Events
Cosponsors
- Department of Philosophy
- Department of Political Science
Organizer
- The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities
Contact
email address [email protected]
Notes
Additional details and registration information to come
- Free and open to the public
- Registration required. See details.
Individuals support forms of domination with varying levels of understanding that they are doing so. In many cases, those very structures of domination distort our conceptions of them through mechanisms such as motivated reasoning, implicit bias, affected ignorance, false consciousness, and belief polarization. These various epistemic distortions, in turn, cause social conflict, notably by promoting political polarization. Those worried by social conflict have spent a great deal of energy decrying the increasingly polarized contexts in which we live. However, epistemic distortions in our sociopolitical beliefs also maintain systems of domination, are misrepresentative, and prevent human needs from being met.
This workshop aims to go beyond pronouncements such as ‘we are polarized’ or that ‘partisanship is on the rise,’ and begin to think through epistemic distortions at the individual and intersubjective levels, the role of criticism and critique in facilitating belief and social change, and the idea of reconciliation, by asking questions such as:
- In what ways are individual beliefs about domination/social structures epistemically distorted?
- What explains why social beliefs are epistemically distorted?
- What are the normative upshots of epistemic distortion for social relationships like allyship, comradeship, and friendship?
- Ought polarization be remedied? Which epistemic resources and theoretical frameworks avail themselves of emancipatory potential?
Convenors
Ege Yumuşak is a philosopher specializing in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and social & political philosophy. She received a PhD in Philosophy from Harvard University in 2022. Her research examines political disagreement—its material foundations, psychological and social manifestations, and epistemic properties. She is currently writing a series of articles on the nature and significance of clashes of perspective in social life.
Nicolas Côté is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He works mainly in moral and political philosophy, with a focus on the axiomatic foundations of moral theory, the measurement and weighing of moral values, and the interaction between norms of rationality and norms of morality. He is also interested in the ethics of aid and development, and particularly in the conflict between the well-meaning motives that drive aid policy and the imperialist character that those policies often present.
Speakers
Robin Celikates (Freie Universität Berlin); Charles Des Portes (Leeds University); Sanford Diehl (New York University); Daniela Dover (University of Oxford); Lidal Dror (Princeton University); Jade Fletcher (University of St Andrews); Joshua Habgood-Coote (University of Leeds); Mie Inouye (Bard College); Cain Shelley (Goethe University Frankfurt); Sabina Vaccarino Bremner (University of Pennsylvania); and Susanna Siegel (Harvard University).
Program
time9:20am EDT
Opening Remarks
time9:30am EDT
Ideology as Relativized A Priori
(co-authored with Chloé de Canson)
Author
Sabina Vaccarino Bremner
University of Pennsylvania
Panelist
Robin Celikates
Freie Universität Berlin
Panelist
Lidal Dror
Princeton University
time11:00am EDT
Break
time11:15am EDT
Bad Questions
Author
Joshua Habgood-Coote
University of Leeds
time12:10pm EDT
Lunch
time1:25pm EDT
What is ‘Consciousness Raising’?
Author
Cain Shelley
University of Frankfurt
Panelist
Mie Inouye
Bard College
Panelist
Jade Fletcher
University of St. Andrews
time2:55pm EDT
Break
time3:10pm EDT
Understanding the Racial/Colonial Polarization
Charles Des Portes
University of Leeds
time4:05pm EDT
Break
time4:20pm EDT
The Democratic Soul
Author
Daniela Dover
Oxford University
Panelist
Sandy Diehl
New York University
Panelist
Susanna Siegel
Harvard University