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Call for Papers "The Epistemology of Liberal Democracy: Free Speech, Disagreement and Common Belief" International Conference University of Copenhagen Copenhagen (Denmark) 20-21 November 2008 __________________________________________________ One of the most important and cherished features of liberal democracy is the value placed on freedom of speech and inquiry. Regimes of free speech and free inquiry inevitably lead to disagreement, not only about issues of value, but also about very important factual matters. Hence, another important feature of liberal democracy is the commitment to the toleration of disagreement, even over crucial factual matters. Clearly, both features are extremely important for citizens within liberal democracies if they wish to arrive at true or justified beliefs about the world, and to correct mistaken views. Yet, these features of liberal democracies are rarely discussed from an epistemological point of view, despite their obvious epistemological import. The aim of this conference is to foster new research in epistemology as well as cross-disciplinary research relating to the epistemological questions raised by liberal democracy. The topics for the conference will include but not be limited to the following: - What are the epistemological features of free speech and free inquiry? Under what conditions will free speech and free inquiry promote truth and justified belief? - How should one should one alter ones beliefs in the light of disagreement? - Under what circumstances will voting be truth-conducive? - What are reasonable ways to aggregate different factual judgements? - How should public policy take into account widespread disagrement over important factual matters? - When should one trust experts, in particular when purported experts disagree? - Applied issues, basic epistemological issues, as well metodologial issues concerning these questions: How should questions such as these be studied? How can philosophy contribute? Organizers: Klemens Kappel, Erik Olsson, Duncan Pritchard, Jesper Kallestrup, Mikkel Gerken. Confirmed Speakers: Alvin Goldman (Rutgers) Erik Olsson (Lund) Christian List (LSE) Duncan Pritchard (Edinburgh) Igor Douven (Louvan) Klemens Kappel (Copenhagen) Jesper Kallestrup (Edinburgh) Wlodek Rabinowicz (Lund) Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern) Submissions: Papers are invited on any of the topics of the conference. Abstracts of no more than 1000 words should be sent to the organizing comittee at <[email protected]>. Please prepare submissions for blind review. Deadline for submission is August 15, 2008. Notifications of acceptance will be made no later than September 15, 2008. Contact: Prof. Klemens Kappel Department of Media, Cognition and Communication University of Copenhagen Njalsgade 80 2300 Copenhagen S Denmark Email: [email protected] Web: http://mef.ku.dk/csec/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
