The 23rd World Philosophy Conference will be held August 4-10, 2013 in Athen.
According to the tentative program Jürgen Habermas will participate in a session on "Cosmopolitanism", chaired by Noriko Hashimoto, the Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan. David Rasmussen (Boston) and Arne Johan Vetlesen (Oslo) will also take part in the session.
More information on the conference here.
Update:
Pictures from Habermas's lecture in Athen here.
Sunday, July 07, 2013
Saturday, July 06, 2013
Neues Buch: "Religion in säkularer Gesellschaft"
Religion in säkularer Gesellschaft
Über die neue Aufmerksamkeit für Religion in der politischen Philosophie
von Michael Reder
(Verlag Karl Alber)
456 S.
Kurzbeschreibung
Religionen spielen nach wie vor eine wichtige Rolle in demokratischen Gesellschaften. Jürgen Habermas spricht deshalb von der ›postsäkularen Gesellschaft‹. Viele weitere Philosophen der Gegenwart (Jacques Derrida, Richard Rorty, Michael Walzer) prägen mit Habermas zusammen diesen gegenwärtigen philosophischen Diskurs über Religion in der politischen Philosophie. Dieser Diskurs wird in seinen Strukturen und Argumenten in dem vorliegenden Band analysiert und kritisch diskutiert.
Kernfragen des Autors sind, wie Religion und ihre gesellschaftliche Funktion philosophisch verstanden werden kann, was die zentralen Problemstellen des Diskurses über Religion in der politischen Philosophie sind und wie diese mit Blick auf frühere Konzeptionen (Friedrich Schleiermacher oder John Dewey) konstruktiv weitergedacht werden können. Aus der Beschäftigung mit der Religion werden abschließend Schlussfolgerungen für die Debatte über Demokratie gezogen. Die praktische Philosophie kann damit sowohl zur Reflexion der gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung von Religion als auch zur Klärung der Frage, wie Demokratie angesichts pluraler weltanschaulicher Konstellationen heute verstanden werden kann, wichtige Beiträge leisten.
Die vorliegende Studie wurde 2011 an der Fakultät für Philosophie,
Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft der LMU München
als Habilitationsschrift angenommen.
Inhalt [pdf]
1. Religion im Kontext der Säkularisierung
2. Interdisziplinäre Kontexte
3. Rekonstruktion des Diskurses über Religion
[Habermas, Rorty, Walzer, Luhmann, Derrida, Vattimo]
4. Transformationen für den Diskurs über Religion
5. Fazit
Michael Reder ist Professor für Sozial- und Religionsphilosophie an der Hochschule für Philosophie in München.
Paper von Michael Reder:
"Luhmann vs. Habermas revisited. Zwei Funktionale Religionstheorien in ihrer Bedeutung für Bildung in säkularen Gesellschaften" [pdf, 2010].
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Philip Pettit on Freedom as a Robustly Demanding Good (audio)
On May 6, 2013, Professor Philip Pettit gave a lecture on freedom at the Australian National University. A podcast of the lecture is now available:
"Freedom and other Robustly Demanding Goods" [mp3].
See also Pettit's article from 2012 on "A Question for Tomorrow: The Robust Demands of the Good" [pdf].
And hear Philip Pettit's 2011 Uehiro Lectures on "Making Good: The Challenge of Robustly Demanding Values":
1. Robust Demands and the Need for Virtue [mp3] + handout [pdf]
2. Robust Demands and the Need for Law [mp3] + handout [pdf]
3. Virtues, Laws and Consequentialism [mp3]
[Forthcoming on Oxford University Press, entitled "The Robust Demands of the Good: An Ethics of Attachment, Virtue and Law".]
Philip Pettit is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University. He is the author of "Republicanism" (Oxford University Press, 1997) and "On the People's Terms. A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy" (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
"Freedom and other Robustly Demanding Goods" [mp3].
See also Pettit's article from 2012 on "A Question for Tomorrow: The Robust Demands of the Good" [pdf].
