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  • MANCEPT Workshops
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MANCEPT / MANCEPT Workshops / List of Panels (A-Z) 2022 / Empathy, Democracy & Justice: Reassessing the Political Roles of Empathy

Empathy, Democracy & Justice: Reassessing the Political Roles of Empathy

Daniel Sharp and Katharina Anna Sodoma

University Place 5.212 (hybrid)

Empathy—understood broadly as the capacity to recreate another person’s perspective in imagination—has seemed to some political theorists to hold considerable political promise. In democratic theory, scholars have argued that democracy is epistemically valuable because it promotes empathetic understanding, that empathy is integral to well-functioning democratic deliberation, and that empathy can counter polarization. Philosophers have also argued that empathy is important in the construction of adequate principles of justice and that empathy with the oppressed can help us understand and address injustices. Yet, empathy’s political value is also subject to formidable critiques. Philosophers emphasize that there are a variety of ways in which our capacities for empathy are limited. We are vulnerable to in-group bias, and so can struggle to empathize with those different from ourselves. Empathy can be distorting, as we sometimes erroneously project our own views onto others. These worries have led some to argue that we should avoid relying on our capacities for empathy in democratic politics. Determining what role (if any) empathy ought to play in political life requires attending carefully to the nature and limits of our empathetic capacities. This workshop aims to bring together scholars working on empathy from different perspectives to explore the promise and perils of empathy in democratic politics.

 


Wednesday 7
th September

 

 

11:00-12:30

Registration

12:30-13:30

Lunch

13:30-14:00

Welcome Speech

14:00-16:00

Session 1

Katharina Anna Sodoma & Daniel Sharp (In Person): Democratic Empathy and Affective Polarization

Christiana Werner (In Person): Empathy with the Minority?

16:00-16:30

Tea and Coffee Break

16:30-17:30

Session 1 (continued)

Thomas Schramme (In Person): Empathy versus Deliberation in Democracy?

17:45-19:00

Wine Reception

19:30

Conference Dinner


Thursday 8
th September

 

 

9:30-11:30

Session 2

Diogo Rodrigues Carneiro (In Person): Evaluating Reasons and Claims of Justice: The Normative Importance of Empathic Perspective-Taking

Thijs Heijmeskamp (In Person): Jane Addams and Empathy as a Method for Democracy

11:30-12:00

Tea and Coffee Break

12:00-13:00

Session 2 (continued)

Hiroko Taguchi (Virtual): Extending Empathy’s Reach in Democratic Society

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-16:00

Session 3

Hannah Reed (Virtual): Empathy, Social Justice, and Political Understanding

Alexander Prescott-Couch (Virtual): Two Kinds of Political Understanding

16:00-16:30

Tea and Coffee Break

16:30-17:30

Session 3 (continued)

Deb Marber (Virtual): The Problem of Empathic Resistance

18:00

Informal Dinner for In-Person Participants


Friday 9
th September

 

 

9:30-11:30

Session 4

Zsolt Kristóf Kapelner (In Person): Denying Empathy to Political Adversaries

Anne Jeffrey (In Person): Loving Your Enemy in Devolving Democracy

11:30-12:00

Tea and Coffee Break

12:00-13:00

Session 4 (continued)

Yang-Yang Chen (In Person): Care to Deliberate and Deliberate to Care

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-16:00

Session 5

Mary F. Scudder (In Person): Empathy: What is it Good for?

Michael E. Morrell (Virtual): In Defense of Empathy

16:00-16:30

Tea and Coffee Break

16:30-17:30

Session 5 (continued)

Olivia Bailey (Virtual): Empathy and Extremism

17:30

End of Conference

 

Contact Us

+44 (0) 161 306 6000

mancept-workshops@manchester.ac.uk

 

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