Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Public Discourse

  • What are Words For?

    By Daniel A. Kaufman __ Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse. –George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” Our public discourse today has disintegrated into a wretched cant, in which words are…

  • The (Im)Possibility of Discussion on Social Media

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ___ Sheena Mason (SUNY Oneonta) and Kevin Currie-Knight dialogue about the perils and promises of discussion on social media. (Sheena is more optimistic about the potential than Kevin is.) Along the way, they talk about perspectives on truth and whether humans are capable of getting it in an objective way, the postmodern-y…

  • New Year Musings

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ 2020 will be remembered in the US for three things: the Covid-19 pandemic; racial unrest, rioting, looting, and vandalism across a number of American cities; and the defeat of Donald Trump by Joe Biden in the US presidential race. Beyond their qualities as spectacle, notable enough in their own right,…

  • Debating Standpoint Theory

    Crispin Sartwell (Dickinson College) and I discussed/debated the relative merits (or lack thereof) of Standpoint Theory, in light of my recent essay on the subject. This dialogue first appeared on MeaningofLife.TV, as part of the Sophia program. Social Justice Discourse and the Question of “Standpoints” https://youtu.be/r2AGlQ9aG2U