And hear Philip Pettit's 2011 Uehiro Lectures on "Making Good: The Challenge of Robustly Demanding Values":
1. Robust Demands and the Need for Virtue [mp3] + handout [pdf]
2. Robust Demands and the Need for Law [mp3] + handout [pdf]
3. Virtues, Laws and Consequentialism [mp3]
[Forthcoming on Oxford University Press, entitled "The Robust Demands of the Good: An Ethics of Attachment, Virtue and Law".]
Philip Pettit is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University. He is the author of "Republicanism" (Oxford University Press, 1997) and "On the People's Terms. A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy" (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Updated entry on "Cosmopolitanism"
Updated entry on "Cosmopolitanism" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
"Cosmopolitanism"
by Pauline Kleingeld (Groningen) & Eric Brown (Washington University, St. Louis)
"Cosmopolitanism"
by Pauline Kleingeld (Groningen) & Eric Brown (Washington University, St. Louis)
Monday, July 01, 2013
Christine Korsgaard's Pufendorf Lectures 2013
Professor Christine M. Korsgaard delivered the Pufendorf Lectures 2013 at Lund University, Sweden, on May 28-31, titled "The Natural History of the Good".
The lectures are available here (audios):
1. Good and Good-For (part one)
2. Good and Good-For (part two)
3. What Kinds of Entities can have a Good?
4. The Right and the Good.
Abstract:
"Now good is considered in an absolute way by some philosophers, so that every entity, actually existing, may be considered good; but we pay no attention to such a meaning, and consider a thing as good only insofar as it has a respect to others, and it is understood to be good for some person, or on his behalf.” (Samuel Pufendorf, The Law of Nature and of Nations). The general aim of these lectures is to defend a conception of the Good that is compatible with a naturalistic conception of the world, or, to put it another way, it is to explain how the natural world came to contain things that are properly characterized as good and bad. Simply put, my thesis is that the Good came into the world with the existence of entities for whom things can be good or bad. In support of this thesis I will defend the claim that the concept of something’s being good-for someone is prior to that of something’s being good, and explain how we get from the fact of something’s being good-for someone to its being good. I will then ask what sorts of beings can have a good, and explore the implications of the view for the existence of value in general, and for the relation between the right and the good.
Christine M. Korsgaard is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. She is the author of "The Sources of Normativity" (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and "Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity" (Oxford University Press, 2009).
See also two recent papers by Korsgaard:
* "On Having a Good" [pdf] (forthcoming in Philosophy)
* "The Relational Nature of the Good" [pdf] (forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Metaethics).
The lectures are available here (audios):
1. Good and Good-For (part one)
2. Good and Good-For (part two)
3. What Kinds of Entities can have a Good?
4. The Right and the Good.
Abstract:
"Now good is considered in an absolute way by some philosophers, so that every entity, actually existing, may be considered good; but we pay no attention to such a meaning, and consider a thing as good only insofar as it has a respect to others, and it is understood to be good for some person, or on his behalf.” (Samuel Pufendorf, The Law of Nature and of Nations). The general aim of these lectures is to defend a conception of the Good that is compatible with a naturalistic conception of the world, or, to put it another way, it is to explain how the natural world came to contain things that are properly characterized as good and bad. Simply put, my thesis is that the Good came into the world with the existence of entities for whom things can be good or bad. In support of this thesis I will defend the claim that the concept of something’s being good-for someone is prior to that of something’s being good, and explain how we get from the fact of something’s being good-for someone to its being good. I will then ask what sorts of beings can have a good, and explore the implications of the view for the existence of value in general, and for the relation between the right and the good.
Christine M. Korsgaard is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. She is the author of "The Sources of Normativity" (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and "Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity" (Oxford University Press, 2009).
See also two recent papers by Korsgaard:
* "On Having a Good" [pdf] (forthcoming in Philosophy)
* "The Relational Nature of the Good" [pdf] (forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Metaethics).
Friday, June 28, 2013
Rorty on the Compatibility of Science and Religion
On May 2, 2000, Richard Rorty gave a lecture at the West Valley College, Saratoga, on the question "Is Religion Compatible with Science?"
