Question: Can you have a healthy democracy without a common set of facts and, if not, what kinds of beliefs and what ways of forming them might make factual agreement impossible?
Last December, an Economist leader asked whether heathy democracies require a common set of facts. While that’s worth exploring in itself, the follow-on question is even more urgent. What if some basic requirements for widespread factual agreement – requirements that have been in place for 150 years – have gone missing in America?
In the short term, what does this mean for the upcoming election? In the medium term, what practical steps can states take to keep harmful alternative realities from taking root within their borders? A longer-term issue is whether the questions flip cause and effect: Might factual agreement require key features of a healthy democracy?
The Democracy and Diversity of Beliefs interest group will focus on practical implications of the relation between the health of our democracy and the nature and forming of our beliefs about the world and about what’s valuable. Monthly conversations will focus on specific questions participants choose within topics like the following:
- Democracy and conflicting beliefs
- Science and democracy
- Democracy and facts
- AI and democracy
- Democratic and undemocratic diversity
Meetings will take place the first Monday of each month from 2:30 to 4:00 pm at a house near Mission Street on the west side. Participants will vote on topics for each upcoming session, with the group leader or the person who proposed the topic suggesting a short article or book chapter to ground the conversation and offering brief remarks to kick it off.
Where: Contact leader.
When: 1st Monday of the month, 2:30-4:00 pm
Group leader: David Apgar, d_apgar@msn.com