Abstract

It is argued that argumentative deliberation, which involves the interpersonal exchange and evaluation of reasons and counter-reasons, is crucial for the generation of epistemic goods given that it helps us eradicate errors and neutralise biases. However, to reap argumentative deliberation’s epistemic benefits, the deliberators need to instantiate a certain intellectual character: in particular, they need to be intellectually humble and autonomous. Given that, it is argued that the educational system should foster the development of the intellectual virtues of humility and autonomy. Moreover, some pedagogical strategies and practices as to how this can be achieved in the classroom are offered.

Highlights

  • We live in societies with hyper-specialised knowledge, which distribute the acquisition of knowledge among different people

  • Given that argumentative deliberation can and ought to have a central role in our everyday personal and political lives in order to better conduct them, one would expect that learning to adequately engage in it would be a priority of the educational system

  • Given the role they play in successful argumentative deliberation and the role this deliberation plays in satisfying different plausible aims of education, these virtues ought to be fostered in the classroom

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Summary

Introduction

We live in societies with hyper-specialised knowledge, which distribute the acquisition of knowledge among different people. Importantly for present purposes, we need to notice that we depend on others for the generation of epistemic goods This is perhaps most clearly appreciated in scientific researchers’ collaborations, but collaborative epistemic work, where people jointly perform same task (as opposed to work being delegated), certainly goes beyond science. I focus on a particular instance of this division of cognitive labour: namely, interpersonal argumentative deliberation, where, roughly, the interlocutors exchange and evaluate reasons in order to acquire some epistemic good (below I’ll introduce the phenomenon more precisely and use the less cumbersome ‘argumentative deliberation’ to refer to it) In this natural and ubiquitous sort of deliberation (Mercier and Sperber, 2017), the interlocutors are jointly tackling the same epistemic task and, as we’ll see, epistemic benefits regarding the eradication of errors via, partly, the counteraction of cognitive shortcomings are gained..

Argumentative Deliberation and Epistemic Performance
Cognitive Diversity and Intellectual Virtues
The Significance of Educating for Intellectual Humility and Autonomy
The Feasibility of Educating for Intellectual Humility and Autonomy
Conclusion
Findings
Works Cited
Full Text
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