em> of human life: the alleged lack of purpose or meaning of human endeavours, if appraised <em>sub specie aeternitatis<\/em> or when seriously scrutinised for their grounds. Think of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/shop.penguin.co.uk\/products\/the-outsider-by-albert-camus%3Fsrsltid%3DAfmBOopWaBz6mJNbE4t8vWYos2r379uwrjGfO1Q3m9LG980voHs-r7sY&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjawcXTvOuLAxU_WEEAHZeDOSgQFnoECGYQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw0uy1OA4AreP8qaSILTLXBM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Camus<\/a>\u2019s insistence on the \u2018absurdity\u2019 of our striving so earnestly to achieve goals which (he says) lack objective foundation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Miseries<\/em>, the panoply of anxieties, disappointments, frustrations, failed projects, unrequited loves, regrets, guilt, and other bad-making phenomena that make us, in <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-human-predicament-9780190633813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Benatar\u2019s term<\/a>, <em>infortunati<\/em>. Physical, \u00a0psychological, interpersonal, and existential distress are the lot of humans. While the exact distribution and intensity of miseries vary, often unjustly, no one could seriously aspire to live a life unblemished by them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Misanthropy<\/em> as acute <a href=\"https:\/\/philarchive.org\/rec\/KIDVOP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">condemnation<\/a> of the collective moral condition and performance of humankind. A misanthrope sees human life as infested with entrenched moral vices and failings. Arrogance, cruelty, exploitativeness, greed, hatred, indifference to suffering, hubris and other failings are inseparable from human life as it has come to be.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These four Ms \u2013 mortality, meaninglessness, miseries, and misanthropy \u2013 are not exhaustive. Others could be added. Perhaps one thinks human beings are deformed or twisted, as Christian doctrines of original sin insist. Perhaps reality itself is in some deep sense hostile to human flourishing.<\/p>\n<p>What matters for our purposes is the diversity of content of pessimistic doctrines. Preferences vary historically and culturally. As <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/weltschmerz-9780198822653?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">several<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/weltschmerz-9780198822653?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">excellent<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691206622\/dark-matters?srsltid=AfmBOoo85Oib_D3FjylEm8Vilmi12Xots8nsbSMBi1EQdqy_6_PtxxMs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">books<\/a> have shown, recent European pessimists focus on the meaning of life in a \u2018disenchanted\u2019 world after the \u2018death of God\u2019. But these are specific to recent European cultures. Other pessimists \u2013 from <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarworks.iu.edu\/iupjournals\/index.php\/jwp\/article\/view\/4913\">the Buddha<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/uk\/moral-fables-9781847495808\/\">Leopardi<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/On_the_Heights_of_Despair\">Cioran<\/a> \u2013 focus on life\u2019s deep miseries, reporting no theological and teleological anxieties. Many pessimists are misanthropes and relate the badness of our condition to the power and persistence of our moral failings. Yet others \u2013 like <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-human-predicament-9780190633813?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0Benatar<\/a> \u2013 invoke all four Ms.<\/p>\n<p>A second thing supplied by a doctrine of pessimism will be a <em>contextualisation<\/em> of their content. What narrative does the pessimist offer for thinking about the badness of human life? Some are <em>particularists<\/em> who describe the bad-making features of life in terms of features particular to their own culture. European pessimists appeal to the \u2018death of God\u2019, collapse of Christendom, or the emergence of oppressive technological modernity. Such particularist narratives have their uses and their grandeurs seems to animate people. But grand historical narratives often buy their drama at the cost of their detail. More problematically, they don\u2019t provide us with characterisations of human life\u2014only of particular <em>forms of human life<\/em>. To counteract that worry, the pessimist could also be a <em>perennialist<\/em> \u2013 explaining the badness of our condition in terms of permanent features of human life, not ones particular to certain cultural histories. Metaphysically complex stories are popular \u2013 Schopenhauer\u2019s doctrine of the \u2018cosmic will\u2019, for instance. Others tell anthropological stories about the structural imperfections of human nature, or offer existential analyses of <em>Dasein<\/em>, the \u2018mode of being\u2019 of creatures, like us, disposed to \u2018inauthenticity\u2019 and kinds of inveterate existential anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>In practice most philosophical pessimists combine both particularism and perennialism. Some succeed in developing doctrines describing perennial aspects of human life as experienced, as one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/philarchive.org\/rec\/OPPC&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiRu6Lyu-uLAxU9bEEAHRQgCQYQFnoECBMQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw0SdTiKU_Obm_QPc0bAJUJR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commentator<\/a> helpfully puts it, within \u2018historically specific configurations of human life\u2019. Mortality, for instance, is a universal feature of human life: we are \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/philpapers.org\/rec\/CARCOA-12&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjN3-n6u-uLAxXWQkEAHYW7BrgQFnoECBoQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw3wUGTBhMY3oera_pBk5PpK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">creatures of a day<\/a>\u2019 destined to decay and die. But the badness of mortality will depend on, among other things, the extent to which one\u2019s culture is ageist, pathophobic, and unempathetic.