General Category > Archaeology
Democracy is not a truth machine
Suppressed:
http://www.philosophersbeard.org/2010/11/democracy-is-not-truth-machine.html?m=1
Monday, 5 December 2011
Democracy is not a truth machine
In a democracy people are free to express their opinions and question those of others. This is an important personal freedom, and also essential to the very idea of government by discussion. But it has also been held to be instrumentally important because in open public debate true ideas will conquer false ones by their merit, and the people will see the truth for themselves. In other words, democracy has an epistemic function as a kind of truth machine. From this it follows that in a democracy there should be no dogma: no knowledge protected from public challenge and debate. Yet this whole argument is founded on embarrassing misconceptions of the nature of truth and of the working of democracy.
[...]
DB:
--- Quote from: Suppressed on March 19, 2018, 01:19:29 am ---http://www.philosophersbeard.org/2010/11/democracy-is-not-truth-machine.html?m=1
Monday, 5 December 2011
Democracy is not a truth machine
In a democracy people are free to express their opinions and question those of others.
[...]
--- End quote ---
Isn't the first sentence blantently wrong?
That isn't true in either Canada or Britain (just for a start). Freely expressing your opinions can be called hate speech and get you fined and/or put in prison on short order.
Sorry, stopped reading after that.
WingNot:
The truth is out there.
Bigun:
I could care less about a "democracy"! I would hate to have to live in one!
endicom:
--- Quote from: DB on March 19, 2018, 01:27:02 am ---Isn't the first sentence blantently wrong?
--- End quote ---
Yes, blatantly. Democracy is at the whim of the majority.
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