Masterclasses with Habermas in Amsterdam

On November 5, Jürgen Habermas will give three masterclasses in Amsterdam for PhD researchers and RMa students from Dutch universities.

The three master classes are organized round three major themes:
1) Deliberative democracy and political crisis
2) Enlightenment and the limits of equality
3) Democracy and civil society

More information here [pdf].

Update:
Further information in my blog post from August 10 here.

"German Europe: Are there Alternatives?" -Podcast from LSE

Podcast from a discussion at the London School of Economics on March 21 with Ulrich Beck, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and Mary Kaldor:

"German Europe: Are there Alternatives?" [mp3, 80 minutes]

Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. His most recent book is "German Europe" (Polity Press, 2013). German: "Das deutsche Europa" (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2012).

Daniel Cohn-Bendit is Co-President of the "European Greens–European Free Alliance" in the European Parliament.

Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance at London School of Economics.

Paper on "Dworkin on Human Rights"

George Letsas has posted a new paper at SSRN:

"Dworkin on Human Rights"
[forthcoming in "Jurisprudence"]

Abstract:     
"This paper critically assesses Ronald Dworkin's theory of human rights in the light of his interpretivist approach. According to this approach, no part of the practice of human rights is a constraint on theory construction unless there is a practice-independent value that makes that relevant. Dworkin's suggestion that the value of legitimacy underpins the practice of human rights is sound, but it explains only part of the current practice of human rights. I argue that the value of legitimacy leaves unexplained the normative concerns raised by treaty-based human rights obligations (such as the ECHR), and that no single moral value can account for the rich and complex practice of human rights."

George Letsas is Reader in Philosophy of Law and Human Rights, University College London, and Co-Director of the UCL Institute for Human Rights.

Habermas receives Kassel Prize

On September 29, 2013, Jürgen Habermas receives the Kassel Prize "Das Glas der Vernunft".

Habermas is given the prize because of his commitment to a common European future and a cosmopolitical oriented world society.

Here is the statement of the committee:

"Der Vorstand und das Kuratorium der Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer des Kasseler Bürgerpreises "Das Glas der Vernunft" haben beschlossen, in diesem Jahr Herrn Prof. Dr. mult. Jürgen Habermas mit dem Kasseler Bürgerpreis "Das Glas der Vernunft" zu ehren. Damit soll das wissenschaftliche Werk Habermas' als Philosoph und Soziologe sowie sein Engagement für den Aufbau einer gemeinsamen europäischen Zukunft und die Gestaltung einer kosmopolitisch orientierten Weltgesellschaft gewürdigt werden. In seinen kritischen Beiträgen, leidenschaftlichen Plädoyers, Stellungnahmen und Essays zeigt Habermas eindrucksvoll, wie das Eintreten für eine transnationale Demokratie Hand in Hand geht mit einer präzisen wissenschaftlichen Analyse. Bestimmt von einer skeptischen Hoffnung hat Jürgen Habermas in den Diskurs um eine weltgesellschaftliche Neuorientierung Ratio und Toleranz, Freiheit des Geistes sowie das Bemühen um die Überwindung ideologischer und religiöser Schranken eingebracht. Er hat sich damit in die Tradition der Aufklärung gestellt, der wir uns in Kassel in besonderer Weise verpflichtet fühlen."

You can see the prize here.

Past prize winners include Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Carl Friedrich Frhr. von Weizsäcker, Yehudi Menuhin, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

(Thanks to Burkard Kircher for the pointer!)

Ronald Dworkin - "Religion Without God"

"The New York Review of Books" (April 4, 2013) features an article by the late Ronald Dworkin:

"Religion Without God"

The article is an excerpt from the first chapter of a forthcoming book "Religion Without God", to be published by Harvard University Press later this year.

The book is based on Ronald Dworkin's three lectures at the University of Bern in November 2011:
1. Einstein’s Worship
2. Faith and Physics
3. Religion Without God

See the three lectures here (videos).

See also Ronald Dworkin's paper "Religion Without God" at the "Colloquium in Legal, Political and Social Philosophy", New York University.

Interview with Michael Tomasello (video)

An interview with Michael Tomasello from October 2008:

"Michael Tomasello - Interview"

The interview covers a broad range of topics from the notions of cooperation and shared intentionality to reasoning and the origins of human communication.

Unfortunately, the audio is not in sync with video!

See my previous posts on Michael Tomasello:
- Jürgen Habermas's laudatio to Michael Tomasello (2009)
- Jürgen Habermas's review of "Origins of Human Communication" (2009)
- Tomasello's book "Why We Cooperate".

See also a lecture by Tomasello on
- "Origins of Human Cooperation and Morality" (video, 2012)

Michael Tomasello is an American developmental psychologist, and since 1998 co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

(Thanks to Lasse Himmelstrup Andersen for the pointer!)

