When Should we Argue? | Practical Ethics
by Professor Neil Levy; Cross-posted from Blog of the APA Don’t feed the trolls arguments. When someone is wrong—on the Internet or in the coffee shop—the temptation to engage can be strong, even though it often seems futile. While it can be satisfying and illuminating to argue with friends and some other people with whom
When Should we Argue? by admin May 5, 2026 May 5, 2026 by Professor Neil Levy; Cross-posted from Blog of the APA Don’t feed the trolls arguments. When someone is wrong—on the Internet or in the coffee shop—the temptation to engage can be strong, even though it often seems futile. While it can be satisfying and illuminating to argue with friends and some other people with whom we share some degree of trust, arguments with family members, acquaintances, and Internet strangers seem more often to harden positions and risk undermining the knowledge of third parties than to illuminate. Engaging may
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