Cedric Braun
I am a PhD candidate based in Southern Germany having earned a BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Stuttgart. Since 2019, I am enrolled in the PhD program "Organization Studies and Cultural Theory (DOK)" at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. From September 2022 to February 2023, I was a visiting scholar at Columbia University on a Fulbright grant.
Supervisors: Michael G. Festl and Dieter Thomä
Address: 42287 Wuppertal, Germany
Supervisors: Michael G. Festl and Dieter Thomä
Address: 42287 Wuppertal, Germany
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Against this background I argue that Dewey’s democratic virtue theory complements the Deweyan argument for democracy as reconstructed by Hilary Putnam (1992). First, I will introduce Dewey’s perspectival view of creativity which is foreshadowed in his article “Construction and Criticism” and interpret it in the context of Dewey’s normative criteria for democracy (II). Second, this view of creativity and the motive of the recognition of individuality is linked to Putnam’s (1992) argument (III). Third, an account of democratic virtues after Dewey will be outlined that complements the ‘Deweyan argument for democracy’ (IV).
John Dewey (1980) believed that “[p]hilosophy […] is an idea of what is possible, not a record of accomplished fact” (p. 336). I will outline three elements which together provide a picture of the place of utopias in Normative Experimentalism alongside Dewey’s philosophy:
First, philosophy is not limited to conceptual analysis but is inextricably linked with imagination and art. With Dewey I argue that the picture that philosophy, art, religion etc. are disciplines with fixed roles is highly problematic (e.g., that art is concerned with imagining better possible futures, philosophy with social criticism and ethical theory etc.). Regarding ethical amelioration there is no need to construct a strict division of labor between disciplines because, for Dewey, art, ethical theory, philosophy of education – theory and practice – are but phases of life and experience. To isolate them would be a ‘philosophical fallacy’ with bad real-world consequences.
Second, Normative Experimentalism holds that ethical amelioration is a strictly tentative venture based on trial and error. Fallibilism applied to the notion of good aims leads to formulating a condition to be met by any good utopias that might offer some guidance for fashioning a better future.
Finally, pragmatism’s monistic philosophy which takes concrete living-experiences as its pivot enables us to think of ethics as an artful endeavor. This goes far beyond the fact that ethical deliberation implies imaginative effort. Imagination and deliberation themselves depend on good communication that relies on virtues such as openness to others’ perspectives (Stroud, 2016) and that, in form of works of art, provides us with impressions of alternative ways of seeing the world (Dewey, 2005).
The conference is organized by the Nordic Pragmatism Network in collaboration with Associazione Pragma (Italy), Pragmata (France), the Central European Pragmatist Forum and the European Pragmatism Association.
The conference is hosted and sponsored by the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition at the Faculty of Theology, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Organizing committee (NPN):
Henrik Rydenfelt (Oulu), chair
Mats Bergman (Helsinki)
Antje Gimmler (Aalborg)
Katariina Holma (Oulu)
Erkki Kilpinen (Helsinki)
Jonathan Knowles (NTNU, Trondheim)
Torjus Midtgarden (Bergen)
Jón Ólafsson (Reykjavík)
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen (Tallinn)
Sami Pihlström (Helsinki)
Bjørn Ramberg (Oslo)
Frederik Stjernfelt (Aalborg/Copenhagen)
Ulf Zackariasson (Uppsala)
Chiara Ambrosio (UCL)
Programme committee (EPA)
Henrik Rydenfelt (Oulu; NPN)
Sami Pihlström (Helsinki; NPN)
Rossella Fabbrichesi (Università degli Studi di Milano; Pragma)
Guido Baggio (Roma 3; Pragma)
Daniel Cefaï (EHESS; Pragmata)
Mathias Girel (ENS; Pragmata)
Emil Visnovsky (Comenius University; CEPF)
John Ryder (American University of Malta; CEPF)
Previous conferences
The First European Pragmatism Conference (Rome, Italy, September 2012)
The Second European Pragmatism Conference (Paris, France, September 2015)
CONTACT
info@europeanpragmatism.org
https://europeanpragmatism.org/events/third-european-pragmatism-conference/
Talks
Papers
Against this background I argue that Dewey’s democratic virtue theory complements the Deweyan argument for democracy as reconstructed by Hilary Putnam (1992). First, I will introduce Dewey’s perspectival view of creativity which is foreshadowed in his article “Construction and Criticism” and interpret it in the context of Dewey’s normative criteria for democracy (II). Second, this view of creativity and the motive of the recognition of individuality is linked to Putnam’s (1992) argument (III). Third, an account of democratic virtues after Dewey will be outlined that complements the ‘Deweyan argument for democracy’ (IV).
