W. E. B. Du Bois’s Socialism

On the Social Epistemology of Democratic Reason

Bibliographic Data

ID21507231
AuthorsElvira Basevich (0000-0002-6324-9482, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume48
Issue2
Pages23-49
Publication date2020-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophical Topics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-2080 • E-ISSN: 2154-154X
PublisherPhilosophy Documentation Center (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5840/philtopics202048214
OpenAlexW4248034663
LanguageEN
Citations received2

W. E. B. Du Bois’s socialism has provoked debate for decades. His democratic theory and critique of political economy champions democratic socialism. In this article, I offer a philosophical reconstruction of the normative foundation of his democratic socialism in three steps. First, I argue that his philosophy of the modern democratic state supports the people’s advance of the principle of free and equal citizenship or civic equality. Next, I present his critique of the modern American welfare state, which asserts the fair value of political liberty and democratic control over productive activities. Finally, I introduce the method of the excluded groups from Darkwater as an ideal procedure for guiding democratic deliberation in a profoundly nonideal public sphere. The method foregrounds the voices of excluded groups to correct asymmetrical relations of practical power and to infuse democratic reason with practical intelligence, namely, new content and values that can lead to the development of a democratic socialist state

Citizenship · Communism · Deliberation · Democracy · Law and economics · Normative · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Socialism · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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