<\/p>\n<p>Good doctrines of pessimism have content and context and offer argumentation and evidence, and sometimes also include metaphysical, cultural, and historical material, too. Such content only <em>describes<\/em> the human condition, though. The last desideratum for a good doctrine is <em>guidance<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The conduct of life.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Philosophical pessimism is an existential doctrine. It has real implications for the moral and existential <em>conduct<\/em> of life. If pessimistic convictions are \u2018deeply cultivated\u2019, as Buddhists say, they transform how we see and understand life. Worries about the disturbing nature of pessimism refer to this existential dimension. Taken seriously, life does not go on as before. Good doctrines of pessimism should guide the nascent pessimist in the conduct of their life. Processes of conversion to a pessimistic perspective can be steady or rapid, involving patterns of resistance and acquiescence. It often involves experiences of moral distress, even trauma. Becoming genuinely pessimistic can be transformative, in the sense made famous by <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/7934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">L.A. Paul<\/a>. If a doctrine involves transformation, trauma, and disruption, then its architects should build in guidance.<\/p>\n<p>Pessimistic doctrines vary in their implications for how we should conduct our life. In his recent book defending pessimism, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agendapub.com\/page\/detail\/pessimism-quietism-and-nature-as-refuge\/?k=9781788217705#:~:text=In%20this%20thoughtful%20and%20insightful,as%20happily%20as%20we%20can.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David E. Cooper<\/a> distinguishes two broad kinds \u2013 <em>nihilism<\/em> and <em>quietism<\/em> (while rejecting <em>activism<\/em> and what he calls <em>amnesia<\/em>). The nihilistic options are the anti-natalist injunctions to voluntarily cease procreation to bring the human population down to zero and, related, the forms of \u2018extinctionism\u2019 that endorse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vhemt.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">human extinction<\/a> as an aim or ideal. Nihilistic policies, being dramatic and extreme, unfortunately tend to dominate discussions of pessimism (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/9821\/chapter\/157058575&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi_sPHbu-uLAxV9QUEAHSYIE8gQFnoECE0QAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw0i2L238Q9tWL_egsEjPiHa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eduard von Hartmann<\/a>\u2019s call for the \u2018universal suicide\u2019 of humankind\u2019 is alarming). \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/globalreports.columbia.edu\/books\/the-revolt-against-humanity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anthropocene antihumanism<\/a>\u2019 is the name given to the idea that \u2018a world without us\u2019 would be better for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2020\/jan\/10\/i-campaign-for-the-extinction-of-the-human-race-les-knight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">non-human animals and the natural world<\/a>. Cooper rejects nihilism \u2013 these policies often involve very violent disruptive methods, sometimes fuelled by hate and other moral vices. It is also difficult to recruit people to these causes. Many are guilty of fantasy or pretence. Few of us have the power, social or technological, to actually help realise these scenarios.<\/p>\n<p><em>Quietism<\/em> refers to a gentler set of ways of trying to \u2018live out\u2019 an internalised pessimistic vision. Asceticism, retreats into \u2018wholesome\u2019 spiritual communities, the relief afforded by occasional \u2018absorption\u2019 in aesthetic experiences and the art of accommodating to the negative realities of life are all examples of quietist forms of life. Quietists are not passive in the sense of giving up on moral action\u2014they do the little good they can without indulging delusions of amelioration on a grand scale. A <a href=\"https:\/\/cosmosandtaxis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kidd_CT_Vol12_Iss_11_12.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sense of human limitedness<\/a> can sustain a commitment to various virtues, as Cooper documents.<\/p>\n<p>Pessimistic quietism is modelled by many people: ancients like the Buddha, Epicurus, and Zhuangzi, \u2018recovering environmentalists\u2019, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulkingsnorth.net\/confessions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Kingsnorth<\/a>, and those countless and nameless people celebrated by George Eliot whose by their modest works add flecks of goodness to the world and now \u2018rest in unvisited tombs\u2019. Pessimists who recognise the deep badness of the human condition are not doomed to nihilism and despair. Other options \u2013 if modest and small-scale \u2013 are available.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Expanding our sense of the possibilities of philosophical pluralism is a crucial task in a world that seems determined to motivate pessimism.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@mrmarkdejong?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mark de Jong<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/white-and-black-wall-decor-WDqURPfH4so?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In part one, I argued that the conceptual core of pessimism is the twin judgments that the human condition is very bad and likely to remain so. However, this does [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":2236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[444,489],"custom_author":[81],"class_list":["post-2233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-for-debate","tag-hope","tag-pessimism","custom_author-kidd-ian-james"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KPlM-A1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/being-pluralistic-about-philosophical-pessimism-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":0},"title":"Being pluralistic about philosophical pessimism (Part 1)","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"March 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"There are many vernacular senses of pessimism. Familiar images of half-empty glasses go with elaborate talk of ours as \u2018the worst possible world\u2019. Pessimistic people might be praised as resolute truth-tellers or condemned as downbeat \u2018doom-mongers\u2019. Politicians often condemn pessimism as a call to apathy, a counsel of despair, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","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\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.