Philosophy Sports is philosophy in practice. Competitive games of persuasion provide intensive interactive philosophy experiences that feature social reasoning (collaborative argument construction), confrontation of divergent perspectives, live dialogue, plus real-time phone voting and measured persuasive effects. Participants evaluate supporting claims and overall conclusions by revisable live e-voting, which allows for measurement of effective persuasion. Philosophy Sports is publicly-engaged experiential learning.
The contemporary deluge of informational resources has arguably dampened social capacity for critical thinking, for sustained connected thought privately or together. We are ever more isolated by virtual connectedness. Philosophy Sports makes reasoning social, engages participants who encounter embodied others with opposing points of view, while yet mediating their conciliation through Internet-based phone voting with real-time results that inform gameplay. In Philosophy Sports, one wins only by changing one’s mind. Reasonableness is rewarded and celebrated with nominal fun prizes, while those who fail to persuade others are encouraged as a sporting try.
Now more than ever in this post-truth era, public deliberation must learn again to listen logically, to evaluate arguments critically, to identify weak evidence and fallacious reasoning, and to recognize the reasonable Other.
