The Epistemological Relevance of Disagreement

This short chapter introduces the epistemological discussion of disagreement in its basic tenets. It distinguishes broadly between conciliatory and nonconciliatory positions and describes what the epistemological significance of interpersonal disagreement is in the first place. By discussing Robert Audi’s highly fine-grained taxonomy of “cognitive disparities,” the chapter ends by anticipating the main themes of Chaps. 6 , 7 and 8 : how the communicability and detectability of disagreement relate to the issues negotiated in the epistemological debate on disagreement.