El próximo lunes 7 de septiembre a las 11:30 tendrá lugar en la Sala de Juntas de Filosofía la charla «Depolarizing and Dependent Arising: Motivating a Constructivist Intervention for Affective Polarization» impartida por Jason Tosta (University of Connecticut). También podrá accederse online mediante el enlace: https://meet.google.com/trg-hznt-kir. Más abajo se adjunta el resumen de la charla
Abstract: Can understanding political constructivism alleviate affective polarization? Political constructivism, the view that political phenomena are causally, constitutively, and discursively constructed, may provide a powerful antidote to affective polarization by radically altering the way partisan perceive political reality. By first providing a more complex understanding of polarization and partisanship, I discuss some researched approaches to intervening in affective polarization. These interventions prioritize strategies that address partisan’s emotional or cognitive tendences, which treat the symptoms of polarization and often have only short-term impacts following employment. The intervention I motivate in this talk draws upon insights from contemporary social theory and Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy, which when combined, argue that realizing the constructed and dependent nature of phenomena alleviates our hostilities and attachments. Changing our political perception, how we see our political world, may more reliably change our political affect. I consider some challenges, limitations, and possible strategies for a constructivist intervention.