Day: December 17, 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Wittgenstein and Democratic Politics Lotar Rasiński and Leszek Koczanowicz

Part 1: Grounding the Political

2. The Heart of the Heart: Wittgenstein’s Place in Political Theory Thomas Wallgren

3. Using Wittgenstein’s Method to Explain and Understand Democratic Politics Michael Temelini

4. Wittgenstein as a Political Philosopher Richard Raatzsch

5. Wittgenstein’s Lecture on Politics Hans Sluga

Part 2: Conceptual Entanglements

6. Grounding Democracy in Radical Practices of Care: From Sameness to Entanglement Naomi Scheman

7. What Is a “Democratic” Form of Life? Anat Biletzki

8. Community and Temporality: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Political Judgment Désirée Weber

9. Wittgenstein’s “Family Resemblances” and their Political Potential Dimitris Gakis

Part 3: Seeing Connections

10. Wittgenstein, Arendt, and the Problem of Democratic Persuasion Linda M. G. Zerilli

11. Wittgenstein and the Politics of Vision Adam Chmielewski

12. The Proletariat and the Left: Critical Perspectives – Thinking of Political Understanding and Persuasion with Eribon, Arendt and Wittgenstein Anat Matar

13. Language-Based Critique of Deliberation as a “Picture” in the “Album Theory” of Democracy Wojciech Ufel

Conclusion

14. Philosophy and / or Politics: Learning from Engagement with Wittgenstein Thomas Wallgren and Anat Biletzki

From the publisher:

“Aristotle claimed that “all human beings want to know.” Our own experience proves that all human beings also want not to know. Today, centuries after the Enlightenment, mesmerized crowds still follow preposterous prophets, irrational rumors trigger fanatical acts, and magical thinking crowds out common sense and expertise. Why is this? Where does this will to ignorance come from, and how does it continue to shape our lives?

In Ignorance and Bliss, the acclaimed essayist and historian of ideas Mark Lilla offers an absorbing psychological diagnosis of the human will not to know. With erudition and brio, Lilla ranges from the Book of Genesis and Plato’s dialogues to Sufi parables and Sigmund Freud, revealing the paradoxes of hiding truth from ourselves. He also exposes the fantasies this impulse lead us to entertain—the illusion that the ecstasies of prophets, mystics, and holy fools offer access to esoteric truths; the illusion of children’s lamb-like innocence; and the nostalgic illusion of recapturing the glories of vanished and allegedly purer civilizations. The result is a highly original meditation that invites readers to consider their own deep-seated impulses and taboos.”