Matthew Festenstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 385490 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Festenstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Festenstein |
| SIGNATURE | FESTENSTEIN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of York |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2139-6174 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Evolution of Pragmatism in India
Liberal Freedom
Spotlight
This article surveys recent work in pragmatism and political theory. In doing so, it shows both how recent work on pragmatism has secured the view that at its core is a set of arguments about the character of democracy – although the character of those arguments is open to debate and reimagination – and how pragmatist arguments have been reinterpreted and deployed to address contemporary concerns and approaches. This charts a terrain of live disa…
The Pragmatist Demos and the Boundary Problem
L’argument selon lequel l’ethos et les institutions démocratiques sont, en un certain sens, une forme d’enquête reste l’un des thèmes les plus puissants et pourtant insaisissables de la pensée sociale et politique pragmatiste. Conceptuellement, la démocratie est antérieure à l’État moderne. Or, le projet de justifier la démocratie est essentiellement un projet de justification à l’intérieur et pour l’État moderne. En s’appuyant sur le développeme…
The pragmatist demos and the boundary problem
System and Legitimacy in the Wide View of Democracy
Roberto Frega’s Pragmatism and the Wide View of Democracy marks an ambitious attempt to construct a comprehensive and critical vision of democratic theory, a vision that draws together elements from pragmatism, from sociological theory, and from critical theory. Responding to the pervasive sense of crisis that surrounds democracy, Frega persuasively argues, requires broadening our understanding of the concept’s scope. Frega seeks to move beyond t…
Political Trust, Commitment and Responsiveness
Political trust has become a central focus of political analysis and public lament. Political theorists and philosophers typically think of interpersonal trust in politics as a fragile but valuable resource for a flourishing or stable democratic polity. This article examines what conception of trust is needed in order to play this role. It unpicks two candidate answers, a moral and a responsiveness conception, the latter of which has been central…
Self-censorship for democrats
On the face of it, self-censorship is profoundly subversive of democracy, particularly in its talk-centric forms, and undermines the culture of openness and publicity on which it relies. This paper has two purposes. The first is to develop a conception of self-censorship that allows us to capture what is distinctive about the concept from a political perspective and which allows us to understand the democratic anxiety about self-censorship: if it…
Pragmatism, Realism and Moralism
Pragmatism is often seen as an unpolitical doctrine. This article argues that it shares important commitments with realist political theory, which stresses the distinctive character of the political and the difficulty of viewing political theory simply as applied ethics, and that many of its key arguments support realism. Having outlined the elective affinities between realism and pragmatism, the article goes on to consider this relationship by l…
A brief rejoinder to critics
Pragmatism, inquiry and political liberalism
National identity, political trust and the public realm
The representative institutions of democratic government require the public sphere; but this in turn rests on the fellow‐feeling of citizens. In this article, I explore some recent ways of fleshing out Mill's thought that patriotic fellow‐feeling is instrumental for a form of trust that the public sphere requires. Deliberation, argument and negotiation in the public sphere require a willingness to discuss, alter one's position, compromise with ot…
Truth and Trust in Democratic Epistemology
Symposium on Ethical Norms, Political Agency and the State
Deliberative Democracy and Two Models of Pragmatism
This article examines the relationship of pragmatism to the theory of deliberative democracy. It elaborates a dilemma in the latter theory, between its deliberative or epistemic and democratic or inclusive components, and distinguishes responses to this dilemma that are internal to the conception of deliberation employed from those that are external. The article goes on to identify two models of pragmatism and critically examines how well each on…
Politics and Acquiescence in Rorty's Pragmatism
Pragmatism's Boundaries
The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commit…
Fallible Democracy
Inquiry as Critique
This article provides a critical reconstruction of John Dewey's theory of social and political inquiry. Clearing away some misconceptions about this theory allows us to grasp its practical and political focus, and to see its similarities to other strands of anti-positivist social thought, including hermeneutics and critical theory. I go on to examine the relationship between democratic values and the theory of inquiry. Like recent proponents of d…
Pragmatism and liberalism
Putnam, Pragmatism, and Democratic Theory
