LOSING FAITH: REFLECTIONS ON DEMOCRACY’S CURRENT EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRISIS
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
The necessary conditions for the exercise, of democracy’s problem-solving capacities do not seem to exist today. Citizens of democratic societies have split up into multiple, apparently incommensurable epistemic communities. This situation of discord between truth and politics was anticipated by H. Arendt, who did not anticipate, however, the emergence of a politics of radical skepticism, which is spreading with little resistance from the democratic institutions.
Traditionally, discussions of radical skepticism have been confined to academic philosophy. However, in the last decades a form of radical epistemological skepticism has unexpectedly acquired a potentially catastrophic political existence within democratic societies.
The loss of faith in the problem-solving powers of democracy is pervasive and growing, due, above all, to two phenomena: 1) the failure of democratic societies to respond to the climate catastrophe; and 2) the failure to constrain and mitigate the destructive effects of capitalism. When democracies arrive at this point, they have to “break existing political forms” and thereby create a new “public” (Dewey). The restoration of our faith in democracy precisely depends on whether we can meet the overwhelming challenges we face today.
Cycle of seminars: REBE Workshops
The event will be held in English.
The event, organized by FBK’s Center for Religious Studies, will be held in English and is part of the activities of the research project IPN 175: “Resilient Beliefs: Religion and Beyond,” funded by the Euregio Science Fund.
The event will be in-person in the FBK Aula Piccola while seats last and online.
Registration by March 18, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. is required in order to arrange the connection.
Speakers
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Nikolas Kompridis is an interdisciplinary philosopher and critical theorist whose research is focused on rethinking the relation between the human and non-human; revising the theory and practice of critique in light of diverse traditions of critical theory; re-assessing the claims and possibilities of philosophical romanticism; and illuminating the ethical and political insights of the arts, especially literature, cinema, and music. He is the author of Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory Between Past and Future (MIT), Philosophical Romanticism (Routledge), The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought (Bloomsbury), and Heterotopian Cinema: Spaces of Refuge and Freedom (forthcoming, Northwestern University Press), as well as over 60 articles and book chapters that have appeared in leading journals and notable academic presses. He has taught at universities in Canada, the UK, and most recently as Foundation Director and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Justice in Sydney.
Registration
Registration to this event is mandatory.
Registration closed on 18/03/2024.