RELEVANT REALISM was hosted by the Department of Arts at the University of Bologna and during a secondment period at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Arts and Ideas at the University of Oslo.
The project engaged in a detailed assessment of a debate in philosophy of language between Rorty, Brandom, and Ramberg which centered around the use of certain objective notions. The research solved a puzzle that pervaded research on the topic so far by spelling out for the first time differences between the various notions championed by Brandom, Ramberg, and Rorty. The project systematically built on Ramberg’s and Rorty’s notions to develop the concept “relevant realism” by including insight on power mechanisms from poststructuralism.
Further, the research developed concrete proposals for how to deal with the post-truth-plight. Therefore, the project differentiated its own take with other pertinent approaches, e.g. Michael Hampe’s call for a Third Enlightenment.
The results of the action have been disseminated in academic circles through the organization of workshops, presentations at conferences and seminars, and select publications. Primary exploitation of the action covered the field of political activism and journalism through the organization of a public roundtable which connected the topic and results of the project with the concrete agendas of political activists and media-decision-makers, especially in light of the new challenges posed by Covid-19 and the potential changes the virus has added to how we perceive and deal with reality (
https://magazine.unibo.it/calendario/2021/07/04/dove-finito-il-discorso-sulle-fake-news?d=2021-07-04(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). Further dissemination of the results to different target audiences was provided by the teaching of a panel on linguistic agency during the Summerschool of the Academy of Global Humanities and Critical Theory in Bologna (
https://aghct.org/huetter(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) and by writing for the Pop-philosophy journal Hohe Luft (5/2020) in Germany.
Main scientific events organized by the project:
Workshop: Truth versus the Rhetoric of Truth: Authority, Realism, and Power (June 27-29, 2019,
https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences/2019/truth-versus-the-rhetoric-of-truth-authority-reali.html(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie))
Workshop: Conceptual Engineering and Pragmatism (July 8-9, 2021,
https://conceptualengineeringpragmatism.yolasite.com/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie))
Main publications (open-access):
2020a: Two Forms of Realism – Making Sense of Rorty’s Controversy with Brandom and Ramberg over Objectivity. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XII-1, 2020, DOI: 10.4000/ejpap.1868
This article covers the analytic aspects of the project.
2020b: Rationalität und Solidarität – intensive Existenzen in möglichen Sehnsuchtsräumen. In: European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XII-2, 2020, DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.2167(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie).
This article addresses first concrete political implications.
