{"id":18518,"date":"2017-05-17T15:11:58","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=18518"},"modified":"2017-05-17T15:11:58","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T19:11:58","slug":"mini-conference-on-facts-values-and-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=18518","title":{"rendered":"mini-conference on Facts, Values, and Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are about to begin discussions of the papers listed below, in draft form. They are destined for The Good Society<\/em> journal. The conversations are at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts<\/p>\n

For me, the underlying rationale goes like this. A good person\u00a0is always asking “What should I do?” That question must become plural–“What should we<\/em> do?”–for two reasons: we cannot accomplish enough alone, and we must reason together to improve our opinions. Both questions integrate facts and values. Something that works but isn’t good is not what we should do<\/em>. Likewise, we want to avoid something that is good but doesn’t fit the circumstances of the time and place.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0structure of intellectual life in modernity frustrates asking these questions, for several reasons. One major reason is that matters of value are assigned to certain disciplines in the humanities, while matters of\u00a0fact go to disciplines that widely imitate science and present themselves as value-free.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to call for a reintegration of facts and values (and strategy), but very hard to pull that off. Fortunately, we have traditions of thought–always contributed by many thinkers and practitioners rather than a single luminary–that do reintegrate facts, values, and strategies. Names that stand for these traditions include Gandhi, Pope Francis, Hannah Arendt, William James, Amartya Sen, Elinor Ostrom, and Jurgen Habermas. These names recur in interesting combinations in the following papers. So do certain themes: the limitations of human cognitive abilities and the positive potential of certain kinds of affect; the value of institutions for structuring deliberation; the link between work and reflection; and the value of deep, responsive uncertainty–wonder.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Entrepreneurship, Civic Competence, and Voluntary Association: Self-Governance Through the Ostroms\u2019 Political Economy Lenses\u201d \u2014 Paul Dragos Aligica, George Mason University<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving Birth in the Public Square: Dialogue as a Maieutic Practice\u201d \u2014 Lauren Swayne Barthold, Endicott College and Essential Partners<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam James\u2019s Psychology of Philosophizing: Selective Attention, Intellectual Diversity, and the Sentiments in Our Rationalities\u201d \u2014 Paul Croce, Stetson University<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy as Group Discussion and Collective Action:Facts, Values, and Strategies in Rural Landscapes\u201d \u2014 Timothy J. Shaffer, Kansas State University<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial Media, Dismantling Racism and Mystical Knowing: What White Catholics are Learning from #BlackLivesMatter\u201d \u2014 Mary E. Hess, University of Toronto<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitutions, Capabilities, Citizens\u201d \u2014 James Johnson, University of Rochester, and Susan Orr, SUNY College at Brockport<\/p>\n

\u201cForgiveness After Charleston: The Ethics of an Unlikely Act\u201d \u2014 Larry M. Jorgensen, Skidmore College<\/p>\n

\u201cFacts, Values, and Democracy Worth Wanting: Public Deliberation in the Era of Trump\u201d \u2014 David Eric Meens, University of Colorado Boulder<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Praxis of Amartya Sen and the Promotion of Democratic Capability\u201d \u2014 Anthony DeCesare, St. Louis University<\/p>\n

\u201cA Civic Account of Justice\u201d \u2014 Karol Edward Soltan, University of Maryland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are about to begin discussions of the papers listed below, in draft form. They are destined for The Good Society journal. The conversations are at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts For me, the underlying rationale goes like this. A good person\u00a0is always asking “What should I do?” That question must become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civic-theory","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18518"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18535,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18518\/revisions\/18535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}