Agreement on matters of moment, religious, political, and philosophical, seems out of reach. But we may be able to reach clarity about our respective positions on the issues that divide us. That's what I used to think. I used to think that clarity is attainable even if agreement is not. But now I think that things are worse than I thought.
For the attaining of clarity requires agreement on what the issues are: we have to agree on the identity of the issues and how they are to be formulated. Do we agree on the issues and questions? Do we agree about what we are asking when we ask whether God exists? Or whether there are rights? Or whether the USA is systemically racist? Or whether there is climate change? The depth of disagreement may be such that we cannot attain clarity. It may be that neither agreement nor clarity are attainable goals. Philosophers often disagree about what they are disagreeing about. I need to adduce further examples.
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