To "agree to disagree" is to resolve a conflict (usually a
debate
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...
or
quarrel) in a manner whereby all parties
tolerate but do not
accept the opposing positions. It generally occurs when all sides recognize that further conflict would be unnecessary, ineffective or otherwise undesirable. They may also remain on amicable terms while continuing to disagree about the unresolved issues.
Origin
The phrase "agree to disagree" appeared in print in its modern meaning in 1770 when, at the death of
George Whitefield,
John Wesley wrote a memorial sermon which acknowledged but downplayed the two men's doctrinal differences:
Wesley enclosed the phrase in quotation marks,
[The Phrase Finder]
''Agree to disagree''.
Retrieved on 20 April 2009. and in a subsequent letter to his brother Charles, attributed it to Whitefield (presumably George Whitefield): "If you agree with me, well: if not, we can, as Mr. Whitefield used to say, agree to disagree." Whitefield had used it in a letter as early as June 29, 1750.
The phrase is most aptly applied to those things of "a less essential nature" since an “agreement” to disagree cannot readily by found with regard to those issues of mutually recognized importance; in such an instance, the phrase "agree that we disagree" is more diplomatically and linguistically appropriate.
Though Whitefield and Wesley appear to have popularized the expression in its usual meaning, it had appeared in print much earlier (1608) in a work by James Anderton, writing under the name of John Brereley, Priest. His usage lacks the later implication of tolerance of differing beliefs, though.
And as our learned adversaries do thus agree to disagree in their owne translations, mutually condemning (as before) each other... (''The Protestants Apologie for the Roman Church Deuided into three seuerall Tractes'')
The phrase "agree to differ" — which does express the modern idea of "agree to disagree" — appeared in the early part of the 18th century in a sermon by John Piggott: "And now why should we not agree to differ, without either enmity or scorn?" (''Sermon on Union and Peace, preach'd to several Congregations, April 17, 1704''). It expresses a similar idea without the play on words.
Also related in meaning is the modern usage of the Latin phrase ''modus vivendi'' (lit. 'mode of living'), normally reserved for informal and temporary arrangements in political affairs.
Game theory
Game theorist and mathematician
Robert Aumann
Robert John Aumann (Hebrew name: , Yisrael Aumann; born June 8, 1930) is an Israeli-American mathematician, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew ...
argues that two people with common
prior probability
In Bayesian statistical inference, a prior probability distribution, often simply called the prior, of an uncertain quantity is the probability distribution that would express one's beliefs about this quantity before some evidence is taken into ...
cannot "agree to disagree" on
posterior probabilities
The posterior probability is a type of conditional probability that results from updating the prior probability with information summarized by the likelihood via an application of Bayes' rule. From an epistemological perspective, the posterior ...
(on predicting the likelihood of outcomes, the theorem makes no statement on preference or value judgement regarding outcomes).
Economist
Frank J. Fabozzi argues that it is not rational for investors to agree to disagree; they must work toward consensus even if they have different information. For financial investments, Fabozzi posits that investors' overconfidence in their abilities (irrationality) can lead to "agreeing to disagree" if the investor thinks they are smarter than
the market.
See also
*
I'm entitled to my opiniona logical fallacy sometimes presented as "Let's agree to disagree"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agree To Disagree
English phrases