Notices tagged with debates

The Case Against #Democracy

source: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/07/the-case-against-democracy

First, one could deny that #truth was a suitable standard for measuring political #judgment. This sounds extreme, but it’s a fairly common move in political #philosophy. After all, in #debates over contentious issues, such as when human life begins or whether human activity is warming the planet, appeals to the truth tend to be incendiary. Truth “peremptorily claims to be acknowledged and precludes debate,” Hannah #Arendt pointed out in this magazine, in 1967, “and debate constitutes the very essence of political life.” Estlund wasn’t a relativist, however; he agreed that politicians should refrain from appealing to absolute truth, but he didn’t think a political theorist could avoid doing so.

#policy #politician #problem #crisis #justice #fail