Jun 5, 2025 07:42 PM
The metaphysics behind Putin’s war on liberalism
https://blog.apaonline.org/2025/06/04/th...iberalism/
INTRO: As Putin and Xi push for a “multipolar” world where liberal democracy is just one model among many, their challenge to Western Enlightenment ideals is gaining momentum – fueled by Trump’s second presidency and surging “radical conservativism” in Europe. Finnish philosopher Jussi Backman argues that an anti-liberal theory of reality is on the rise, providing a wide-ranging metaphysical underpinning for would-be geopolitical revolutionaries. Drawing on Heidegger, figures like Aleksandr Dugin—sometimes described as Putin’s philosopher—portray liberal metaphysics as inevitably leading to nihilism, posing a serious ideological challenge that liberals and the left need to take seriously... (MORE - details)
This philosopher believed that beauty could save democracy (book review)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/202...ms-review/
EXCERPTS: In “Democracy and Beauty,” Robert Gooding-Williams explores the arguments and intellectual legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. [...] American racism is rooted, as Du Bois memorably put it, in “a vicious habit of mind” that is immune to reasoned rebuttal. ... beauty can achieve what debate cannot, precisely because it is equipped to disrupt and unsettle. ... beauty can reveal the visceral repugnance of white supremacy by jolting its adherents out of their preconceptions.
[...] Of course, there are many possible objections to Du Bois’s views ... What of more recent philosophers who claim that racism is not “a vicious habit of mind” but a consequence of unjust institutional arrangements? “Democracy and Beauty” does not defend Du Bois’s conception of white supremacy against competing accounts, and it will not satisfy or sway those who are committed to a more structural approach. But the patience and care with which Gooding-Williams explains Du Bois’s position will impress, if not persuade, his critics... (MORE - details)
Status, class, and the crisis of expertise
https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/s...-expertise
EXCERPTS: Veblen’s insight was that you cannot study economic activity without situating it in the real economy—the prestige economy—that governs our fundamental desires and emotions. Even the widespread idea that reputation management only kicks in once basic material needs are met is mistaken. There were Polynesian chiefs, Veblen observed, who grew so accustomed to having servants carry out their tasks that they would sooner starve than be seen feeding themselves.
When situated in this social context, Snegiryov’s behaviour becomes more intelligible. To be helped or even saved is an act drenched in social significance. Conspicuous charity sends an undeniable signal about the relative status of the helper and receiver. The former appears benevolent, admirable, impressive. The latter seems helpless, desperate, dependent. To someone who values their reputation and honour—to a human being, in other words—these social costs of humiliation can outweigh the material benefits of assistance.
[...] A critical aspect of these problems is the so-called “crisis of expertise”, the widespread populist rejection of claims advanced in institutions like science, universities, public health organisations, and mainstream media. ... This rejection of expertise goes beyond mere scepticism.
[...] There is likely some truth in all these explanations. Nevertheless, they share a common assumption: that the “crisis of expertise” is best understood in epistemic terms. They assume that populist hostility to the expert class reflects scepticism that their expertise is genuine—that they really know what they claim to know.
Perhaps this assumption is mistaken. Perhaps at least in some cases, the crisis of expertise is less about doubting expert knowledge than about rejecting the social hierarchy that “trust the experts” implies. Just as Snegiryov would sooner endure hardship than be looked down upon, some populists might sooner accept ignorance than epistemic charity from those they refuse to acknowledge as superior... (MORE - details)
https://blog.apaonline.org/2025/06/04/th...iberalism/
INTRO: As Putin and Xi push for a “multipolar” world where liberal democracy is just one model among many, their challenge to Western Enlightenment ideals is gaining momentum – fueled by Trump’s second presidency and surging “radical conservativism” in Europe. Finnish philosopher Jussi Backman argues that an anti-liberal theory of reality is on the rise, providing a wide-ranging metaphysical underpinning for would-be geopolitical revolutionaries. Drawing on Heidegger, figures like Aleksandr Dugin—sometimes described as Putin’s philosopher—portray liberal metaphysics as inevitably leading to nihilism, posing a serious ideological challenge that liberals and the left need to take seriously... (MORE - details)
This philosopher believed that beauty could save democracy (book review)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/202...ms-review/
EXCERPTS: In “Democracy and Beauty,” Robert Gooding-Williams explores the arguments and intellectual legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. [...] American racism is rooted, as Du Bois memorably put it, in “a vicious habit of mind” that is immune to reasoned rebuttal. ... beauty can achieve what debate cannot, precisely because it is equipped to disrupt and unsettle. ... beauty can reveal the visceral repugnance of white supremacy by jolting its adherents out of their preconceptions.
[...] Of course, there are many possible objections to Du Bois’s views ... What of more recent philosophers who claim that racism is not “a vicious habit of mind” but a consequence of unjust institutional arrangements? “Democracy and Beauty” does not defend Du Bois’s conception of white supremacy against competing accounts, and it will not satisfy or sway those who are committed to a more structural approach. But the patience and care with which Gooding-Williams explains Du Bois’s position will impress, if not persuade, his critics... (MORE - details)
Status, class, and the crisis of expertise
https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/s...-expertise
EXCERPTS: Veblen’s insight was that you cannot study economic activity without situating it in the real economy—the prestige economy—that governs our fundamental desires and emotions. Even the widespread idea that reputation management only kicks in once basic material needs are met is mistaken. There were Polynesian chiefs, Veblen observed, who grew so accustomed to having servants carry out their tasks that they would sooner starve than be seen feeding themselves.
When situated in this social context, Snegiryov’s behaviour becomes more intelligible. To be helped or even saved is an act drenched in social significance. Conspicuous charity sends an undeniable signal about the relative status of the helper and receiver. The former appears benevolent, admirable, impressive. The latter seems helpless, desperate, dependent. To someone who values their reputation and honour—to a human being, in other words—these social costs of humiliation can outweigh the material benefits of assistance.
[...] A critical aspect of these problems is the so-called “crisis of expertise”, the widespread populist rejection of claims advanced in institutions like science, universities, public health organisations, and mainstream media. ... This rejection of expertise goes beyond mere scepticism.
[...] There is likely some truth in all these explanations. Nevertheless, they share a common assumption: that the “crisis of expertise” is best understood in epistemic terms. They assume that populist hostility to the expert class reflects scepticism that their expertise is genuine—that they really know what they claim to know.
Perhaps this assumption is mistaken. Perhaps at least in some cases, the crisis of expertise is less about doubting expert knowledge than about rejecting the social hierarchy that “trust the experts” implies. Just as Snegiryov would sooner endure hardship than be looked down upon, some populists might sooner accept ignorance than epistemic charity from those they refuse to acknowledge as superior... (MORE - details)