Dear all,

the Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy warmly invites you to join a talk to be held by Quassim Cassam from the University of Warwick in two weeks. The title of the talk is “How To Be A Political Epistemologist”. 

When? Wednesday, 21.05.2025, 01:00 - 2:30 pm
Where? Lecture room 3A, NIG Universitätsstaße 7, 1010 Wien

Abstract
One of the fastest growing areas of philosophy today is political epistemology. In my lecture, I will discuss the extent to which its leading figures operate in an epistemic bubble or echo chamber. I will draw on Kusch's conception of a sociology of philosophical knowledge to investigate the background assumptions, concerns, ideologies, and master narratives of mainstream political epistemologists. I will propose a class-based analysis of political epistemology and explore the suggestion that this field's major preoccupations are essentially the preoccupations of what Musa Al-Gharbi calls 'symbolic capitalists'. I will conclude with a plea for a more diverse and self-critical approach to political epistemology.

Quassim Cassam has kindly recommended the following texts as preparatory reading:

• Kusch, M. (1995). Psychologism: The Sociology of Philosophical Knowledge. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203983898 [read chapter 2]
• al-Gharbi, M. (2024). We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Princeton University Press. [read introduction and chapter 1]

The WFAP will discuss them as part of its discussion session at 06:30 pm on Friday, May 16th in lecture hall 2i, NIG. You can find the recommended reading attached to this e-mail. Anyone is welcome to join!

Kind regards,
Veronika Lassl
Acting-Chair - Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy
wfap.philo.at