{"id":176630,"date":"2014-12-17T13:21:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T13:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/12\/17\/every-year-i-try-to-do-at-least-two-things-with\/"},"modified":"2014-12-17T13:21:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T13:21:07","slug":"every-year-i-try-to-do-at-least-two-things-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/12\/17\/every-year-i-try-to-do-at-least-two-things-with\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every year, I try to do at least two things with my students at least once. First, I make a point of addressing them as \u201cphilosophers\u201d \u2013 a bit cheesy, but hopefully it encourages active learning.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I say something like this: \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the expression \u2018everyone is entitled to their opinion.\u2019 Perhaps you\u2019ve even said it yourself, maybe to head off an argument or bring one to a close. Well, as soon as you walk into this room, it\u2019s no longer true. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to what you can argue for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bit harsh? Perhaps, but philosophy teachers owe it to our students to teach them how to construct and defend an argument \u2013 and to recognize when a belief has become indefensible.<\/p>\n

The problem with \u201cI\u2019m entitled to my opinion\u201d is that, all too often, it\u2019s used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned. It becomes shorthand for \u201cI can say or think whatever I like\u201d \u2013 and by extension, continuing to argue is somehow disrespectful. And this attitude feeds, I suggest, into the false equivalence between experts and non-experts that is an increasingly pernicious feature of our public discourse.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

No, you\u2019re not entitled to your opinion<\/a> (via meggannn<\/a>)<\/p>\n

READ THE SECOND PARAGRAPH<\/p>\n

(via honestlyvan<\/a>)<\/p>\n

THE LAST PARAGRAPH IS EVERYTHING WRONG IN THE WORLD><\/p>\n

(via deducecanoe<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, I try to do at least two things with my students at least once. First, I make a point of addressing them as \u201cphilosophers\u201d \u2013 a bit cheesy, but hopefully it encourages active learning. Secondly, I say something like this: \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the expression \u2018everyone is entitled to their opinion.\u2019 Perhaps … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[19267,4145,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}