Professeur en Comparative Cultural Studies et en études russes.

Spécialiste de l’histoire des relations entre l’Islande et l’Union soviétique et philosophe politique, Jón Ólafsson, a mené après une expérience professionnelle de correspondant en Russie pour la télévision et la radio islandaise, des études de philosophie politique à l’Université de Columbia à New York où il a soutenu sa thèse de doctorat sur John Dewey en 1999. Il a été professeur de philosophie à l’Université de Bifröst en Islande de 2005 à 2014. Il a rejoint le département de science politique de l’Université d’Islande, à Reykjavik, en 2015.

 

 

 

Conférences

 

The Icelandic Constitutional Experiment: Success or failure?

 

Résumé: The Icelandic Constitutional Council was convened in Reykjavík in spring and summer of 2011. After four months of intensive work the Council submitted a draft constitution to Parliament. The constitutional bill however was never even voted on. The lecture is an attempted analysis of the complicated situation that may ensue when extra-institutional methods are used to accomplish legislative tasks.

Date: 20 avril 2017

Horaires: 11h-13h

Lieu: EHESS, 105 Bd Raspail, Paris, Salle 2

 

 

Political epistemology: Balancing effectiveness and empowerment

 

Résumé: Unelected individuals may directly influence public policy- and decision-making in two ways. First, the public may be consulted by government and local authorities. Second, certain areas of policy-making or even legislation may be given to the public as a whole. I will argue that while the first approach is more likely to be effective, the second approach is empowering in a way that the first approach is not.

Date: 25 avril 2017

Horaires: 11h -13h

Lieu : EHESS, 96 Bd Raspail, 75006 Paris, Salle des artistes

 

 

Dewey’s democracy as a way of life – Is it a democratic „theory“?

 

Résumé: Many commentators have criticized Dewey’s idealistic notion of democracy as a way of life as a democratic theory that demands adherence to a more comprehensive moral view than a pluralistic conception of liberal democracy allows. I argue in the paper that one should not think of democracy as a way of life as pointing to a moral commitment, but rather as an exclusively epistemic commitment.

Date: 26 arvil 2017

Horaires: 11h -13h

Lieu : EHESS, 96 Bd Raspail, 75006 Paris, Salle des artistes

 

 

Ignorance and democratic competence

 

Résumé: Many thinkers lament the lack of public knowledge and understanding of science, expressing doubts about the wisdom of allowing public opinion to direct policy- or decision-making. Philip Kitcher argues that “free discussion” is just as likely to produce less, rather than more, informed public views. The paper takes Kitcher to task for his analysis of public knowledge and his claims that “irremediable” ignorance poses a great difficulty for properly addressing pressing social and environmental challenges.

Date: Octobre 2017 (jour à préciser)

Horaires: à préciser

Lieu: Centre Norbert Elias, 2 rue de la Charité, 13002 Marseille, Salle à préciser