In a powerful series of texts, Hilary Putnam has criticized what he takes to be a prevalent scientistic conception of objectivity in modern philosophy. This article is concerned with two connected facets of this critique, upon which Putnam himself has laid increasing emphasis: the attempt to reconstruct conceptions of ethical and political value in the wake of his criticism of “metaphysical realist” notions of objectivity, and his affiliation wit…
Inquiry as Critique
This article provides a critical reconstruction of John Dewey's theory of social and political inquiry. Clearing away some misconceptions about this theory allows us to grasp its practical and political focus, and to see its similarities to other strands of anti-positivist social thought, including hermeneutics and critical theory. I go on to examine the relationship between democratic values and the theory of inquiry. Like recent proponents of d…
Deliberative Democracy and Two Models of Pragmatism
This article examines the relationship of pragmatism to the theory of deliberative democracy. It elaborates a dilemma in the latter theory, between its deliberative or epistemic and democratic or inclusive components, and distinguishes responses to this dilemma that are internal to the conception of deliberation employed from those that are external. The article goes on to identify two models of pragmatism and critically examines how well each on…
Political Trust, Commitment and Responsiveness
Political trust has become a central focus of political analysis and public lament. Political theorists and philosophers typically think of interpersonal trust in politics as a fragile but valuable resource for a flourishing or stable democratic polity. This article examines what conception of trust is needed in order to play this role. It unpicks two candidate answers, a moral and a responsiveness conception, the latter of which has been central…
Pragmatism, Realism and Moralism
Pragmatism is often seen as an unpolitical doctrine. This article argues that it shares important commitments with realist political theory, which stresses the distinctive character of the political and the difficulty of viewing political theory simply as applied ethics, and that many of its key arguments support realism. Having outlined the elective affinities between realism and pragmatism, the article goes on to consider this relationship by l…
Pragmatism, inquiry and political liberalism
Politics and Acquiescence in Rorty's Pragmatism
Pragmatism and liberalism
Self-censorship for democrats
On the face of it, self-censorship is profoundly subversive of democracy, particularly in its talk-centric forms, and undermines the culture of openness and publicity on which it relies. This paper has two purposes. The first is to develop a conception of self-censorship that allows us to capture what is distinctive about the concept from a political perspective and which allows us to understand the democratic anxiety about self-censorship: if it…
Spotlight
This article surveys recent work in pragmatism and political theory. In doing so, it shows both how recent work on pragmatism has secured the view that at its core is a set of arguments about the character of democracy – although the character of those arguments is open to debate and reimagination – and how pragmatist arguments have been reinterpreted and deployed to address contemporary concerns and approaches. This charts a terrain of live disa…
National identity, political trust and the public realm
The representative institutions of democratic government require the public sphere; but this in turn rests on the fellow‐feeling of citizens. In this article, I explore some recent ways of fleshing out Mill's thought that patriotic fellow‐feeling is instrumental for a form of trust that the public sphere requires. Deliberation, argument and negotiation in the public sphere require a willingness to discuss, alter one's position, compromise with ot…
Pragmatism's Boundaries
The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commit…
Putnam, Pragmatism, and Democratic Theory
In a powerful series of texts, Hilary Putnam has criticized what he takes to be a prevalent scientistic conception of objectivity in modern philosophy. This article is concerned with two connected facets of this critique, upon which Putnam himself has laid increasing emphasis: the attempt to reconstruct conceptions of ethical and political value in the wake of his criticism of “metaphysical realist” notions of objectivity, and his affiliation wit…
The Pragmatist Demos and the Boundary Problem
L’argument selon lequel l’ethos et les institutions démocratiques sont, en un certain sens, une forme d’enquête reste l’un des thèmes les plus puissants et pourtant insaisissables de la pensée sociale et politique pragmatiste. Conceptuellement, la démocratie est antérieure à l’État moderne. Or, le projet de justifier la démocratie est essentiellement un projet de justification à l’intérieur et pour l’État moderne. En s’appuyant sur le développeme…
A brief rejoinder to critics
Fallible Democracy
Pragmatism and liberalism
Putnam, Pragmatism, and Democratic Theory