Here is a video of Rorty's lecture:
Here is a video of Rorty's lecture:
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Thomas Scanlon - What is Morality? (video)
Professor Thomas Scanlon gave a lecture on "What is Morality?" at the University of Guelph, Canada, on March 21, 2013.
A video of the lecture is now available:
Introduction by Mark McCullagh.
Thomas Scanlon is Professor of "Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity" at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. His latest book is "Moral Dimensions" (Harvard University Press, 2008). His new book on "Being Realistic about Reasons" is coming out on Oxford University Press in 2014.
(Thanks to Das Philoblog for the pointer!)
A video of the lecture is now available:
Introduction by Mark McCullagh.
Thomas Scanlon is Professor of "Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity" at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. His latest book is "Moral Dimensions" (Harvard University Press, 2008). His new book on "Being Realistic about Reasons" is coming out on Oxford University Press in 2014.
(Thanks to Das Philoblog for the pointer!)
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Conference on "Facts and Norms"
The University of Copenhagen is hosting a conference on "Facts and Norms", August 22-23, 2013.
"The European financial crisis and the failures of climate politics call for a revisited political theory. What role do scientific facts about climate change and social facts about immigration and political identity play in the determination and justification of political and social norms? The purpose of this conference is to discuss two sets of questions. First, what relevance do facts have in normative political theory? Second, what relevance do norms have in the empirical political and social sciences?"
Among the papers are:
David Estlund
”Bad Facts”
Pablo Gilabert
“Dynamic Feasibility, Principles of Justice, and All-Things-Considered Political Judgment”
Jeffrey Lenowitz
"Creating Legitimate Constitutions: The Possible Role of Procedures"
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen
"Facts, Norms, and the Nature of Justice: Reflections on Cohen and Anderson"
Christian F. Rostbøll
“Kant and the Critique of the Ethics-First Approach to Politics”
Eva Erman
"What to Expect (and not) from the Pragmatic Turn in Political Theory"
More information here.
"The European financial crisis and the failures of climate politics call for a revisited political theory. What role do scientific facts about climate change and social facts about immigration and political identity play in the determination and justification of political and social norms? The purpose of this conference is to discuss two sets of questions. First, what relevance do facts have in normative political theory? Second, what relevance do norms have in the empirical political and social sciences?"
Among the papers are:
David Estlund
”Bad Facts”
Pablo Gilabert
“Dynamic Feasibility, Principles of Justice, and All-Things-Considered Political Judgment”
Jeffrey Lenowitz
"Creating Legitimate Constitutions: The Possible Role of Procedures"
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen
"Facts, Norms, and the Nature of Justice: Reflections on Cohen and Anderson"
Christian F. Rostbøll
“Kant and the Critique of the Ethics-First Approach to Politics”
Eva Erman
"What to Expect (and not) from the Pragmatic Turn in Political Theory"
More information here.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Roundtable on Critical Theory of Transnational Justice (video)
A roundtable with Rainer Forst (Frankfurt) under the titel "Towards a Critical Theory of Transnational Justice" took place at the University of Hamburg on June 10, 2013. Four editors of the journal "Global Constitutionalism" participated in the discussion: James Tully (Victoria), Mattias Kumm (New York/Berlin), Antje Wiener (Hamburg), and Anthony F. Lang (St Andrews). Introductions by Antje Wiener and Maximilian Steinbeis.
A video of the roundtable is now available:
See Rainer Forst's paper on "Transnational Justice and Democracy" (2011, pdf) and his book "The Right to Justification" (Columbia University Press, 2011).
A video of the roundtable is now available:
See Rainer Forst's paper on "Transnational Justice and Democracy" (2011, pdf) and his book "The Right to Justification" (Columbia University Press, 2011).
