Political Epistemology

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Political Epistemology

As current events around the world have illustrated, epistemological issues are at the center of our political lives. It has become increasingly difficult to discern legitimate sources of evidence, misinformation spreads faster than ever, and the role of truth in politics has allegedly decayed in recent years. It is therefore no coincidence that political discourse is currently saturated with epistemic notions like “post-truth,” “fake news,” “truth decay,” “echo chambers,” and “alternative facts.” This book brings together leading political philosophers and epistemologists to explore ways in which the analytic and conceptual tools of epistemology bear on political philosophy, and vice versa. It is organized around three broad themes: truth and knowledge in politics; epistemic problems for democracy; and disagreement and polarization. This book investigates topics such as: the extent and implications of political ignorance, the value of democratic deliberation, the significance of epistemic considerations for political legitimacy, the epistemology of political disagreement, identity politics, political bullshit, and weaponized skepticism. A premise underlying the development of political epistemology is that, beyond a certain point, progress on certain foundational issues in both political philosophy and epistemology cannot be achieved without sharing insights across fields. By bringing political philosophers into conversation with epistemologists, this volume promotes more cross-pollination of ideas while also highlighting the richness and diversity of political epistemology as a newly emerging field.

Introduction

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 53-60
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Real World ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
Ideal Standards ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
The Ideal

What is the relation between political theory and political practice? In what ways can political philosophy help people to address real injustices in the world? John Rawls argues that an important role of political philosophy is to identify the ideal standards of justice at which we should aim in political practice. Other philosophers challenge this approach, arguing that Rawls’s idealizations are not useful as a guide for action or, worse, that they are an impediment to addressing actual injustices in the world. They argue, instead, that political philosophy ought to be focused on theorizing about the elimination of existing injustice. Still others argue that principles of justice should be identified without any constraint concerning the possibility of implementation or regulation in the real world at all....

scholarly journals Spanish libraries in COVID-19 pandemic period

2020 ◽  
pp. 90-93
Author(s):  
E. V. Pshenichnaya
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
International Federation ◽  
The State ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
The World

This article discusses the effective operations of Spanish libraries in association with the Spanish Federation of Societies of Archivist, Librarians, Documentarists and Museologists (FESABID) and the information resources, provided by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) to support libraries around the world during the pandemic. The author highlights the role of Spanish librarians in their struggle with fake news, which constitute a menace for Spanish citizens’ life and safety. The article evaluates the “eBiblio” online loan service’ work experience, launched by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Spain in collaboration with Spanish libraries in 2002. The article considers the information specialists’ experience in the development of the State Protocol of the Ministry of Health in Spain regarding the libraries reopening after the pandemic. The article considers the IFLA Library Map of the World as the main tool for getting reliable library statistics in pandemic. The author attempts to comprehend the role of a library as an institution of culture in the post-pandemic era.

The World Narrow Web

2011 ◽  
pp. 320-336
Author(s):  
Siho Nam
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The World

The inauguration of the Lee Myung-Bak administration in 2008 signaled a crisis for Internet-driven participatory, democratic public culture in South Korea. One of the most visible effects was immediately found in the administration’s repressive media policy. A series of anti-democratic regulations, grounded in both conservative and neo-liberal philosophies, was implemented to control and tame civic participation, public deliberation, and identity politics on the Internet. Firstly, in light of this, this chapter summarizes certain main debates regarding the role of the Internet in promoting or hindering democracy. Next, it takes up the recent spate of regulations regarding Internet content in Korea to shed critical light on how the Internet is reconfigured as a new site of cultural politics. Finally, it advocates anonymity as a constitutional free speech right and ascertains that anonymity in cyberspace contributes to, rather than impairs, the quality of public culture and democracy.

Tide-table of Liam Fox Liam Fox. Rising Tides: Facing the Challenges of a New Era. Heron Books, 2013.

