This course explores the pressing issue of political tribalism, often known as affective polarization, which many believe poses a significant threat to our democratic institutions. We will critically examine the nature of these tribalistic ideologies, drawing insights from contemporary social science and philosophical research. Our discussions will focus on how these ideologies negatively affect cognitive function, manipulate moral sentiments to incite unethical behaviors, and replace genuine truth-seeking conversations with “sorting, signaling, and score-keeping” discourse. This includes the use of language as a tool to categorize individuals into “Us” versus “Them” and to demonstrate loyalty to our own groups while deflecting criticism of our leaders by highlighting similar flaws in opposing figures. We will pay particular attention to how such tribalistic ideologies undermine the foundations of deliberative democracy and diminish our collective sense of national identity and unity.
American Tribalism
Meet Your Instructor
ALLEN BUCHANAN is an internationally recognized philosopher specializing in bioethics, political philosophy, philosophy of international law, and ideology theory. He particularly focuses on the implications of evolutionary anthropology for moral progress. Dr. Buchanan has authored fifteen books and over 150 articles and chapters. His recent honors include The Tanner Lectures on Human Values and the Hastings Center’s “Founder of Bioethics Award.” He combines his scholarly work with policy advising, having served on the Advisory Council of the National Human Genome Project and consulted for various U.S. Presidential Bioethics Commissions, the U.S. State Department, and international governments on issues related to secession.
Location
THIS COURSE WILL BE OFFERED ONLINE ONLY
Classes will be live streamed during the time and dates specified in the course details section above. Instructions about how to access the course online will be sent to all enrolled students before the course begins.
