Sorry for the month+ delay in this response, I discovered this in my saved drafts, written roughly a month ago, but I still think it’s worth posting.
I don’t think that’s the right standard. One way to challenge it is to ask, Can someone make a sound and cogent argument that is “based in hate”? I think the answer is ‘yes’. Imagine someone who argues against Nihilism because they hate what it leads to. Or who writes Christian apologetics motivated by a hatred of sin. In fact, the argument is a form of ad hominem, targeting the person making it and other beliefs they may espouse, rather than the argument they are presenting.
Perhaps I’m reading your comment too literally. And certainly many arguments motivated by hate will in fact be bad arguments, as generally emotive reasoning is motivated reasoning. But strictly speaking, I disagree that motivation from hate is enough by itself to justify an intervention.
Repetition, on the other hand, frequently is enough to justify an intervention. It can be trolling, derailing, generally disruptive to other conversations. But it’s a hard line to police. Let’s say I’ve read Dennett’s Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking and really took it to heart. When I participate in a thread, I recast it in terms of Dennett’s work. That’s likely to be annoying, it might be disruptive/derailing, but it doesn’t seem illegitimate to do so. Furthermore, every truth we ever discover will need to be shared anew with every new human that lands among us. Repetition, within reason, is justified by everyone who isn’t yet convinced.
And importantly, there’s a problem when we say that certain behavior (over-repetition of a stance or mode of thought) is illegitimate, but only when it’s used to express a certain idea. That is a content-based restriction on speech, and I don’t think that suits a philosophy forum.
I think that restriction is appropriate on a gaming site. Hell, I’ve been on gaming sites that didn’t allow discussion of politics, because politics always leads to petty meltdowns. But this isn’t a gaming site, we’re here to support something different. Philosophy is a broader topic, and a site dedicated to it has to be more tolerant of socially unacceptable ideas.
Turd, first I want to thank you for your perfectly civil response.
As for spitting in the face of people you disagree with, that doesn’t seem like an effective way to proceed with a philosophical inquiry, and I’d say it’s no coincidence that it has all but completely died out in the academy. And everywhere else people are trying to accomplish anything.
No. Nor, for that matter, do I reliably practice it. Being a dick to people I disagree with is regrettably satisfying to my ape brain, and I do it often. I’m often a dick to Uccisore, intentionally, in the heat of an argument where we’re both losing our cool – along with all the civility that depends on keeping a level head.
Obviously, Uccisore and I approach discussion differently. We discuss differently, we moderate differently, and as such I disagree with some of what Uccisore does. But a large part of that disagreement is philosophical. Uccisore and I disagree about government on all levels, we disagree about human nature, we disagree about the Good and how to achieve it. So of course we disagree about the best way to moderate a site, or to have a philosophical conversation.
But I know Uccisore to be a good philosopher, to be capable of thinking clearly and articulating his thoughts well, and, crucially for being a moderator, to be able to recognize good philosophy when he sees it. Obviously, my disagreements with Uccisore affect my internal model of him as a person, and I judge him reflexively based on what he says and how he says it. And I’m sometimes tempted to lower my estimation of him based on how he engages. But I also have to acknowledge that some of his most cogent arguments have been delivered like spit in the face.
While civility is good, this site would suck if it were everyone sitting around sipping tea and politely discussing the weather. We should accept a sacrifice of some civility for more substance. If I could wave a wand and make Uccisore not quite so abrasive, I probably would. But if the choice is to take his arguments as spit in the face or not at all, I’d rather keep a hanky nearby.