PHIL 1200 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-4: Rationality, Rational Ignorance
28 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
There are three main reasons why politics cause so much disagreement: disagreements are very widespread, people strongly believe in their political positions. Rarely are they tentative and therefore are reluctant to change their ideas: political ideas are persistent, meaning that they are very particular to resolve. Other subjects like algebra rarely cause disagreements and if they do, they are usually easily resolved. So why do political disagreement rarely get resolved: miscalculation theory, ignorance theory. People have trouble agreeing on issues either due to lack of available information or having access to different information. If everyone had accurate factual knowledge about issue then most political issues would be resolved: divergent value theory. Political issues tend to touch on moral issues and every person has different values: the irrationality theory. People mainly disagree about political issues because people are irrational about politics.
