Pragmatism & Democracy, special issue of Etica & Politica, 2, 2010.
Guest editors: Roberto Frega, Fabrizio Trifirò

Since the early Eighties the pragmatist philosophical tradition has been enjoying renewed interest throughout the field of humanities. Our focus in this issue of Ethics & Politics is on pragmatism as a tradition within contemporary political philosophy capable of offering original and proficuous insights into the theory and practice of democracy.

From its inception in the works of its founding fathers up until contemporary reappraisals and reelaborations of traditional pragmatist themes and approaches, the pragmatist tradition has defied every attempt at defining its specific identity. Throughout its historical development it has given voice to a great variety of conflicting positions and perspectives on central issues of democratic theory and practice ranging from the epistemic to the ethical nature of democratic decision-making procedures, from ‘thin’-procedural to ‘thick’-substantial views of the normative scope and content of democracy, and from liberal to communitarian conceptions of democratic life and society. Moreover, while some pragmatists are primarily engaged in the theoretical and foundational project of defining and justifying democratic principles and institutions, others see pragmatism primary contribution to politics as the critical and educational effort of shaping and transforming actual democratic practice and culture.

Devoting an issue to “Pragmatism & Democracy”, the philosophical journal Ethics & Politics would like to offer an overview of contemporary reflections on democracy that can be regarded as falling within the pragmatist tradition with the double intent of both exploring the richness and variety of this tradition whilst at the same time raising the question of its specificity and identity.

To this aim, we invite contributions addressing one or more of the following themes:

1. The contemporary relevance of classical American pragmatism for democratic theory and practice
2. Contemporary pragmatist contributions to the theorization of democracy and political philosophy more generally
3. Pragmatist positions within and beyond the above mentioned dualisms: thick v. thin, procedural v. substantial, liberal v. communitarian, epistemic v. ethical, justificatory v. transformational approaches to democratic politics
4. The place and role pragmatism accords to philosophy within politics and society
5. Pragmatism and citizenship education

Contributions should be written either in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German and should not exceed 10,000 words.
Abstracts of 400 words should be sent by email to the guest editors by April 30th 2009. Acceptance of papers will be communicated by June 31st 2009. Accepted papers should be submitted in full by April 30th 2010.
For information and abstract submissions please contact:
Roberto Frega: roberto.frega@unibo.it
Fabrizio Trifirò: ftrifiro@hotmail.com