Zetetic Intransigence and Democratic Participation

Democracy depends on citizens engaging across differences, but political disagreement raises a thorny problem: how should we adjust our confidence when others, who are at least somewhat reliable, disagree with us? Joshi argues that while we have elegant strategies for responding fairly to higher-order evidence about our beliefs, no such solution exists when it comes to inquiry itself. When fellow citizens refuse to moderate how they gather evidence—what Joshi calls zetetic intransigence—democratic participation involves messy trade-offs with no fully satisfying resolution.