John Dewey (1980) believed that “[p]hilosophy […] is an idea of what is possible, not a record of accomplished fact” (p. 336). I will outline three elements which together provide a picture of the place of utopias in Normative Experimentalism alongside Dewey’s philosophy:
First, philosophy is not limited to conceptual analysis but is inextricably linked with imagination and art. With Dewey I argue that the picture that philosophy, art, religion etc. are disciplines with fixed roles is highly problematic (e.g., that art is concerned with imagining better possible futures, philosophy with social criticism and ethical theory etc.). Regarding ethical amelioration there is no need to construct a strict division of labor between disciplines because, for Dewey, art, ethical theory, philosophy of education – theory and practice – are but phases of life and experience. To isolate them would be a ‘philosophical fallacy’ with bad real-world consequences.
Second, Normative Experimentalism holds that ethical amelioration is a strictly tentative venture based on trial and error. Fallibilism applied to the notion of good aims leads to formulating a condition to be met by any good utopias that might offer some guidance for fashioning a better future.
Finally, pragmatism’s monistic philosophy which takes concrete living-experiences as its pivot enables us to think of ethics as an artful endeavor. This goes far beyond the fact that ethical deliberation implies imaginative effort. Imagination and deliberation themselves depend on good communication that relies on virtues such as openness to others’ perspectives (Stroud, 2016) and that, in form of works of art, provides us with impressions of alternative ways of seeing the world (Dewey, 2005).
The conference is organized by the Nordic Pragmatism Network in collaboration with Associazione Pragma (Italy), Pragmata (France), the Central European Pragmatist Forum and the European Pragmatism Association.
The conference is hosted and sponsored by the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition at the Faculty of Theology, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Organizing committee (NPN):
Henrik Rydenfelt (Oulu), chair
Mats Bergman (Helsinki)
Antje Gimmler (Aalborg)
Katariina Holma (Oulu)
Erkki Kilpinen (Helsinki)
Jonathan Knowles (NTNU, Trondheim)
Torjus Midtgarden (Bergen)
Jón Ólafsson (Reykjavík)
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen (Tallinn)
Sami Pihlström (Helsinki)
Bjørn Ramberg (Oslo)
Frederik Stjernfelt (Aalborg/Copenhagen)
Ulf Zackariasson (Uppsala)
Chiara Ambrosio (UCL)
Programme committee (EPA)
Henrik Rydenfelt (Oulu; NPN)
Sami Pihlström (Helsinki; NPN)
Rossella Fabbrichesi (Università degli Studi di Milano; Pragma)
Guido Baggio (Roma 3; Pragma)
Daniel Cefaï (EHESS; Pragmata)
Mathias Girel (ENS; Pragmata)
Emil Visnovsky (Comenius University; CEPF)
John Ryder (American University of Malta; CEPF)
Previous conferences
The First European Pragmatism Conference (Rome, Italy, September 2012)
The Second European Pragmatism Conference (Paris, France, September 2015)
CONTACT
info@europeanpragmatism.org
https://europeanpragmatism.org/events/third-european-pragmatism-conference/