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-109
Author(s):  
Hamlet Isakhanlı
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
Small Space ◽  
New Era ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Do So

A book normally reflects the world of thoughts of its author. Drop by drop, the author’s life—joy and sadness, anger and love, concerns and wishes—soak into the book. In fiction, the identity of the author is in invisible form, not systemic, or clearly visible in one image; instead it may be distributed among several characters. Even though the author’s identity is allocated a small space in literature, it plays the role of salt to a meal: just a small amount of it melts into the food, but without it, the food is flavorless. In non-fiction, such as history or philosophy, the author analyzes facts and openly states his/her attitude towards them. These types of works, in contrast to literature, reveal the identity of the author throughout the book. If a work is based on serious research, the author tries to downplay his/her identity, to write with objectivity and maintain the principle of seeing everyone through the lens of equality. He/she avoids polarized views of “them” and “us,” as well as sympathy and antipathy; he/she writes with empathy (or rather, tries to do so; after all, authors are also human). However, there is one more type of work or possible author approach. In this case, the author writes to “our own” and tries to explain certain points to them, help them understand what awaits “us” in the future, and to draw lessons and conclusions from historical and current events. Rising Tides by Liam Fox can be placed in this last category. The author uses the word “us” in its narrow sense to mean Great Britain and in its broad sense to include Western democracy.

scholarly journals What is It Like To Be a Bat in the Time of Covid-19, or How Many Pandemics Could We Have?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran Đurđević ◽  
Suzana Marjanić
Keyword(s):  
Fake News ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
Bat Virus ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
The World ◽  
Similarities And Differences

In these paired years (2020–2021), the whole world has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in the emergence of different presumptions, alternative facts, and fake news. Among those, the most dominant news was about bats as the culprits of expansion of the virus and, indirectly, the Chinese diet as the root cause. However, there is no proof that the links in the triangle of bat-virus-human are valid; and the source of infection has not been identified. In addition to bats, these viruses can be found in other animals, such as camels, pangolins, and humans. Therefore, individual scientists are reversing the situation by presenting the possibility of transmitting the virus from humans to animals. Nevertheless, it has become ultimately ‘acceptable’ to demonise the bat. In this respect, various authors remind us of certain historical contexts of notions and perceptions of the bats, as well as the similarities and differences of those perceptions during the pandemic, referring to it mainly in the context of Croatia and the world. In the end, the article’s conclusion is that the story about the bats is, actually, a great indicator of the representations of Otherness and the strengthening of a binary and hierarchical division of ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Fake News

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Emily K. Vraga ◽  
Kjerstin Thorson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Insight Into

Chapter 7 tackles the challenges posed by misinformation campaigns and fake news, an issue of growing concern in America and around the world. Following the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, academics and pundits alike struggled to make sense of what happened, and many pointed to the role of fake news and misinformation more broadly in leading voters astray in their assessments of the two major candidates for president. This chapter draws on survey data to investigate how media use in general, and use of social media and partisan media more specifically, affected belief in six fake news stories directly following the 2016 election. The analysis assesses whether use of different types of media affected belief in misinformation—including messages congruent and incongruent with their own candidate preferences—providing insight into what was to blame for belief in fake news in the 2016 elections.

Approaches to Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Michael Saward
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Current State ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The World ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Models Of Democracy

This chapter offers a critique of the current state of play in the study of democracy. It aims to pinpoint both strengths and limitations of current theories and approaches. A broad range of approaches is covered: the discourse of ‘models of democracy’; the conception of ‘liberal democracy’ that prevails in the comparative study of democratic states and democratization; the deliberative model; normative political philosophy approaches; the world of ‘democratic innovations’, including direct and participative innovations; and recent ‘pragmatic’ and problem-driven approaches. The chapter identifies through these critiques a set of lessons to carry forward, including key points about embracing plurality and the role of experimentation in rethinking democracy.

‘(Luck and Relational) Egalitarians of the World, Unite!’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Relation ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Egalitarian Theory

In recent years, egalitarian political philosophy has been marred by a family dispute between luck and relational egalitarianism. This chapter presents a certain view about what constitutes the core difference and disagreement between the two views. This enables us to set aside a number of issues, e.g., the role of responsibility, which are better discussed as intraluck or intrasocial relational egalitarian issues. Second, a defense is made of a guarded reductionist claim that any objectionable inegalitarian social relation can be analyzed as an unequal distribution of a relevantly related social good. Third, the chapter ends with a proposal of an ecumenical egalitarian theory that incorporates insights from both views, as well as a third egalitarian view: dispositional egalitarianism, which seems implicit in Samuel Scheffler’s work. A specific luck-ist version of the ecumenical view, which is grounded in the value of fairness, is tentatively suggested.

scholarly journals The Fragility-Grievances-Conflict Triangle in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): An Exploration of the Correlative Associations

