Why does it feel like political discussions never get anywhere? During a political debate at a family dinner with your stubbornly opinionated uncle, have you ever felt like you are just going in circles? Have you noticed how, at those family dinners, no one came out with a different opinion than the one they started with? There are probably many answers to why this happens. I think it comes down to one very specific problem: the all-or-nothing political mindset. When you make an argument with a general theme that someone disagrees with, people with the all-or-nothing political mindset may feel the need to view you as wrong. You, as opposed to your argument which is what they actually disagree with. From this point forward, any further arguments you make, whether correct or incorrect, whether they agree with it or not, already fall into the category of “wrong” in the eyes of this individual. When that happens, any further discourse you try with this person just results in meaningless, o...
My introduction to philosophy was not through the study of philosophical books. Rather, it was through discussion. Whenever my friends and I discussed questions about philosophy, morality, or politics, I would take a position and present the idea to my friends. They would then ask me questions to expose the flaws in my thinking. They would criticize every aspect of my thought process, starting with my premises and axioms and ending with my conclusions. My friends would not do this as a way to spite me. Nor as a way to prove themselves superior to me. Rather, we would all do this to each other to develop our ideas and potentially find the “truth.” I never thought of myself as a philosopher, and I always thought of philosophy as an esoteric academic process to reach true ideas. When I read Plato’s Republic , widely regarded as one of the most important philosophical works in history, I was surprised to read what I did. Socrates’s friends presented their understanding of concepts, such as...