Public lecture by David Estlund

Time and place:  Dec 9, 2009 10:15 AM - 12:00 PM, Undervisningsrom 2, Georg Sverdrups hus

The Research Programme on Democracy will host a public lecture by David Estlund:

Human Nature and the Limits (If Any) of Political Philosophy

"Political philosophy often posits standards of justice, or preconditions of authority, legitimacy, and so on, which there is reason to doubt will ever be met in human life. Of course, such pessimism has often proved unwarranted, and that is an important point. However, I want to ask whether, and in what way, it would be a defect in a normative political theory if such pessimism were warranted-if, that is, there were good reasons for thinking the standards would never be met. In general, I believe it is no defect at all. In this paper I take up just one aspect of the question: what sorts of contraints are placed on sound normative political theory by the facts (whatever they might be) about human nature? A crucial distinction for my purposes is between facts about how people will act (or are very likely to, or tend strongly to), and how people are capable of acting. More specifically yet, it is often said that certain standards or requirements are not compatible with people's motivational or psychological abilities. Some theories require things said to be beyond what people can be motivated to do (those requiring a lot of altruism or civic virtue, for example). I want to inquire into whether this kind of consideration places limits on what can (soundly, truly, appropriately...) demanded (which is different from "expected") by such political values as justice. I will argue that there are fewer and less severe constraints of this kind than is normally assumed."

David Estlund is the Lombardo Family Professor of Philosophy at Brown University. He recently published the book Democratic Authority: a philosophical framework (Princeton University Press 2008), on which there will be a workshop on December 7 and 8.

Organizers: Jakob Elster, Eli Feiring and Cathrine Holst