Abstract
Political epistemology is rich with thought experiments. Their most systematic function in the field is the construction of ideal theory. We present a sketch of a kind of political thought experiments, in fact, our preferred version of contractualist ones, in Scanlonian tradition. Following the contemporary pattern, we use some retouch: slightly idealizing the participants, making them reasonable and well informed. (Our brief example is an imagined debate about the moral status of migration and migrants). We offer an epistemically oriented analysis of the way contractualist political thought experiments function within the human cognitive apparatus, from mental modeling and simulation through empathy and sympathy to intuition. The whole process we describe, if successful, leads to understanding. And this providing of understanding, factual and normative, is a very important, if not indeed the most important role of thought-experimenting in political epistemology.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
I have learned a lot from the discussion in Bled. Special thanks go to Sarah Wright and Simon Rippon.
For a short very informative general overview, see, for example, List and Valentini (2016).
For an overview, see Miščević (2018).
For more on the topic, see Miščević (2013)
See also Scanlon (2018).
Here is the characterization from Quong:
3.2 Fairness Contractualism. In fairness contractualism, the aim is to situate contractors in such a way that the choice of a rule or set of rules, R, to govern a situation gives us good reason to believe that R is fair, just, or morally correct. Jonathan Quong (2017)
I have been mostly inspired by the work of Kieran Oberman, in particular his 2016 paper, and by his insistence that introducing human rights does not make the proposal unmanageably absolutistic.
His German term is “Rollenübernahme” and “universelle Austauschbarkeit” between the participants.
Or we can see it as a judgment about what should be done. The simulation philosophers, above all Goldman, mostly talks about “judgment” (2006: 291 ff.)
For further complexities see Antti Kauppinen (2017).
At the Bled conference, Hilary Kornblith was praising the defense of the positive role of discussion by Sperber and Mercier (2017), and I asked him whether he would extend it to imagined discussions, and a debate ensued. No participant was sure about the answer.
The whole issue of Hypatia, 2009, vol. 24, no. 4 on standpoint theory, where Rolin’s paper is published, gives the extensive information about it a reader might need.
See, for instance, Sarah Fine (2018) on the 2015 refugee crisis. What a ‘decent human life’ or ‘being able to control one’s environment’ means should take account of first-person testimonies of refugees. The stereotypes should be cleaned away by the idealization of full information.
Michel Foucault (1997) Il faut défendre la société. Paris: Seuil, Gallimard, in particular Cours du 7 janvier 1976, see in English (1997). pp. 8–9.
References
Aaron J. (2012). Fairness in practice: A social contract for a global economy. Oxford University Press.
Cohen, J. (2015). The original position and Scanlon’s contractualism, in Hinton, T., ed, The Original position, Cambridge University Press, 179–200.
Currie, G. (2002). The simulation programme, in Currie, G. and Ravenscroft, I. (eds.), Recreative Minds: Imagination in Philosophy and Psychology, Oxford University Press.
Davies, M. & Stone, T. (eds.), (1995a). Mental simulation: evaluations and applications - reading in mind and language. Wiley-Blackwell.
Elgin, C. (2017). True enough , The MIT Press.
Epley, N. and Caruso, E.M. (2009). Perspective taking: misstepping into others’ shoes. In Markman, K.D., Klein, W.M.P. and Suhr, J.(eds.), A. Handbook of imagination and mental simulation.
Foucault, M. (1997). Society must be defended. New York: Picador.
Gilabert, P.(2012). From global poverty to global equality a philosophical exploration. Oxford University Press.
Goldman, A., (2006). Simulating minds. Oxford University Press.
Gordon, R. M. (1986). Folk psychology as simulation. Mind and Language, 1(2), 158–171 reprinted in Davies and Stone 1995a, pp. 60–73.
Grimm, S.R., (2017) Understanding and transparency in Grimm, S.R. Baumberger, C. and Ammon, S. (eds.) Explaining Understanding, Routledge.
Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14, 575–599.
Kauppinen, A., (2017). Empathy and moral judgment. In Maibom, H., ed. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, 215-226.
