Democracy is often theorized as a form of political association grounded in shared meanings, common experiences, and convergent interests among the associated individuals. Because differences and divergences seem to stand in the way of commonality and consensus, the coexistence of a plurality of meanings, experiences, interests, languages,…

In the first half of the twentieth century, the ideal of democracy influenced the conceptions people had of the academic subject matters. A common criticism was that abstract academic subjects served aristocratic societies. Although most theorists considered the academic subjects to be important, they had differing views on the conception of…

The discussion participants follow Aristotle in deciding that friends are concerned with each other's welfare for their own sake and cannot be reduced to utility or pleasure, adding that the contemporary notion of friends involves the notion of equal overall power. They find three difficulties with teachers and students being friends. First,…