Habermas in Leuven on April 26

On April 26, Jürgen Habermas will give a lecture at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He will talk about his view on the future of a democratic Europe.

The lecture will be introduced by the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.

More information here.

Update:
The lecture will be broadcast live on a large video screen in the Stadspark (city park).

Book on Republican Democracy [updated]

Republican Democracy: 
Liberty, Law and Politics

Ed. by Andreas Niederberger 
& Philipp Schink

(Edinburgh University Press, 
forthcoming 2013)

320 pages

 
Description

This book provides a new theory of democracy and an alternative to contemporary liberalism, in its exploration of the historical and theoretical relationship between democracy and republicanism, and its consequences. It expands on the foundational principle of republicanism, and puts forward new insights into connections between liberty, law and democratic politics, and a radically new conceptualization of the meaning and structure of democratic institutions and procedures.

Contents

Introduction - Andreas Niederberger & Philipp Schink

1. The Tension Between Law and Politics in the Modern Republican Tradition [paper] - Marco Geuna
2. Impotence, Perspicuity, and the Rule of Law - Jack N. Rakove
3. Kant, Madison and the Problem of a Transnational Order [abstract] - James Bohman
4. Republicanism and Democracy - John P. McCormick
5. Two Views of the City: Republicanism and Law - John Ferejohn
6. A Kantian Republican Conception of Justice as Nondomination - Rainer Forst
7. Two Republican Traditions - Philip Pettit
8. Freedom, Control and the State - Philipp Schink
9. Legal Modes and Democratic Citizens in Republican Theory - Galya Benarieh Ruffer
10. Rights, Republicanism and Democracy - Richard Bellamy
11. Republicanism and Global Justice: A Sketch - Cécile Laborde
12. Republicanism and Transnational Democracy - Andreas Niederberger

The book is based on papers presented at a conference on "Republicanism, the Rule of Law, and Democracy" in Frankfurt, March 2009.

Andreas Niederberger is Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt.

Philipp Schink is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt.

Thomas Scanlon on "Giving Desert its Due"

On March 13, 2013, Professor Thomas M. Scanlon will give a lecture at University College London on:

"Giving Desert its Due" (paper, pdf)

More information here.

Thomas M. Scanlon is Professor of "Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity" at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. He is the author of "What We Owe to Each Other" (Harvard University Press, 1998).

Paper on "New Modes of Pluralist Global Governance"

Grainne De Burca, Robert O. Keohane, and Charles F. Sabel have posted a new paper at SSRN:

"New Modes of Pluralist Global Governance"
[forthcoming in "New York University Journal of International Law and Politics"]

Abstract:    
"This paper describes three modes of pluralist global governance. Mode One refers to the creation and proliferation of comprehensive, integrated international regimes on a variety of issues. Mode Two describes the emergence of diverse forms and sites of cross-national decision making by multiple actors, public and private as well as local, regional and global, forming governance networks and “regime complexes,” including the orchestration of new forms of authority by international actors and organizations. Mode Three, which is the main focus of the paper, describes the gradual institutionalization of practices involving continual updating and revision, open participation, an agreed understanding of goals and practices, and monitoring, including peer review. We call this third mode Global Experimentalist Governance.

Experimentalist Governance arises in situations of complex interdependence and pervasive uncertainty about causal relationships. Its practice is illustrated in the paper by three examples: the arrangements devised to protect dolphins from being killed by tuna fishing practices; the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and the Montreal Protocol on the Ozone Layer. Experimentalist Governance tends to appear on issues for which governments cannot formulate and enforce comprehensive sets of rules, but which do not involve fundamental disagreements or high politics, and in which civil society is active. The paper shows that instances of Experimentalist Governance are already evident in various global arenas and issue areas, and argues that their significance seems likely to grow."

See also a new paper on "A Constitution of Democratic Experimentalism" by Michael Dorf & Charles F. Sabel.

Two interviews with Axel Honneth

Two recent interviews with Professor Axel Honneth (Frankfurt/New York City):

* "Theorie der Anerkennung als kritische Theorie der Gesellschaft?" - Part 1 + Part 2
[conducted by Nico Bobka and Sina Knoll at "Soziologiemagazin", August 2012]

* "Es stünde der Universität gut an, das Ivi zu dulden“
[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 25, 2013]

Journal of Political Philosophy, March 2013

In "Journal of Political Philosophy" (March 2013):

* "Political Political Theory: An Inaugural Lecture" [pdf]
by Jeremy Waldron
(Lecture delivered at the University of Oxford on May 3, 2012.)

* "Political Liberalism and Religion: On Separation and Establishment" [pdf]
by Cécile Laborde