Episode 47: Ravi Bali on Conducting Arguments in an Honest, Revolutionary Manner

Brendan and Andrew welcome back Ravi Bali to discuss his recently-published essay, On Conducting Arguments in an Honest, Revolutionary Manner. Ravi explains why he thinks truth-seeking should be an important goal for revolutionaries, and why revolutionaries should debate differences among us, instead of assuming that it’s sufficient to agree about “the fundamentals.” He also discusses procedures he has identified that allow for proper debate, such as providing arguments, not just making assertions; making one’s assumptions explicit; and employing the principle of “inference to the best explanation” when evaluating arguments, in order to avoid dogmatism. In addition, Ravi and the co-hosts discuss the examples of bad argumentative practices, and better argumentative practices, that he provides in his essay; how the sections on Raya Dunayevskaya and Marxist-Humanism relate to the essay as a whole; and how the essay has thus far been received.

 
In the episode’s current-events segment, the co-hosts discuss the indictments of the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg. What’s next?

 
Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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