Political epistemology is a (relatively) new name for an old philosophical interest: it seeks to understand epistemic phenomena and their concepts – including truth, knowledge and justification – in their social and political contexts. According to this broad understanding, ‘political epistemology’ faces the challenge of intertwining epistemology with social and political theory. The necessity of this task arises from the insight that knowledge, truth and justification are intrinsically linked to politics and society. Neither side can be explained without the other. To put it succinctly: epistemology without political philosophy is idealistic, political philosophy without epistemology is dogmatic.
In the lecture, I will introduce the current field of research in political epistemology by looking at its history and some of its basic concepts before I discuss current political phenomena from the perspective of political epistemology. For the rapid rise of this field of research can itself be explained, at least partly, by political and social factors, not least the debate about untruths in politics (post-truth, ideology, propaganda) or the increasing contempt for scientific findings (climate change denial, vaccine scepticism, strategic ignorance of social science research results).
Preparatory Reading
So far, there is no introduction to political epistemology that covers the whole research field. Neither are there any in-depth overviews in journal articles. A comprehensive list of helpful research literature will be provided in the first session; to get a general sense of the research field, the following texts might be useful:
Alcoff, Linda Martín (2024): Horkheimer, Habermas, Foucault as Political Epistemologists. In: Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 98.1, 67–92.
Hannon, Michael und Elise Woodard (2025): Political Epistemology. An Introduction. London/New York: Routledge.
Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg (2007): Historische Epistemologie zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius.
Vogelmann, Frieder (2022): Die Wirksamkeit des Wissens. Eine politische Epistemologie. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Assessments
3 ECTS: An essay of 3,000 words, due 30 August 2026. Please discuss the topic with me before you start to write!