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Paper on Conceptual Analysis & Justice
Matthew H. Kramer has posted a new paper at SSRN:
"Conceptual Analysis and Distributive Justice"
Abstract:
"This paper, written for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice, ponders several understandings of conceptual analysis in the context of debates over distributive justice. The paper's first two main sections consider the concept/conception distinction in its multi-layered complexity in a couple of prominent recent accounts of justice. It explores how those theories of justice unfold over several levels of increasing specificity. Thereafter, the paper takes up the vexed question whether expositions of the concept of justice can ever be austerely analytical or formal rather than morally value-laden. A negative answer to that question emerges from an investigation of a major contemporary theory of justice. In a prelude to the substantiation of that negative answer, the paper distinguishes between value-independence and value-neutrality. Though some possible accounts of justice are at least partly value-neutral, no accounts are ever value-independent."
Contents
1. Concepts versus Conceptions: Rawls
2. Concepts versus Conceptions: Dworkin
3. Value-Independence versus Value-Neutrality
4. Justice from the Formal Constraint of Consistency?
5. Conflicts versus Contradictions
6. An Example of Conflicting Duties
7. From Formality to Substance
Matthew H. Kramer is Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at Churchill College, Cambridge University.
"Conceptual Analysis and Distributive Justice"
Abstract:
"This paper, written for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice, ponders several understandings of conceptual analysis in the context of debates over distributive justice. The paper's first two main sections consider the concept/conception distinction in its multi-layered complexity in a couple of prominent recent accounts of justice. It explores how those theories of justice unfold over several levels of increasing specificity. Thereafter, the paper takes up the vexed question whether expositions of the concept of justice can ever be austerely analytical or formal rather than morally value-laden. A negative answer to that question emerges from an investigation of a major contemporary theory of justice. In a prelude to the substantiation of that negative answer, the paper distinguishes between value-independence and value-neutrality. Though some possible accounts of justice are at least partly value-neutral, no accounts are ever value-independent."
Contents
1. Concepts versus Conceptions: Rawls
2. Concepts versus Conceptions: Dworkin
3. Value-Independence versus Value-Neutrality
4. Justice from the Formal Constraint of Consistency?
5. Conflicts versus Contradictions
6. An Example of Conflicting Duties
7. From Formality to Substance
Matthew H. Kramer is Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at Churchill College, Cambridge University.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
New book by Habermas: "Im Sog der Technokratie"
Im Sog der Technokratie
Kleine politische Schriften XII
von Jürgen Habermas
(Suhrkamp Verlag, Juli 2013)
193 S.
Kurzbeschreibung
"Seit 1980 versammeln die Bände der Reihe Kleine politische Schriften Analysen, Stellungnahmen und Zeitdiagnosen Jürgen Habermas‘. Titel wie Die neue Unübersichtlichkeit sind längst in den allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch übergegangen. Im titelgebenden Aufsatz dieser Folge knüpft Habermas an seine viel beachteten europapolitischen Interventionen der letzten Jahre an. Angesichts der Gefahr, dass technokratische Eliten die Macht übernehmen und die Demokratie auf Marktkonformität zurechtstutzen könnten, plädiert er für grenzüberschreitende Solidarität. Neben Habermas‘ hochaktueller Heine-Preis-Rede enthält der Band Porträts von Denkern wie Martin Buber, Jan Philipp Reemtsma und Ralf Dahrendorf sowie einen Aufsatz, in dem der Philosoph sich mit der prägenden Rolle jüdischer Remigranten nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg auseinandersetzt. Mit Band XII beschließt der Autor eine Buchreihe, die kaleidoskopisch Grundzüge einer intellektuellen Geschichte der Bundesrepublik widerspiegelt.
Englische Titel: "The Lure of Technocracy".
Inhalt [pdf]
Vorwort [pdf]
