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The epistemic circumstances of democracy
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Peter, Fabienne (2016) The epistemic circumstances of democracy. In: Brady, Michael, 1965- and Fricker, Miranda, (eds.) The Epistemic Life of Groups : Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives. Mind Association occasional series . Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp. 133-149. ISBN 9780198759645
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Official URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/920454187
Abstract
Does political decision-making require experts or can a democracy be trusted to make correct decisions? Critics of democracy tend to argue that democracy cannot be trusted in this way while advocates tend to argue that it can. Both camps agree that it is the epistemic quality of the outcomes of political decision-making processes that underpins the legitimacy of political institutions. In recent political philosophy, epistemic democrats have embraced this instrumentalist way of thinking about democracy. In this chapter, I argue that the attempt to defend democracy on epistemic instrumentalist grounds is self-undermining. I also develop an alternative–procedural–epistemic defence of democracy. Drawing on the epistemology of disagreement, I show that there is a primafacie epistemic case for democracy when there is no procedure-independent epistemic authority on the issue to be decided.
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||||
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Subjects: | J Political Science > JC Political theory | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Decision making, Democracy | ||||||
Series Name: | Mind Association occasional series | ||||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
Place of Publication: | Oxford, United Kingdom | ||||||
ISBN: | 9780198759645 | ||||||
Book Title: | The Epistemic Life of Groups : Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives | ||||||
Editor: | Brady, Michael, 1965- and Fricker, Miranda | ||||||
Official Date: | 3 March 2016 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Page Range: | pp. 133-149 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 26 April 2016 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 3 March 2018 | ||||||
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