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\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/03\/alexandre-dinaut-pgYPX-Cy3iE-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2113,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/values-and-virtues-in-philosophy-and-psychology\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":1},"title":"Values and Virtues in Philosophy and Psychology","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"September 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"During the recent general election campaign in the UK, I received a flyer through my door from a local independent candidate who claimed to value, among other things, humanitarianism. He also wanted to repurpose the entirety of the UK\u2019s foreign aid budget to fix potholes on Britain\u2019s apparently neglected roads.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Open for Debate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/category\/open-for-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Puddle on the ground reflecting a plane in the sky","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2024\/09\/mirror.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\/2024\/09\/mirror.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2024\/09\/mirror.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2024\/09\/mirror.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2161,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/philosophical-foundations-for-chatbot-regulation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":2},"title":"Philosophical Foundations for Chatbot Regulation","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"December 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In an age where we increasingly converse with artifacts - whose interfaces include AI, a pressing question emerges: Who, or what, are we really talking with? As AI-based chatbots, often termed \u2018conversational Ais\u2019, become more sophisticated, the line between human and machine communication blurs, raising profound questions about the nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","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\/2024\/12\/A-realistic-black-and-white-photograph-of-a-personstanding-in-front-of-a-full-length-mirror-speaking-with-a-robot-reflection.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\/2024\/12\/A-realistic-black-and-white-photograph-of-a-personstanding-in-front-of-a-full-length-mirror-speaking-with-a-robot-reflection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2024\/12\/A-realistic-black-and-white-photograph-of-a-personstanding-in-front-of-a-full-length-mirror-speaking-with-a-robot-reflection.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2024\/12\/A-realistic-black-and-white-photograph-of-a-personstanding-in-front-of-a-full-length-mirror-speaking-with-a-robot-reflection.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1669,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/a-conspiratorial-philosopher\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":3},"title":"A CONSPIRATORIAL PHILOSOPHER","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"April 3, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Although much is being written these days about conspiracy theories, the topic of conspiracy theorizing in philosophy is not discussed in the literature.\u00a0 Political epistemologists cherish easier topics, like the causes of the deaths of famous people, and conspiracy theories about science, pandemics and the like. But Heidegger offers a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","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\/2023\/04\/Heidegger_3_1960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2188,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/terrorism-and-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":4},"title":"Terrorism and Evil","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"January 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On 1 January of this year, an American man drove his pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans (Louisiana, US). Fifteen people were killed and dozens of others injured. The perpetrator, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a resident of Houston (Texas), was inspired by the Islamic State\u2019s violent extremist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","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\/2025\/01\/New_orleans_12279946665_e7faf93133_c.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\/2025\/01\/New_orleans_12279946665_e7faf93133_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/01\/New_orleans_12279946665_e7faf93133_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/01\/New_orleans_12279946665_e7faf93133_c.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1738,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/what-type-of-deference-to-science-do-we-owe-each-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":2233,"position":5},"title":"What type of deference to science do we owe each other?","author":"Alessandra Tanesini","date":"July 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"How should the public respond to science communication, and how can science be communicated in a way that promotes such a response? A combination of philosophical and empirical research may provide some answers. A scientifically informed public is an important dimension of deliberative democracy. More specifically, grand societal challenges, such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Open for Debate&quot;","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\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.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\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2023\/07\/Lappland-8-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/533\/2025\/03\/mark-de-jong-WDqURPfH4so-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233","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=2233"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/openfordebate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=2233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}