• News
  • The Institute
  • Fellows
  • Projects
  • Science & Society
  • Event facilities
  • Archive

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

Am Wingertsberg 4
61348 Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe
Tel.: 06172/139770
E-Mail: info@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de
How to find us
Legal notice
  • Home
  •  Print 

The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events

Thursday, 25 November 2021, 11:00
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften of Goethe University
Fellow colloquium

Thomas Fossen (Leiden University)
»Facing Authority: Legitimacy, Judgment, and the Practical Point of View«

Abstract
When your friends call on you to take to the streets and demand the fall of the regime, this brings into sharp focus a question that we all address, often implicitly, in our everyday lives: how to respond practically to the forms of power with which we find ourselves confronted? Facing Authority investigates the ways in which this question of legitimacy can be addressed in theory and practice. The book develops a novel philosophical approach to political legitimacy, interweaving systematic conceptual analysis with examples of real-life struggles for legitimacy, from the German Autumn to the Arab Spring. Instead of asking »what makes authorities legitimate?« in the abstract, it investigates how the question of legitimacy manifests itself in practice, from a first-person perspective. The book argues that judging legitimacy is not a matter of applying moral knowledge, provided by political philosophy, but of engaging in various forms of political contestation—contestation over the representation of power (what is the nature of the regime?), collective selfhood (who am I, and who are we?), and common history (what happened here—a coup, or a revolution?). Only by treating the political activities of portraying power, articulating identity, and narrating events as integral to judging legitimacy, rather than prior to it, can we do justice to the circumstances of disagreement and uncertainty in which the question of legitimacy arises, and the concrete dilemmas and risks to which it exposes us.

The speaker
Thomas Fossen is University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Political Philosophy at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He received his PhD from Utrecht University in 2011, worked as a postdoc and lecturer at the universities of Utrecht and Leiden, and held visiting positions at the University of Chicago, KU Leuven and the University of Essex. In 2020–2021 he was a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Participation and registration
For participation, online or on site, please register in advance (contact: Beate Sutterlüty; email: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de). To contain the spread of COVID-19 infections we follow the »2 G rule«: You will need to provide a proof of vaccination or recovery.



Back to calendar of events
In order to provide you with the best online experience this website uses cookies. Delete cookies

In order to provide you with the best online experience this website uses cookies.

By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more

I agree

Information cookies

Cookies are short reports that are sent and stored on the hard drive of the user's computer through your browser when it connects to a web. Cookies can be used to collect and store user data while connected to provide you the requested services and sometimes tend not to keep. Cookies can be themselves or others.

There are several types of cookies:

  • Technical cookies that facilitate user navigation and use of the various options or services offered by the web as identify the session, allow access to certain areas, facilitate orders, purchases, filling out forms, registration, security, facilitating functionalities (videos, social networks, etc..).
  • Customization cookies that allow users to access services according to their preferences (language, browser, configuration, etc..).
  • Analytical cookies which allow anonymous analysis of the behavior of web users and allow to measure user activity and develop navigation profiles in order to improve the websites.

So when you access our website, in compliance with Article 22 of Law 34/2002 of the Information Society Services, in the analytical cookies treatment, we have requested your consent to their use. All of this is to improve our services. We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous statistical information such as the number of visitors to our site. Cookies added by Google Analytics are governed by the privacy policies of Google Analytics. If you want you can disable cookies from Google Analytics.

However, please note that you can enable or disable cookies by following the instructions of your browser.

  • English (UK)
  • Deutsch
All news | All events
Impressionen

Opening of the John McCloy Transatlantic Forum: Rush McCloy, Alexander Hetjes, Laura McCloy, Enrico Schleiff, John McCloy III, Bernd von Maltzan, John McCloy II, Gunther Hellmann, Charles Kupchan, Johannes Völz, Felix Hufeld, Iris Koban, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann (Photo: Stefanie Wetzel)
more...
Events | FKH

1 February 2023
Panel discussion
»Forschung und Gesellschaft. Einblicke in die Arbeitsprojekte der Wissenschaftler*innen am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität«
more...
News

FKH video
Lecture (in German) | »Zwischen postdigital und Tradition. Klassische chinesische Kunst im Metaversum« | Lei XUE
more...
Media response
»Familienforscherin: Existenzminimum für Kinder neu berechnen« (Interview mit Goethe-Fellow Sabine Andresen im Deutschlandfunk, 21.12.22, in German)
more...
Media response
»Conference in Israel marks official start to new Frankfurt-Tel Aviv Center« (Webmagazine of Goethe University, 20.12.22)
more...
Goethe Fellows
Interview with Darrel Moellendorf on climate justice and the climate movement
more...
Inauguration of the John McCloy Transatlantic Forum
Review: Photos, video, news articles
more...
Media response
»Vertiefender Diskurs über transatlantische Beziehungen« (UniReport der Goethe-Universität, 8.12.22, in German)
more...