I. Deutsche Juden, Deutsche und Juden
1. Jüdische Philosophen und Soziologen als Rückkehrer in der frühen Bundesrepublik
2. Martin Buber – Dialogphilosophie im zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext
3. Zeitgenosse Heine: »Es gibt jetzt in Europa keine Nationen mehr«
II. Im Sog der Technokratie
4. Stichworte zu einer Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaates
5. Im Sog der Technokratie. Ein Plädoyer für europäische Solidarität [Kurzfassung in Englisch]
III. Europäische Zustände. Fortgesetzte Interventionen
6. Der nächste Schritt. Ein Interview
7. Das Dilemma der politischen Parteien
8. Drei Gründe für »Mehr Europa«
9. Demokratie oder Kapitalismus?
IV. Momentaufnahmen
10. Rationalität aus Leidenschaft. Ralf Dahrendorf zum 80. Geburtstag
11. Bohrungen an der Quelle des objektiven Geistes. Hegel-Preis für Michael Tomasello
12. »Wie konnte es dazu kommen?« Eine Antwort von Jan Philipp Reemtsma
13. Kenichi Mishima im interkulturellen Diskurs
14. Aus naher Entfernung. Ein Dank an die Stadt München
Rezensionen:
* Uwe Justus Wenzel - "Überschwang und Misere"
(Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Juli 17, 2013)
* Stefan Müller-Doohm - "Eine zerrissene Union an der Schwelle"
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, Juli 17, 2013)
* Rudolf Walther - "Fortschritte und Probleme bei der Zivilisierung"
(Die Tageszeitung, Juli 20, 2013)
* Dieter Kaltwasser - "Plädoyer für eine europäische Solidarität"
(Glanz & Elend, Juli 25, 2013)
* Alexander Cammann - "Sechzig Jahre am Nerv der Zeit"
(Die Zeit, August 1, 2013)
* Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR5)
* Journal 21 (Stephan Wehowsky)
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Jeremy Waldron's tribute to Ronald Dworkin
Jeremy Waldron has posted a tribute to the late Ronald Dworkin at SSRN:
"Ronald Dworkin: An Appreciation"
Waldron's tribute was presented at the Memorial Service for Professor Ronald Dworkin, at St. John's Smith Square, London, on June 5, 2013.
Excerpt:
Dworkin's "vision was unified, in his great ethical work, Justice for Hedgehogs, by a principle of dignity. Each person, said Ronnie, has a certain responsibility for the precious shape of his or her own life, and everyone has a duty to respect the conditions under which others are able to discharge that responsibility. That’s what “human dignity” meant for Ronnie and it underpinned both the principles of responsibility that were so important in the luck-egalitarian side of his account of equality and the principles of mutual respect that are represented in the rule of law. His great work of synthesis, Justice for Hedgehogs revealed this as the foundation of all his positions — and I do mean “foundation,” which is not the same as the fortification that allows a philosopher to see off contrary intuitions. I mean that Justice for Hedgehogs bravely identified the very deep underpinning of his various positions, even though that explicit identification made each of them somewhat more vulnerable, by presenting a deeper as well as a wider and more integrated target."
See also Waldron's article on Dworkin in "The Chronicle of Higher Education", February 19, 2013.
See also Will Hutton's tribute to Dworkin in "The Guardian", June 9, 2013: "I despair as I watch the erosion of the liberal views I hold dear."
I have made a collection of links to other tributes to Dworkin here.
"Ronald Dworkin: An Appreciation"
Waldron's tribute was presented at the Memorial Service for Professor Ronald Dworkin, at St. John's Smith Square, London, on June 5, 2013.
Excerpt:
Dworkin's "vision was unified, in his great ethical work, Justice for Hedgehogs, by a principle of dignity. Each person, said Ronnie, has a certain responsibility for the precious shape of his or her own life, and everyone has a duty to respect the conditions under which others are able to discharge that responsibility. That’s what “human dignity” meant for Ronnie and it underpinned both the principles of responsibility that were so important in the luck-egalitarian side of his account of equality and the principles of mutual respect that are represented in the rule of law. His great work of synthesis, Justice for Hedgehogs revealed this as the foundation of all his positions — and I do mean “foundation,” which is not the same as the fortification that allows a philosopher to see off contrary intuitions. I mean that Justice for Hedgehogs bravely identified the very deep underpinning of his various positions, even though that explicit identification made each of them somewhat more vulnerable, by presenting a deeper as well as a wider and more integrated target."
See also Waldron's article on Dworkin in "The Chronicle of Higher Education", February 19, 2013.
See also Will Hutton's tribute to Dworkin in "The Guardian", June 9, 2013: "I despair as I watch the erosion of the liberal views I hold dear."
I have made a collection of links to other tributes to Dworkin here.
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