Open-mindedness – the willingness to engage with new ideas and give them serious consideration – seems to be a core virtue of democratic citizens. Indeed, many pathologies of contemporary politics – from an increasingly hostile public discourse to phenomena like filter bubbles and epistemic injustice – can be described as (originating in) some form of narrow or even closed-mindedness. Yet, while there is an ongoing debate around the nature and norms of open-mindedness in virtue epistemology (concerned with our ability to acquire true beliefs about the world), the distinctly political dimensions of open-mindedness remain undertheorized. The aim of this workshop is to make up for this gap from different philosophical perspectives and in relation to various issues.
Participants: Jack Kwong, Romy Jaster, Hein Duijf, Katrin Flikschuh, Monika Betzler, Wayne Riggs, Isabel Kaeslin, Jakob Huber, Dominik Balg.
The workshop program is available here. To participate, please register with jakob.huber@fu-berlin.de until June 1st.