I’m a philosopher who tries to see the best in others – but I know there are limits

By Mark Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Understanding one another can be hard. There is a big difference between someone snapping at you out of contempt, and calling you out for a mistake because they believe in you and know you can do better. One of these cases calls for anger, but the other for humility or even embarrassment. Or maybe they are only snapping because they’re “hangry” – they might just need a Snickers bar.

And that’s just with people we know. What about strangers, people across the political divide, or even those with very different…

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