Politics at the Margins: Reason, Stupidity, and Alienness in Conflict

The conference will have a hybrid format (both in-person and online). Any question please email us at : poliatmargins2021@gmail.com

University of Essex Colchester Campus

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION:A consensus in political philosophy goes that democracy is the best regime for mastering conflict. While many authors highlight the procedural values of joint deliberation, inclusion, and equality, others (also) underline democracy’s capacity ‘to get it right.’ Such epistemic theories claim that democratic procedures produce the best results in conflict (Estlund 2009; Habermas 2006; Mouffe 2018; Schwartzberg 2014; Talisse 2009).However, democracy’s pole position often comes with theoretical and practical caveats. In theory, authors usually limit the relevant citizenry to reasonable citizens (e.g., Rawls 1993; Quong 2011; McCabe 2010); in political practice, governments and parties appoint a battery of advisers and select candidates for office who rarely are not academics or when not, this is presented as an issue. This way, democracy seems to move closer to technocracy rather than being the rule of the many (Christiano 1996). On the other hand, there is a recent backlash against the idea of meritocracy (Markovits 2019; Sandel 2020). Reason and demos, it seems, stand in an ambiguous relationship to one another.In this light, how are we to interpret recent epochal events such as Brexit and the Trump or Bolsonaro presidency? How are we to judge European, the US’s and Latin American responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, or mass immigration? What are we to think of the rise of conspiracy theories and those who point at new technological avenues as inherently damaging to democracy?All these events and developments present instances where democracy’s mechanisms of coping with conflict seem to prove ineffective. This workshop is dedicated to the question what this ineffectiveness is a symptom of: are current events proof that democracy’s institutions are too democratic and allow the ‘stupid’ to derail politics (Brennan 2016)? Or is the epistemic desire of current democratic regimes the sign of a neurosis that limit their legitimacy? Are current events reactions to past and ongoing injustices such as: epistemic injustices (Fricker 2007; Spivak 1988); social inequalities (Boltanski and Chiapello 1999; Bourdieu 1990; Fraser 2008); or discrimination (Davis 1989; Gordon 2021)? Is democracy sufficiently pluralist (Cooke 2006; 2019)? Or does it need to begin including voices alien to the language of politicians and experts (e.g., Young 1997, 2000; Waldenfels 1997)? Must we even learn to be more stupid?

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Politics at the Margins: Reason, Stupidity, and Alienness in Conflict

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