Why People Talking Politics Cannot Communicate

As a first-semester undergraduate, I thought philosophy was the most useless of all subjects in my curriculum. As an adult, I now believe philosophy is the most important of all subjects.

Epistemology, the study of how we know what we know, shapes how people argue, what counts as evidence, and even whether dialogue is possible. And explains why we often are talking past each other. 

In other words, at a deep level, “political discussions,” which I now avoid, are not based on differences about personalities or policies, but are more deeply grounded in different ways of ascertaining “truth.”

Arguments about difficult subjects such as abortion seem irreconcilable because the philosophic assumptions are different: 

• “Life begins at conception” is a moral claim.

• “Women should control their bodies” is an ethical-autonomy claim

•  “A fetus feels pain at X weeks” (empirical claim).

Debates on gender identity, race, or cultural identity illustrate epistemological divergences as well:

• Subjective epistemology: identity is self-defined and validated by experience

• Biological epistemology: identity is rooted in physical or genetic reality.

• Social constructivism: identity categories are created by society and mutable.

When someone says “I am what I say I am” vs “Identity is rooted in biology”, they are not just disagreeing, they are using different knowledge frameworks.

For me, the greatest issue is post-modernism, which asserts that there is no such thing as universal truth, as in “your truth vs my truth.” For those of us whose intellectual framework is still the enlightenment, I find the biggest challenge lies precisely there.

Democracy, law, and social cooperation depend on some common epistemic ground. Grammatical rules for language, driving laws and what constitutes “crime” are examples. 

If truth is subjective, how do we arbitrate disputes? 

So different epistemologies make discourse difficult to impossible. It isn’t the existence of different answers, but different ways of determining answers. 

Epistemology is the hidden engine of public conflict.

Epistemology	What counts as truth?	Authority sources	Typical expression in debates
Empirical/Scientific	Truth = what can be measured, tested, falsified	Science, data, statistics	“Show me the evidence.”
Rationalist/Philosophical	Truth = what follows logically from premises	Logic, argument consistency	“That argument contradicts itself.”
Moral/Religious	Truth = grounded in divine authority or natural law	Scripture, tradition, moral principles	“Life is sacred because…”
Personal/Subjective	Truth = lived experience and internal perception	Individual narratives and identity	“This is my truth.”
Postmodern	Truth = socially constructed power structures	Culture, discourse, ideology	“Truth claims serve power.”