@swamidass Yes. I spoke of the forum as a whole.
I was just reading a piece on the ethics of communication and found this relevant and highly interesting quote.
Following the insight of Bok, we recognize this era as a time of “minimal” agreement as opposed to “maximal” agreement, in which only a few basic agreements about the good may be discerned. Minimal agreement can actually invite productive communication among persons with different understandings of the good and makes learning about the Other an absolute necessity. …The rationale for this minimalist approach is twofold. First, the wisdom of Bok seems irrefutable in this historical moment. If we live in a time of disagreement, finding a minimal set of ethical agreements is more likely than identifying a maximal set of ethical agreements. Second, we seek to move communication ethics discussion away from its use as an ideological weapon that justifies the worst of provinciality by permitting unreflective confidence in pronouncements of ‘this is right’ and ‘that is wrong.’ We offer a more modest option—communication ethics literacy— encouraging learning from and about differing understandings and enactments of the good (Arnett, Fritz, and Bell, Communication Ethics Literacy, 2009, pp. xiv-xv).
My only caveat to this statement is that it could be take to make truth relative, something i am not prepared to do, as a scientist and as aa person. What I am willing to do, though, is to grant that my understanding is imperfect, and to hope that others will do the same. That allows me room for learning from others and seeing the good in others. Even those who are unwilling to consider another point of view.
In fact, I would go on to say, perhaps we should attempt to come up with a set of minimal agreements about the good, things we can all agree are true and good. I added truth because science is more concerned with truth than goodness. Such a process should be quite enlightening.