Duties of Civility?
International Conference on John Rawls's Theory of Deliberative Democracy and its Relevance in the Digital Age at the University of Regensburg
16. April 2024
Liberal democracies today seem polarized, radicalized, and, at the same time, petrified. The decrease in civility and the increase in hate speech, astroturfing, and silencing processes in the digital age give strong reasons to rethink the foundations and presuppositions of liberal, deliberative democracies to understand better and to meet contemporary challenges. Professor Dr Eva Helene Odzuck, who holds the Chair of Political Philosophy, Theory and History of Ideas at the University of Regensburg, together with Dr Sarah Rebecca Strömel and Professor Dr Daniel Eggers, Chair of the History of Philosophy, reintroduced John Rawls' theory of democracy at a high-profile international conference held at the University of Regensburg (UR) in mid-March.
The conference centered on the political philosophy and democratic theory of John Rawls, who claims that citizens of liberal democracies have a so-called "duty of civility" and should try to enable and foster civic friendship. Established and next-generation Rawls scholars and scholars working on deliberative theories of democracy and digitization from the US and Europe met in Regensburg in order to reconstruct the core elements of Rawls's theory of deliberative democracy and assess the contemporary relevance of these concepts in the digital age.
The detailed conference report in German can be found here.
Participants of the International Conference on John Rawls's Theory of Deliberative Democracy and its Relevance in the Digital Age at the University of Regensburg. Photo: Wagensohn/UR