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Timo Kivimäki
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
State Fragility ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The intention of this special issue of Social Sciences is to study state fragility and its relationship with conflict and grievances in the post-Cold War Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This article will lay the foundation for such a study by offering a conceptual foundation, data and the identification of the correlative associations that are specific to the MENA region. This article suggests that the relationship between political legitimacy, factionalism of the state, and conflict needs special, MENA-specific emphasis, as this relationship seems more prominently different in the MENA region, compared to the rest of the world. While in the rest of the world, different aspects of state fragility all relate to grievances and conflict dynamics, in the MENA region political factionalism has a disproportionate role in the explanation of conflict grievances and violence. Moreover, the role of oil dependence, and the impact of external intervention requires attention of specialists of the region.

scholarly journals Hämähäkkimiehen seikkailut ”totuuden jälkeisessä” ajassa

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Laura Antola
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
White Male ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media

Tarkastelen artikkelissani sitä, miten John Wattsin ohjaamassa elokuvassa Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) käytetään supersankarielokuvalle tyypillisiä genrepiirteitä rakentamaan totuuden jälkeisen ajan diskurssia. Genrepiirteiden, joita ovat ainutlaatuinen sankarihahmo, korotettu realismi ja erikoistehosteet, avulla elokuvassa käsitellään mediavälitteisen sankaruuden, valeuutisten ja totuuden jälkeisen ajan teemoja. Sekä elokuvan juoni että teemat liittyvät media- ja esitysteknologioihin, mikä tekee elokuvasta kiinnostavan tutkimuskohteen mediavälitteisten tarinoiden ja valemedian analysoimiseen. Marvelin supersankarielokuvat ovat kuluneen kymmenen vuoden aikana nousseet maailman tuottoisimmaksi elokuvasarjaksi. Niissä näyttävät erikoistehosteet yhdistyvät realistisiin elementteihin, ja monet supersankarielokuvat kommentoivat yhteiskunnan tapahtumia. Far from Homessa nykyajan tunnistettava teinikulttuuri, joka pyörii mobiililaitteiden ja sosiaalisen median ympärillä, on yksi elokuvan tavoista tuoda fantastiseen tarinaan realismin piirteitä. Elokuvan antagonisti, yleisön huomiota janoava versio vihaisesta valkoisesta miehestä, käyttää mediaa hyväkseen luodakseen itsestään kuvan ainutlaatuisena sankarina, joka pystyy vastaamaan maapalloa kohtaavaan uuteen uhkaan. Valheet ja totuuden muuntelu yhdistetään elokuvassa mediateknologioihin ja erikoistehosteiden käytöllä korostetaan valheellisuutta ja totuuden muuntelua. Supersankarielokuvan genrepiirteet ovat keskeinen väline, jonka avulla elokuva osallistuu totuuden jälkeisen ajan diskurssin tuottamiseen. Pyyteetön, totuudenmukainen päähenkilö taistelee yhteisen hyvän puolesta, tarina tapahtuu meidän maailmaamme muistuttavassa korotetun realismin maailmassa ja media välittää erikoistehosteilla tuotettuja valeuutisia yleisöille.   Adventures of Spider-Man in a post-truth era: Generic conventions of superhero films in building a discourse   In this article, I analyse how generic conventions of superhero films are used in John Watts’ Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) to build the discourse of a post-truth era. The film uses these generic conventions, including an exceptional hero, heightened realism, and special effects, to discuss the themes of mediated heroism, fake news, and a post-truth era. Both the plot and themes of the film revolve around media technologies, granting an interesting point of view to the analysis of mediated storytelling and fake media. In the past decade, Marvel’s superhero films have become the highest grossing media franchise of all time. The films combine fantastic special effects and realistic elements, and many superhero films comment on current events and the society. In Far from Home, realism is presented through e.g. the representation of current teenage culture, revolving around mobile devices and social media. The film’s antagonist is an attention-seeking version of the “angry white male” trope, who uses media to create an image of himself as a hero with exceptional abilities to stop a new threat facing the world. Lies and altering the truth are connected to media technologies in the film’s narrative, and the use of special effects highlights deceitfulness and alternative facts. Generic conventions of superhero films are central in how the film constructs the discourse of a post-truth era: an altruistic hero fighting for the common good in a world reminiscent of our own, with the media spreading fake news created by special effects to the public.

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