Die Epistemisierung des Politischen

Whether it's the vaccination debate, the Corona crisis or the climate crisis - many political disputes today are negotiated as conflicts of knowledge. People are less and less concerned with normative aspects and individual options for action; instead, they fight over the superior findings: Whoever agrees most precisely with the results of science, so the implicit assumption goes, thus also possesses solutions that are then without alternative.

Alexander Bogner examines this fixation on questions of knowledge and its consequences. In the process, it becomes clear that this "epistemicization of the political" is more dangerous for our democracy than the easily transparent game of fake news and Twitter lies. The boom in conspiracy ideologies and alternative facts, about which everything seems to have been said, appears in a completely new light under these auspices.

Author: Alexander Bogner

Publisher: Reclam

 

CONTENTS

  1. Introduction: Triumph of Knowledge 
    The celebration of epistemic virtues 
    Revolts against the power of knowledge 
    The Problem 
  2. Climate, Corona & Co: Struggle for better knowledge 
    The Corona Crisis 
    The Climate Controversy 
    The vaccination controversy 
    The crime debate 
  3. Liberal democracy: the dictatorship of the stupid? 
    Post- and pseudo-democracy 
    How much ignorance can democracy take? 
    Saving politics from its own incompetence 
    Truth as a necessary fiction 
  4. Dare more democracy? 
    Epistemic Populism 
    Giving things a voice 
    The limits of epistemic democracy 
  5. The Misery of Criticism: Experts and Intellectuals 81
    The Enemy Image of the Expert 82
    Post-truth: a triumph of democracy? 
    The Birth of the Intellectual from the Crisis of the Experts 
    Intellectuals, the Victims of the Knowledge Society 
  6. The Revolt of the Ignorant 
    The unholy alliance of consensus deniers 
    The Riddling of the World by Science 
    The great unraveling offensive 
    Saving politics from science 
  7. A concluding critique of epistemocracy 
    Notes
    About the author

 

This publication is only available in German

Publisher

Reclam

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