Here are a few pointers for undertaking discussions.
The best discussions are those that are based on some degree of concreteness. The advantage of the Carlson readings is that you can have them in front of you. I would like Carlson to be the primary–though not the sole–focus for our discussion. Thus, make sure that you print all of his transcripts and bring them to class.
Because I am using a specific topic–the pandemic–to begin our investigation of truth and politics, look closely at the linked graphs on Covid deaths and the article on vaccine deaths for yesterday’s class. These are the most recent scientific data and analysis that I could find; if you can find more recent ones, please let me know.
The goal of the discussion is not to resolve everything tomorrow. I am mainly interested in laying the foundations for future discussions, ones that will become more and more robust. Your discussion leaders will provide you with questions to spur discussion, but their role is to lead, not save you by answering all of your questions.
It is natural to think that having a productive discussion is easy. It is not easy at all. One must learn by doing. The same thing applies to writing, reading, and persuading. These skills are all part of the same package. The more you learn about one, the better you will be at the others.
Tomorrow’s discussion is a jumping point to all of the topics in the course. In this seminar, I will deliberately refrain from telling you everything you should know. To promote deep understanding, I want you to discover the issues and possible responses for yourselves. Nonetheless, for some ideas about the terrain we will travel, just read through the syllabus. As can see, I provide much more substance than on a typical syllabus, and I will add commentary as we move along. You can also think about the odd example I used of my hand (an approach I borrowed from a philosophical school called “phenomenology,” which happens to be a favorite with popes, especially John Paul II). As unusual as my example may have seemed, all of the elements of describing my hand will play major roles in this class.