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2024 - Volume 8 - Number 1

Predictability and Liberty

Susan T. Gardner * ORCID: 0000-0001-6740-8105
Capilano University, North Vancouver, CANADA

Daniel J. Anderson * ORCID: 0000-0002-5205-0902
Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children, Abbotsford, CANADA

Open Journal for Studies in Philosophy, 2024, 8(1), 1-12 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsp.0801.01001g
Received: 31 December 2023 ▪ Revised: 18 April 2024 ▪ Accepted: 24 April 2024

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
Predictability tends to elicit a clear behavioral response and hence, for humans, it is a basic need in both their physical and social environment. However, the liberty inherent in a democratic society makes life essentially unpredictable and, in this sense, may create a sense of unease in its citizens who then may strive for stability in dogma. Dogmatism, however, is antithetical to democratic liberty. Once we take up this Janus focus of democracy, i.e., that it can lead to the best of times and the worst of times, it becomes clear that, to preserve democracy, we must educationally invest in anchoring predictability in the individuals rather than in the environment in which they subsist, and that we can achieve this (i) by explicating clearly to young citizens that the chaos of reasons doing battle is fundamentally different from the chaos of persons doing battle, and (ii) by shoring up what Charles Taylor (1989) calls strong evaluation, i.e., shoring up the ability to confidently and independently judge the worth of any proposed action and how it reflects on one’s ideal self. We will argue, perhaps counterintuitively, that this confidence in the predictability of one’s capacity for independent thought can best be achieved through an education that affords frequent engagement in “truth-seeking” interpersonal inquiries of the sort frequently utilized the practice of Philosophy for Children, but one that is buttressed by reinforcing the belief in Truth and, as well, by exposing participants to “truth-seeking” interpersonal dialogues that are focused on genuine, relevant, and difficult moral quandaries.

KEY WORDS: predictability, liberty, strong evaluation, Philosophy for Children, democracy, reasoning.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Susan T. Gardner, Capilano University, North Vancouver, CANADA.

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