Not really Disagreeing with Timandra Harkness

I had the pleasure of meeting and dialogue with Timandra Harkness this week when she came to the university to give a talk at CCCU. We have the talk she gave here along with an introduction by our VC on why good disagreement mattered to higher education and I was invited to give a short response to her excellent talk. You can listen to the whole thing here.

https://youtu.be/4IxipqpZYpc?si=O-h_ht0YxCfv59MB

I work in a university with an enshrined Academic freedom commitment in our articles of governance but really the issues of good disagreement are basic to teaching, especially in subjects like ethics and religious studies.

Timandra’s case was that the issue polarised disagreement is not a new issue with previous moral disagreement and political disturbances as examples. The

Miners strike was one example. There have always been difficulties.

I worried about the extent to which students genuinely had an opportunity on to freely discuss when they are connected to tradition communities which hold different values and beliefs around some issues, such as women in society and sexuality. This means open speech can have different consequences for them, especially if the student spends time in another country where laws may differ significantly. How free are they to dialogue?

Of course we have to try. I have found How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide, by James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian a compelling resource not just for public discourse but I think it has a lot for teachers. Two ideas I really like are

1) imagine that your opponent has better motives than you think. Of course, it might be your opponent has no interest in a conversation, no interest in listening, in which case politely step back from the dialogue. Offer and interest in a future dialogue.

2) imagine your debate opponent as a dialogue partner and try to consider the shared endeavour of the conversation, so you can created a shared community of conversation. At the outset if you can agree a shared undertaking in the conversation then all the better.

But it was a great conversation. I really enjoy these sessions where an external gives a short talk and then there is an ‘in the room’ conversation that really engages many in the audience.