Shared Grounds, Shifting Agreements: On the Liminal Structure of Deep Disagreement

Pérez Chico, David (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This paper explores the nature of deep disagreements through a reinterpretation of Wittgenstein’s concept of form of life. Rather than adopting skeptical or relativist positions, it questions the assumption that disagreement marks a failure of rational communication. The central claim is that deep disagreements are liminal in structure: they unfold at the threshold between shared and divergent backgrounds of understanding, and must be approached as such. Drawing on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and related remarks, the paper argues that disagreement and understanding are made possible by the same background conditions. The possibility of partial understanding depends not on reaching a final consensus, but on our ability to recognize and respond to unfamiliar ways of speaking and acting. This account shifts the focus from resolution to acknowledgment, and from epistemic closure to the ongoing conditions of mutual intelligibility.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.34739/fci.2025.06.02

Año: 2025

Publicado en: Forum for Contemporary Issues and Literature 6 (2025), 17-30
ISSN: 2391-9426

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI/AEI PID2022-142120NB-I00
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI/AEI PID2022-14892NB-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Lógica y Filosof.Ciencia (Unidad Predepartam. Filosofía)