Filosofie & Praktijk - Volume 44, Issue 2, 2023

These days, increasing voices are calling for a ban on public debate. Debate is said to increase differences and act as a divisive societal factor. A recent report by the Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau (2022) indicates that most Dutch people are concerned about polarization and the hardening of the political and public debate. In this essay, however, Danielle Arets argues that we should embrace debate; we have lost the ability to disagree appropriately. To revitalize the debate, Arets argues that we need to redesign the public debate and look for ways of deliberation that especially involve the arts.

Citizenship education aims to shape students as ‘good citizens’. Citizenship education is a normative endeavour, and therefore it is vital to critically reflect on its goals and methods. The research question¹ is as follows: How can we educate people as ‘good citizens’ in a morally right way? To answer this question, I uncover first which assumptions underly the image of a ‘good citizen’. This is done by establishing which minimum requirements the continuation of democracy demands, and by studying the European Commission’s formulation of the ‘good citizen’ and its underlying notion of democracy. Next, I critically reflect on how students are shaped as ‘good citizens’ through citizenship education. This lays bare an underlying tension between liberal democracy and citizenship education that can be described as the danger of indoctrination. Inspired by Jürgen Habermas’ discourse ethics, this article proposes a way out, namely obligatory philosophy education for all students.

A large-scale medical and social experiment is taking place in the Western world, of which girls and young women in particular are the victims. No one came up with this experiment. It is the result of developments that started more than half a century ago and that have converged in recent years. In this article I will try to outline some of those developments and their consequences. The gender experiment can be carried out because more and more value is attached to feelings and less and less to facts. Are you biologically a girl, but do you think you would be happier as a boy? The medical world is ready to help you and the legislator is benevolent. The field of tension that exists between the right to physical self-determination on the one hand and understanding and compassion on the other hand is given far too little thought and discussion.

Is the search for truth of historical science compatible with a moral evaluation of historical events? What should a historian think of the Dutch colonial past including slavery? Pure historical science is based on facts, which does not allow for normative judgements. Historians are, however, open to additional social functions of historiography, such as coming to terms with slavery history. To this end, the historian poses the moral question of guilt. However, pure historiography cannot justify the moral values against which the past should be tested. This is where a normative political-philosophical history of ideas can provide a solution.