Philosophy as Dispute

The Dispute publishes articles in political philosophy on contested public questions. We commission two articles on each topic, one argues for, the other against a central thesis. You can vote twice: once before you read the articles and once after to see where you stand and whether you have changed your mind.

How a debate works

1. The editors choose a question.
2. Two contributors are invited to write essays: one arguing for, the other against the central thesis. Neither sees the other’s essay before publication.
3. Both essays appear together. The order is randomised for each reader, so neither side is always shown first or last.
4. Readers can vote on where they stand on a topic before and after they have read the essays.
5. Essays receive a DOI and are archived and can be cited like any other piece of scholarship.

Why the name

Disagreement is central to political and academic life. Yet most magazines, sites, and journals publish articles that argue for only one side in a debate, rarely exposing readers to the best argument for the other. The Dispute publishes both, side by side. We think that the opinions you hold are only as good as your knowledge of your opponents’ arguments. A good dispute shows you where you stand, allows you to test your arguments, and reveals what others see in the debate.

Open access, archiving and citation

All essays are free to read and published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You may share and adapt them for any purpose, provided you credit the author and The Dispute.

Every essay has its own permanent page. Each essay is registered with a DOI through Rogue Scholar, which also keeps an archived copy of the full text, so citations keep working even if this site moves. Each essay page has a ready-made citation and BibTeX entry, and the full text of every essay is available in our feed.

Editor

Contributors

Contributors are invited by the editors. If you would like to propose a question or write for a future debate, get in touch.