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Workshop: The knowledge of others - a democratic challenge from a philosophical-linguistic perspective
A workshop with Dr. Martin Böhnert (Institute of Philosophy) and Dr. Paul Reszke (Institute of German Studies)
At the latest since Donald Trump's term as US president, talk of "alternative facts", "fake news" and "post-factuality" has found its way into the public debate. At the same time, fact-checking has developed as a counter-strategy (at least in Western and multimedia-based democracies) and has become increasingly important in the media - without much success, because: The alternative knowledge of others presents democratic societies with new kinds of challenges that established knowledge institutions can only meet to a limited extent.
The focus of this workshop is therefore on the competing descriptions of reality by different groups. The aim is not to reach a final decision on what is true and what is not - this would be similar to the fact-checking instrument criticized above. Rather, in line with the sociology of knowledge, it should be about "dealing with everything [...] that is considered 'knowledge' in a society, regardless of its absolute validity or invalidity" (Berger/Luckmann 1966/2007, 3). This "knowledge of others" can thus be taken seriously as a form of knowledge that is not scientific, but obviously relevant to society and can be treated as an object of research. In this way, it is also possible to discuss how to deal with conflicting knowledge claims and descriptions of reality without ending up exposing and exposing the respective counterpart and thus falling into the trap of a populist competition for (seemingly simple) truths.
In line with the aim of the workshop, its methodology is strongly geared towards the interaction of all participants. An internet-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, laptop) is helpful for brief research purposes during the workshop.
Participants: from 20 people upwards
Registration at: demokratiewoche2024[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
An event as part of the Democracy Week