Steelmanning in the Shadow of Iron Swords

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the approach to political theory articulated by Shmuel Nili’s Philosophizing the Indefensible needs to be modified to address non-ideal political circumstances in illiberal political societies in deep conflict. Building on Nili’s analysis of Israeli politics as a paradigmatic example, and with the moral catastrophe of October 7 and the Gaza war in mind, I argue that the burdens of politics under these circumstances are likely to make repugnant views commonplace; that worldviewing – the attempt to engage with the strongest version of our interlocutor’s arguments – is an overly charitable exercise, allowing repugnant views to appear non-repugnant; and that, counter-intuitively, the imperative to engage with repugnant views is stronger, not weaker, under these non-ideal circumstances.