How to Disagree | Harvard Law School

The Veritas Forum

Last week, you heard from Dr. Jennifer Frey about how you need other people to know who you are.

That sounds great when these "other people" are kind, generous in dialogue, and want the best for you. But in our quest to discover what it means to be human, we will encounter other people whose ideas challenge us, expose us to new viewpoints, and uncover significant areas of disagreement.

So what do we do? How can we engage with others across ideological divides? What would it look like to bring our unique insights to conversations — and see others’ contributions as meaningful, too?

Today’s Forum is entitled “How to Disagree” — and it dives into the limits and virtues of intellectual charity. This conversation was hosted by the Veritas Forum at Harvard Law School in April 2022. The first speaker is Diana Hess, the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The second speaker is Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School. And the third speaker is Steven Harris, the Senior Director of Academic Programs at the Center on Faith and Justice for Georgetown University.

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