Klampfer, F. (2018). Moral thought-experiments, intuitions, and heuristics. Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 18(52), 133–160.
List, C. and Valentini, L. (2016). The methodology of political theory in Cappelen, H. Szabó Gendler, T. and Hawthorne, J. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology, Oxford University Press. 525-553.
Mills, C.W. W. (1997). The racial contract. Cornell University Press.
Mills, C.W. (2013) The domination contract, Meritum – Belo Horizonte – v. 8 – n. 2 – p. 71-114 – jul./dez.
Miščević, N. (2013) Political thought experiments from Plato to Rawls. In Frappier, M., Meynell L, and Brown, J.R (eds.) Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts, Routledge.
Miščević, N. (2018), Political thought experiments. In in Stuart, M.T.,, Fehige, Y, and Brown, J.R. (eds.), Routledge companion to thought experiments. Routledge 153-169.
Miščević, N. (2019). Constructing a happy city-state, Croatian Journal of Philosophy.
Nenad Miščević
Pateman, C., (1988). The sexual contract. Stanford University Press.
Peacocke, C. (ed.), (1995).Objectivity, simulation and the unity of consciousness: current issues in the philosophy of mind (Proceedings of the British Academy vol. 83).
Pratt, D and Woodlock, R.(eds.), (2016). Fear of Muslims? International Perspectives on Islamophobia, Springer.
Quong, J., (2017). Contractualism. In A. Blau (Ed.), Methods in Analytical Political Theory. Cambridge University Press, pp 65-90.
Rolin, C. (2009a). Standpoint theory as a methodology for the study of power relations. Hypatia, 24(4), 218–226.
Scanlon, T. M. (1973). Rawls’ theory of justice. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 121, 1020–1069.
Scanlon, T. M., (2018). Why does inequality matter? Oxford University Press.
Sirriyeh, A. (2018), The politics of compassion: immigration and asylum policy. Bristol University Press.
Southwood N. (2010), Contractualism and the foundations of morality, OUP.
Spaulding, S.,(2017). Cognitive empathy. In Heidi L. Maibom (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, Routledge. 13-21.
Spaulding, S. (2018). How we understand others philosophy and social cognition. Routledge.
Sperber, D. and Mercier, H. (2017). The enigma of reason. Harvard University Press.
Stuart , M.T. (2018). How thought experiments increase understanding. In Stuart, M.T, Fehige, Y, and Brown, J. R. (eds.), Routledge companion to thought experiments. Routledge 526–543.
Timmerman, P. (2014). Moral contract theory and social cognition an empirical perspective. Springer.
Timmerman, P. (2015). Contractualism and the significance of perspective-taking. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 18, 909–925.
Ure, M. and Frost, M, (2014), Politics of compassion. Routledge.
Vaca, M. (2017). El dilema contractualista. Ideas y Valores, 66(165), 191–216.
Valentini, L. (2012a) Ideal vs. non-ideal theory: a conceptual map. Philosophy Compass, 7 (9). pp. 654–664.
Jonathan
Atwood, M. (2011). In other worlds. SF and the human imagination. Virago
Davies, M. & Stone, T. (eds.), (1995b). Mental simulation: evaluations and applications - reading in mind and language, Wiley-Blackwell.
Maud M.L. Eriksen and Mickey Gjerris (2017) On ustopias and finding courage in a hopeless situation 227–246, in Christian Baron and Peter Nicolai Halvorsen Christine Cornea (Eds.) Science Fiction, Ethics and the Human Condition, Springer.
Amy Kind (ed.), (2016), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination, Routledge.
Heidi L. Maibom (ed.) (2017) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, Routledge. 180–189
Rolin, K. (2009b). Standpoint theory as a methodology for the study of power relations. Hypatia, 24(4) (Fall, 2009), 218–226.
Valentini, L. (2012b). Ideal vs. non-ideal theory: a conceptual map. Philosophy Compass, 7(9), 654–664.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miščević, N. Political Epistemology: Debating the Burning Issue(s). Acta Anal 35, 333–350 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-020-00443-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-020-00443-z