Rules for Respect[ing opinions you think are wrong ]

Harry Brighouse over at Crooked Timber has an interesting post about how he, as an atheist, can respect religious people. He contrasts this view to that of Simon Blackburn who argues that it’s possible to tolerate religious people but not to respect them on that particular point. I found Brighouse’s criteria rather useful:

The condition is something like this. It is possible to respect someone’s holding of a false belief if you believe that the person is someone of good will, and who has deliberated carefully, and honestly holds the belief given their non-irresponsible reflection on that deliberation and their personal experience.

Brighouse suggests this criteria can apply both to difference over religious belief and to political differences. The only area I might disagree with Brighouse is over the question of self-interest. I tend to think that self-interest has a legitimate role to play in forming ones political beliefs. We’re often better equipped than even a benevolent outside to know what we want. However, Brighouse may just be rejecting self-interest unleavened by sincere reflection, so I’m not sure we disagree.

Regardless, pluralism doesn’t require that we all respect each other, but I think the possibility of respect across religious and political divisions is necessary. While there are now more prominent militant atheists, on the whole I tend to think those without religion have taken a good deal more disrespect than those with. I hope these sorts of discussions are a prologue to atheists being better incorporated into American philosophical pluralism.

[Reene raises a good point in comments. I failed to make clear that the debaters both agree that you can respect someone who you think holds wrong opinions. You may just tolerate that particular belief. It’s a fair question as to whether we need to actually respect the other sides’ specifics belief for pluralism to work or just to respect them as people.]

(Found the post via Sullivan)

Comments

[Reene]

Oh, man. How about respecting people regardless of what they believe? You know, because they're human? You don't have to respect the beliefs themselves necessarily, but even the most intellectually rigorous people believe a few dumb things. It's entirely possible to treat someone with respect while thinking some of their beliefs are stupid - I would bet you do it every day.

[Greg Sanders]

Ah, think I mis-summarized a bit. The argument was about respecting the belief in question. I think everyone involved in the argument agreed that you could respect a person while only tolerating/ignoring a few stupid beliefs they hold.