20230122

 


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Tired.

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20230106

 John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, best expresses the reason for using a for-and-against method. No one is educated who knows only one side of an argument. No one should commit to a position without knowing the positions competition. Especially in complicated matters like politics, where a huge number of facts about the world must be integrated into a theory, a critical test for any theory is how well it compares with other theories. Does it overlook key facts? Does it make leaps of logic? The best way to answer for oneself those questions is to put the contender theories, with reference to their strongest defenders, in explicit competition with each other.

Stephen Hicks. Liberalism: Pro & Con. 2020.