Justice

Is there anything of value philosophically in the contentious politics of the day?

Comments

Sure! On the one hand, you see people presenting some strong arguments for competing political philosophies and different moral values, and ideally we get to vote based on a more informed understanding of these competing views, to the extent that different candidates (or referendums or amendments) embody those views. Democracy in action!

On the other hand (and alas, too often, especially on cable news and talk radio), you see examples of really bad arguments and fallacies, so you get to practice your philosophical skills critiquing them.

Ideally, of course, citizens would be educated well enough to find (and to appreciate, hence financially supporting) good sources of argument and information, and those sources would provide more substance and less heat than we see in our current media. And ideally, our politicians would be able to present their philosophies and policies in a way that allowed us to see their consequences and judge their merits, and that allowed them to make good compromises among each other. (It's always good to remind ourselves how contentious the politics were during our nation's founding, though they were also pretty contentious before the civil war...)

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