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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 29, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Adversarial Reading

I think there's a valuable practice when it comes to reading that I don't see many people use at the same time - reading the same thing but from opposing perspectives. It's easy for anyone to write authoritatively, much harder to write while taking into account the arguments of the opposition.

Are there any pairs of books that would let me do this? Say, if we are talking about topic X, then a book that is pro-X and one that is anti-X?

Not a pair of books, but I find that https://www.realclearworld.com/ and its sister sites do a good job of aggregating news articles and op-eds with dueling perspectives.

Edit: How could I forget the most obvious answer to your question? The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers are classics of political philosophy, if you haven't read them already.