Science and Democracy in the Works of Hans Kelsen

APSE-CEU-IVC Talks
The Philosophy Department of the Central European University, the Institute Vienna Circle and the Unit for Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology (of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna) are jointly organizing a series of talks this term

Date: 25/11/2021

Time: 15h00

Online Plattform: The meeting will be online via Zoom | Talks in Philosophy of Science and Epistemology PSE

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Abstract:

In February 1937, Hans Kelsen published his article "Wissenschaft und Demokratie [Science and Democracy]" in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung". His professional and personal life was at a crossroads at that time. In Cologne, he had been removed from his chair in 1933 for racist reasons; in Prague his inaugural lecture in 1936 resulted in student unrest, which was reported in newspapers from all over Europe. In contrast, the Universities of Utrecht and Harvard each awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1936. Obviously under the impression of all these events, Kelsen began to wonder whether the American system of higher education might be better suited to guarantee the freedom of science than the European one. And he argued his views on democracy theory, according to which democracy based on men whose basic experience is the "tat wam asi": The democratically minded person recognizes his own self in the other and respects the political opinion of everybody else, since alle are equal.