Rationality and Positive Political Roles for Emotions: Solidarity and Benevolence
The purpose of the second symposium is to investigate the interactions between rationality and passions suited as emotional cement for concerted social action: benevolence and solidarity.
Main content
Questions around the constructive vs. destructive potential of emotions have recently returned into the focus of academic debates about nationalism, identity, and populism in theory, practice, and discourse. Placing the emotions and passions at the centre of political research and analysis, followers the so-called 鈥淎ffective Turn鈥� oppose the liberal idea that politics should exclusively focus on reasoned arguments. In social and political contexts, the consequent conceptual displacement of the ideal political subject as preference-oriented, rational decision-maker by the 鈥渆motional鈥� subject threatens to prevent striking the delicate balance between the rational and the emotions that might be essential for sound as well as effective decision-making and successful discourse. There are, thus, good reasons to be critical of the 鈥渁ffective turn鈥� in political theory and practice. Seeking to bridge the divide, the conference aims to investigate which forms of rationality can fruitfully interact with emotions in the service of what has been referred to as 鈥減ublic passions鈥� (Tocqueville) or 鈥渃ommon sympathies鈥� (Mill) 鈥� passions suited as emotional cement for concerted social action tending to the creation of a common project, or to the elimination of the multiple forms of unnecessary human suffering. Historically the concepts of 鈥渂enevolence鈥� and 鈥渟olidarity鈥� have been posited as two different emotional horizons where reason and emotions could intersect and react positively to one another. Just as other emotional horizons, however, also benevolence and solidarity are fraught with an inherent ambivalence. Sensitive to their inherent ambiguities, the conference will explore both the positive and the negative sides of benevolence and solidarity in the political sphere. It will investigate what forms of rationality can dialogue with benevolence and solidarity, and what preconditions enable these emotions to figure as constructive political and social factors.
Program
Thursday 16th June
10.00-10.30: Coffee & welcome
10.30-11.00: . , (Akureyri, Island): Citizenship and the emotions: The glue that holds political societies together. (digitally)
11.00-11.30: Hans Marius Hansteen, (UiB): Solidarity and the Politics of Imagination.听
11.30-11.45: Coffee break
11.45-12.15: Paola de Cuzzani (UiB): The principle of solidarity between sentiment and reason: a reflection 听starting from L. Bourgeois' solidarism.听
12.15-12.45: (UniGe, Italy): Secure the Blessing of Liberty to our Posterity鈥�. The Founding Fathers, Rationality and Intergenerational Solidarity.听
12.45-13.30: Discussion
13.30-15.00: Lunch
15.00-15.30: Anne Granberg, (UiB): 听On the value of distance: An Arendtian perspective on politics and social media.听
15.30-16.00: , (Quinnipiac, USA): Arendt on Solidarity: Pure Rationality. (digitally)
16.00-16.15: Coffee break
16.15-16.45:听, (UNAM, Mexico):Notes for the construction of a philosophy of peace through reason and emotions: a joint proposal from Rawlsian theory and the philosophy of care. (digitally)
16.45-17.15: C茅sar Akim Erives Chaparro (Monterrey, Mexico): The role of indignation and other moral sentiments in the construction of a common (and solidary) sense of justice. (digitally)
17.15-17.45: Discussion
Friday 17th June
10.00-10.30: , (Oslo-Met): Democratic Passion, Creative Democracy, and the Rationality of a Hatred.听
10.30-11.00: (Vechta, Germany) Begging for Benevolence. A Kantian perspective.听(诲颈驳颈迟补濒濒测)听
11.00-11.15: Coffee break
11.15-11.45: , (Innsbruck, Austria): Guarding against toxic and/or inoperative solidarity: The merit of rational reflection and its limits. (digitally)听
11.45-12.15: , (Tours, France): Populist Emotion versus Neoconservatisme, a new cultural war in extreme right. 听
12.15-13.45: Discussion
13.45-14.30: Lunch
14.30-15.00: , (Tours, France): Making and unmaking political emotions with narratives: How to shape solidarity with words. 听
15.00-15.30: Carola Freiin von Villiez (UiB): The invisible hand of public reason and public affections. (digitally)
15.30-15.45: Coffee break
15.45-16.15: 听, (LaSalle, Brazil): 听Political emotions, cognitive framing and freedom of speech: an interpretation from the standpoint of the capabilities approach. (digitally)
16.15-16.45: , (LaSalle, Brazil): 听The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Nationalism as a Landscape of Political Emotions in Contemporary International Relations. (digitally)
16.45-17.15: Discussion
Saturday 18th June
10.30-11.00: , (UFPE Recife, Brazil): Making solidarity a transnational (and decolonized) political emotion. 听听
11.00-11.30: , (Molde): Gandhi鈥檚 concept of non-violence and the Mard酶la struggle.听
11.30-11.45: Coffee break
11.45-12.15: Franz Knappik, (UiB): Solidarity, humanism and identity: Thoughts from Fanon and Glissant.听
12.15-12.45: Discussion
Hybrid format
As the second main symposium in the project 鈥淩ationality and the Emotions in political discourse鈥� which is based in the research group 鈥淐ulture, Society and Politics鈥� at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bergen, it will run in hybrid format to accommodate for full international participation under current conditions.
