A sunny view of polarization

Abstract

There are a number of ways to react to the whole problem of polarization that Rispoli's review brings up. As a first reaction, like Rispoli, personally, I deplore the polarization. I find neither side likely to be right enough about everything to be entitled to require the kind of all-or-nothing allegiance each side seems to demand. My complaints about the two sides are more basic than Rispoli's rather specific criticisms of Elman et al. Unfortunately, going on to outline what seems generally useful and less useful in each approach in a short space like this basically consists of saying ‘I like this’ or claiming ‘this is obviously wrong’ with a little elaboration. This does not seem useful for such complicated problems, so I will leave my general complaint about the all-or-none polarization simply stated outright.