Epistemische und ethische Zugänge zu aktuellen Erscheinungsweisen von Kontroversität in politischen und kulturellen Öffentlichkeiten

This article discusses three anthologies with a background in the anglo-saxon philosophy that address the epistemic and normative problems of contemporary debate cultures in liberal public spheres. In contrast to the discourses in recent political theory and philosophy in German contexts, the contributions in these volumes focus less on background concepts of democracy and social theory and more on concrete questions of the social and cultural handling of dissent and conflict in liberal and democratic societies. The article systematizes the descriptive and normative considerations presented in the anthologies by different authors along the key concepts of 'disagreement', 'compromise', 'dissent' and 'harmful speech' that shape the discourse. Finally, the conceptual results of the reviews are related back to contemporary questions of democratic theory around the relevance of deliberative and agonal models of negotiating controversy in plural publics.

Christian F. Rostbøll/Theresa Scavenius, Compromise and Disagreement in Contemporary Political Theory. London/New York: Routledge, 2018. 204 S. – Casey Rebecca Johnson, Voicing Dissent. The Ethics and Epistemology of Making Disagreement Public. London/New York: Routledge, 2018. 202 S. – Ishani Maitra/Mary Kate McGowan, Speech&Harm. Controversies Over Free Speech. Oxford: University Press, 2012. 255 S.