Lezing & gesprek | Left is Not Woke
met Susan Neiman en Maarten Doorman
| Activiteit van Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam |
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| Datum: | maandag 1 mei 2023 om 20:00 uur |
| Locatie: | LUX, Mariënburg 38-39, Nijmegen |
| Informatie: | Voertaal: Engels |
| Toegang: | Standaard deelname €7,50. Zie beschrijving voor overige prijzen en kortingen |
© Radboud UniversityAls je woke bent, moet je links zijn. Als je links bent, moet je woke zijn. Maar de begrippen vervagen als we aannemen dat als je het ene bent, je ook het andere moet zijn. En dat zou een gevaarlijke fout zijn, volgens filosoof Susan Neiman. Kom luisteren hoe zij uitlegt dat wokisme gebaseerd is op bewonderenswaardige emoties, maar op de verkeerde theorieën.
People who call themselves woke, feel deeply involved with the fate of oppressed minorities. They care about social justice and are eager to bring about positive changes. And that is a great thing, says Susan Neiman, but unfortunately their actions are often based on the wrong theories. Because of this, they abandon ideas that are crucial to the left: universalism, a belief in the possibility of progress and a firm separation between power and justice. The consequence is a new form of tribalism: the idea that you are only able to truly bond with people who are a part of your own ethnic or gender identity.
The destruction of solidarity
The Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 was the biggest social movement America had ever seen. Never before, so many people took to the streets to protest against racism, and never before were protestors so diverse, carrying out the same universal values. It was a very hopeful moment. According to Susan Neiman, the trouble started when some of the movement’s leaders claimed that white people could only be allies to black people. In making this separation, says Neiman, solidarity within the left is being destroyed. And in the long run, these ideas will undermine the activists’ own goals, and wokism will, unintentionally, drift towards the right and run the risk of becoming what it despises.
After her lecture, Susan Neiman will discuss the matter in further detail with philosopher Maarten Doorman.
About the speakers
Susan Neiman is an American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist. She has written extensively on the juncture between Enlightenment and moral philosophy, metaphysics and politics. Her magnum opus Evil in Modern Thought (2002) was followed by several other books and in 2014 she received the Spinozalens price for thinkers on ethics and society. Her latest book Left Is Not Woke (2022) was recently translated into Dutch by Publisher Ten Have.
Maarten Doorman teaches philosophy at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Maastricht, and is Endowed Professor in Historical Culture of Germany at the Faculty of Humanities at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on behalf of Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam.
Participation costs € 7,50 | RU employees, Alumni Benefits Card-holders pay € 5,- | Students and pupils and Radboud Reflects-subscribers have free admittance.
This is a program of Radboud Reflects, Radboud Diversity Equity and Inclusion Office and DIA.