ABSTRACT

in this chapter, we lay out the aims of our project, draw some conceptual distinctions concerning polarization phenomena and vindicate the place of philosophy when it comes to theorizing about them. We distinguish, in §1.2, polarization from extremism; in §1.3, two general senses of polarization; in §1.4, polarization from disagreement. In §1.5, we compare group polarization to belief polarization and, in §1.6, to political polarization. In §1.7, we state the two guiding questions of our investigation, and our methodological approach, and vindicate the place of philosophical theorizing about polarization phenomena.