In a powerful series of texts, Hilary Putnam has criticized what he takes to be a prevalent scientistic conception of objectivity in modern philosophy. This article is concerned with two connected facets of this critique, upon which Putnam himself has laid increasing emphasis: the attempt to reconstruct conceptions of ethical and political value in the wake of his criticism of “metaphysical realist” notions of objectivity, and his affiliation wit…
Inquiry as Critique
This article provides a critical reconstruction of John Dewey's theory of social and political inquiry. Clearing away some misconceptions about this theory allows us to grasp its practical and political focus, and to see its similarities to other strands of anti-positivist social thought, including hermeneutics and critical theory. I go on to examine the relationship between democratic values and the theory of inquiry. Like recent proponents of d…
Pragmatism's Boundaries
The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commit…
Fallible Democracy
Politics and Acquiescence in Rorty's Pragmatism
Deliberative Democracy and Two Models of Pragmatism
This article examines the relationship of pragmatism to the theory of deliberative democracy. It elaborates a dilemma in the latter theory, between its deliberative or epistemic and democratic or inclusive components, and distinguishes responses to this dilemma that are internal to the conception of deliberation employed from those that are external. The article goes on to identify two models of pragmatism and critically examines how well each on…
Truth and Trust in Democratic Epistemology
Symposium on Ethical Norms, Political Agency and the State
National identity, political trust and the public realm
The representative institutions of democratic government require the public sphere; but this in turn rests on the fellow‐feeling of citizens. In this article, I explore some recent ways of fleshing out Mill's thought that patriotic fellow‐feeling is instrumental for a form of trust that the public sphere requires. Deliberation, argument and negotiation in the public sphere require a willingness to discuss, alter one's position, compromise with ot…
A brief rejoinder to critics
Pragmatism, inquiry and political liberalism
Pragmatism, Realism and Moralism
Pragmatism is often seen as an unpolitical doctrine. This article argues that it shares important commitments with realist political theory, which stresses the distinctive character of the political and the difficulty of viewing political theory simply as applied ethics, and that many of its key arguments support realism. Having outlined the elective affinities between realism and pragmatism, the article goes on to consider this relationship by l…
Self-censorship for democrats
On the face of it, self-censorship is profoundly subversive of democracy, particularly in its talk-centric forms, and undermines the culture of openness and publicity on which it relies. This paper has two purposes. The first is to develop a conception of self-censorship that allows us to capture what is distinctive about the concept from a political perspective and which allows us to understand the democratic anxiety about self-censorship: if it…
Political Trust, Commitment and Responsiveness
Political trust has become a central focus of political analysis and public lament. Political theorists and philosophers typically think of interpersonal trust in politics as a fragile but valuable resource for a flourishing or stable democratic polity. This article examines what conception of trust is needed in order to play this role. It unpicks two candidate answers, a moral and a responsiveness conception, the latter of which has been central…
System and Legitimacy in the Wide View of Democracy
Roberto Frega’s Pragmatism and the Wide View of Democracy marks an ambitious attempt to construct a comprehensive and critical vision of democratic theory, a vision that draws together elements from pragmatism, from sociological theory, and from critical theory. Responding to the pervasive sense of crisis that surrounds democracy, Frega persuasively argues, requires broadening our understanding of the concept’s scope. Frega seeks to move beyond t…
The Pragmatist Demos and the Boundary Problem
L’argument selon lequel l’ethos et les institutions démocratiques sont, en un certain sens, une forme d’enquête reste l’un des thèmes les plus puissants et pourtant insaisissables de la pensée sociale et politique pragmatiste. Conceptuellement, la démocratie est antérieure à l’État moderne. Or, le projet de justifier la démocratie est essentiellement un projet de justification à l’intérieur et pour l’État moderne. En s’appuyant sur le développeme…
The pragmatist demos and the boundary problem
Liberal Freedom
Spotlight
This article surveys recent work in pragmatism and political theory. In doing so, it shows both how recent work on pragmatism has secured the view that at its core is a set of arguments about the character of democracy – although the character of those arguments is open to debate and reimagination – and how pragmatist arguments have been reinterpreted and deployed to address contemporary concerns and approaches. This charts a terrain of live disa…
The Evolution of Pragmatism in India
Political science (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Politics (18 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (14 works) · Pragmatism (13 works)