Voicing Dissent: The Ethics and Epistemology of Making Disagreement Public (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

Disagreement is, for better or worse, pervasive in our society. Not only do we form beliefs that differ from those around us, but increasingly we have platforms and opportunities to voice those disagreements and make them public. In light of the public nature of many of our most important disagreements, a key question emerges: How does public disagreement affect what we know?This volume collects original essays from a number of prominent scholars―including Catherine Elgin, Sanford Goldberg, Jennifer Lackey, Michael Patrick Lynch, and Duncan Pritchard, among others―to address this question in its diverse forms. The book is organized by thematic sections, in which individual chapters address the epistemic, ethical, and political dimensions of dissent. The individual contributions address important issues such as the value of disagreement, the nature of conversational disagreement, when dissent is epistemically rational, when one is obligated to voice disagreement or to object, the relation of silence and resistance to dissent, and when political dissent is justified. __Voicing Dissent__ offers a new approach to the study of disagreement that will appeal to social epistemologists and ethicists interested in this growing area of epistemology. Disagreement is, for better or worse, pervasive in our society. Not only do we form beliefs that differ from those around us, but increasingly we have platforms and opportunities to voice those disagreements and make them public. In light of the public nature of many of our most important disagreements, a key question emerges: How does public disagreement affect what we know? This volume collects original essays from a number of prominent scholars―including Catherine Elgin, Sanford Goldberg, Jennifer Lackey, Michael Patrick Lynch, and Duncan Pritchard, among others―to address this question in its diverse forms. The book is organized by thematic sections, in which individual chapters address the epistemic, ethical, and political dimensions of dissent. The individual contributions address important issues such as the value of disagreement, the nature of conversational disagreement, when dissent is epistemically rational, when one is obligated to voice disagreement or to object, the relation of silence and resistance to dissent, and when political dissent is justified. Voicing Dissent offers a new approach to the study of disagreement that will appeal to social epistemologists and ethicists interested in this growing area of epistemology. Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction • Casey Rebecca Johnson 10 1 Reasonable Disagreement • Catherine Z. Elgin 19 2 Disagreements, of Beliefs and Otherwise • Duncan Pritchard 31 3 Dissent: Ethics and Epistemology • Sanford C. Goldberg 49 4 Dissent: Good, Bad, and Reasonable • Klemens Kappel 70 5 Silence and Objecting • Jennifer Lackey 91 6 For the Sake of Argument: The Nature and Extent of Our Obligation to Voice Disagreement • Casey Rebecca Johnson 106 7 Eloquent Silences: Silence and Dissent • Alessandra Tanesini 118 8 Epistemic Arrogance and the Value of Political Dissent • Michael Patrick Lynch 138 9 Emancipatory Political Dissent in Practice: Insights From Social Theory • Rachel Ann McKinney 149 10 Speaking and Listening to Acts of Political Dissent • Matthew Chrisman and Graham Hubbs 173 11 Responding to Harmful Speech: The More Speech Response, Counter Speech, and the Complexity of Language Use • Mary Kate McGowan 191 Contributors 210 Index 211 In light of the public nature of many of our most important disagreements, a key question emerges: How does public disagreement affect what we know? This volume of original essays addresses this question in its many diverse forms. Edited By Casey Rebecca Johnson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.