No Genuine Disagreement

Purposefully Built (Photo by the Author)

It can sometimes seem like there’s disagreement when, in fact, there isn’t. This happens when people use the same (or similar sounding) words, but mean different things. For example, people may seem to disagree about something being “hard”, when one person uses the word hard to mean something is difficult and another uses it to mean a solid. Were they to notice this difference, they’d realize that there’s no genuine disagreement between them. Now, you might wonder, what is a genuine disagreement?

Well, according to Richard Feldman, a genuine disagreement is one which turns on incompatible beliefs. If one view is right, then the other (opposite view) must be wrong. For example, John believes in God but Paul doesn’t. God either exists or doesn’t, so only one of them can be right, even if we are not in a position to know who is right and who is wrong.

Now, in a recent discussion, there appeared to be some disagreement between myself and another participant, which I think was merely apparent but not genuine. You see, I might plausibly be described as following an Epicurean way of life. Very roughly, this just means that I don’t fear God(s), don’t worry about death, and have an easy going attitude towards both the good and bad things in life. However, in the discussion, someone asked about whether Epicureans engage in politics. And I replied that I’m mostly apolitical. Someone else responded that, given the current state of the world (e.g. climate change, LGBTQ+ rights being under attack, etc), it’s impossible to be fully (or always) apolitical.

That’s likely the case, considering how interconnected and interdependent the world is, but it’s important to draw a few distinctions. Firstly, being apolitical doesn’t necessarily mean that one lacks political views. For example, I support the development of a rights-based society in which there’s universal access to food, healthcare, education, income, and shelter. Secondly, it also doesn’t mean one can’t, on occasion, meaningfully contribute to political causes. For example, one can sign a petition, volunteer, and so on. Thirdly, it’s important to remember that one can decide for oneself just how much politics one is willing to be involved with. I’ve looked into what running for and holding political office involves, what belonging to a political party entails, and what participating in an election is all about. And I don’t find it, in its current form, all that appealing. In fact, most of it involves greater costs than benefits. The opportunity costs of doing something more meaningful and realistic with one’s life is one reason why one might want to refrain from involving oneself politically. But there are times when the benefits outweigh the costs.

Not too long ago, UofT’s Jewish community couldn’t access special dietary products (i.e. kosher food) through the university’s food services on campus. Similar diets of other communities were accommodated for by the university, so there was a request for such access to also be extended to the Jewish community. This request wasn’t supported by a student union representative, who used her position to connect the Jewish community on campus to the conflict in the middle east, instead of fulfilling her duties as a rep and supporting a student community in their time of need. So, I defended UofT’s Jewish community by writing for our university’s student newspaper, promoting their petition, and taking apart the opposition’s lines of reasoning.

Now, I’m not Jewish and I could’ve, like many other students, simply looked the other way, focused on my studies, went dancing or played sports. But I felt compelled to speak out, because what was happening to the Jewish community was unjust, and I feel like we are all part of a larger UofT community anyway. So, I couldn’t remain apolitical on this issue. Generally speaking, I try to avoid politics as much as I can. Though, I agree, that’s not always possible. So being apolitical comes in degrees, and will vary individually and circumstantially.

Next month, I’ll be returning to the topic of disagreement on the pod side of Nousy.