Political Epistemology Beyond Democratic Theory
Introduction to Symposium on Power Without Knowledge
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7276451 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Gunn (0009-0008-6204-3715, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1-3 |
| Pages | 1-31 |
| Publication date | 2020-07-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0891-3811 • E-ISSN: 1933-8007 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08913811.2020.1889125 |
| OpenAlex | W3160337114 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
Jeffrey Friedman’s Power Without Knowledge builds a critical epistemology of technocracy, rather than a democratic argument against it. For its democratic critics, technocracy is illegitimate because it amounts to the rule of cognitive elites, violating principles of mutual respect and collective self-determination. For its proponents, technocracy’s legitimacy depends on its ability to use reliable knowledge to solve social and economic problems. But Friedman demonstrates that to meet the proponents' “internal,” epistemic standard of legitimacy, technocrats would have to reckon with the heterogeneity of people’s ideas, which he presents as one of two aspects of a political anthropology of ideational beings. The other aspect is ideational determinism: the shaping of our conscious actions by our interpretations, and of our interpretations by “ideational exposures” (which are, to some extent, heterogeneous). For the most part, our symposiasts agree with this anthropology or leave it uncontested, but they fall back on democratic theory to point toward alternatives to technocracy. This raises the question, which Friedman does not ask, of whether his political anthropology undermines a certain brand of democratic theory: the liberal brand that attaches respect to people’s opinions as products of “free reflection,” i.e., as underdetermined
Argument (complex analysis · Democracy · Economics · Epistemology · Legitimacy · Microfoundations · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Technocracy · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Philosophy · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Media and Politics
Governing economy
An Epistemic Theory of Democracy
The Positivist dispute in German sociology
An economic theory of democracy
Against Democracy
Power without Knowledge
Political Communication in Media Society
Atlantic Crossings
Atlantic Crossings
Political Epistemology, Technocracy, and Political Anthropology
The myth of the rational voter
Rule Over None I
Rule Over None II
A Family Affair
The Spiral of Responsibility and the Pressure to Conflict
Populists as Technocrats
Exit, Voice and Technocracy
Architects and Engineers
Why Do Experts Disagree
What Follows from the Problem of Ignorance
Power, Knowledge, and Anarchism
The Irrelevance of Economic Theory to Understanding Economic Ignorance
The Idea of Public Reason Revisited
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |