Does rationality serve to prevent political backsliding?
It seems as if politics moves far too fast for rational methods can keep up. If so, does that mean rationality is irrelevant to politics?
One function of rationality might be to prevent ethical/political backsliding. For example, let’s say that during time A, institution X is considered moral. A political revolution ensues, and during time B, X is deemed a great evil and is banned.
A change of policy makes X permissible during time C, banned again during time D, and absolutely required for all upstanding folk during time E.
Rational deliberation about X seems to play little role in the political legitimacy of X.
However, rational deliberation about X continues in the background. Eventually, a truly convincing argument about the ethics of X emerges. Once it does, it is so compelling that it has a permanent anchoring effect on X.
Although at some times, society’s policy on X contradicts the rational argument, the pull of X is such that it tends to make these periods of backsliding shorter and less frequent.
The natural process of developing the rational argument about X also leads to an accretion of arguments that are not only correct, but convincing as well. This continues even when the ethics of X are proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, which continues to shorten and prevent periods of backsliding.
In this framework, rationality does not “lead” politics. Instead, it channels it. The goal of a rational thinker should not be to achieve an immediate political victory. Instead, it should be to build the channels of rational thought higher and stronger, so that the fierce and unpredictable waters of politics eventually are forced to flow in a more sane and ethical direction.
The reason you’d concern yourself with persuasion in this context is to prevent the fate of Gregor Mendel, whose ideas on inheritance were lost in a library for 40 years. If you come up with a new or better ethical argument about X, make sure that it becomes known enough to survive and spread. Your success is not your ability to immediately bring about the political changes your idea would support. Instead, it’s to bring about additional consideration of your idea, so that it can take root, find new expression, influence other ideas, and either become a permanent fixture of our ethics or be discarded in favor of an even stronger argument.
Does rationality serve to prevent political backsliding?
It seems as if politics moves far too fast for rational methods can keep up. If so, does that mean rationality is irrelevant to politics?
One function of rationality might be to prevent ethical/political backsliding. For example, let’s say that during time A, institution X is considered moral. A political revolution ensues, and during time B, X is deemed a great evil and is banned.
A change of policy makes X permissible during time C, banned again during time D, and absolutely required for all upstanding folk during time E.
Rational deliberation about X seems to play little role in the political legitimacy of X.
However, rational deliberation about X continues in the background. Eventually, a truly convincing argument about the ethics of X emerges. Once it does, it is so compelling that it has a permanent anchoring effect on X.
Although at some times, society’s policy on X contradicts the rational argument, the pull of X is such that it tends to make these periods of backsliding shorter and less frequent.
The natural process of developing the rational argument about X also leads to an accretion of arguments that are not only correct, but convincing as well. This continues even when the ethics of X are proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, which continues to shorten and prevent periods of backsliding.
In this framework, rationality does not “lead” politics. Instead, it channels it. The goal of a rational thinker should not be to achieve an immediate political victory. Instead, it should be to build the channels of rational thought higher and stronger, so that the fierce and unpredictable waters of politics eventually are forced to flow in a more sane and ethical direction.
The reason you’d concern yourself with persuasion in this context is to prevent the fate of Gregor Mendel, whose ideas on inheritance were lost in a library for 40 years. If you come up with a new or better ethical argument about X, make sure that it becomes known enough to survive and spread. Your success is not your ability to immediately bring about the political changes your idea would support. Instead, it’s to bring about additional consideration of your idea, so that it can take root, find new expression, influence other ideas, and either become a permanent fixture of our ethics or be discarded in favor of an even stronger argument.