Helene Landemore, “Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many” (Princeton UP, 2012)
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What is the anti‑democratic argument about the “unwise mob” and how does it challenge democratic authority?
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Welcome to the New Books and Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host the channel with Carrie Figter. Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. Today, my guest is Professor Elaine Landemore. We will be talking about her new book Democratic Reason. Politics, collective intelligence, and the rule of the many. Which has just been published with Princeton University Press. Elaine is assistant professor of political science at Yale University. We're all probably familiar with the thought that That democracy is merely the rule of the unwise mob. In the hands of Plato and a long line of philosophers following him, this thought has been developed into a formidable anti democratic argument.
Only truth or wisdom confers political authority. And since democracy is the rule of the unwise mob It has no authority whatsoever. Now this rough line of argument has proven so formidable that That in fact, many democratic theorists have tried to evade it. By explicitly denying that politics has anything at all to do with wisdom. But there's another strand of democratic theory that takes the argument by the horns and tries to show that democracy is indeed epistemically sound. Yeah. Some of these views try to show that democracy warts and all is wiser than the alternatives. But others have gone further. To try to show the more ambitious claim. That democracy has a positive epistemic value. In Democratic Reason, Elaine Landimore pursues this more ambitious path.
She argues that empirical data pertaining to the epistemic significance of cognitive diversity show that democracy is uniquely placed to supply distinctive epistemic social goods. Along the way, she explores a range of current findings regarding the wisdom of crowds and And also engages core issues at the heart of normative political theory. This is an exciting and comprehensive contribution to democratic theory. So we turn to the interview. Hello, Elaine Landemore. Hello, Bob. How are you doing today? I'm great. And you? Oh, I'm doing fine. Thank you so much for joining us on New Books in Philosophy.
Thank you for having me.
Sure. Well, everyone, today on New Books in Philosophy. My guest is Elaine Landermore, and we'll be talking about her new book Democratic Reason. which is just published with Princeton University Press. Now I highly recommend this book because it provides uh what I regard as a very careful and compelling defense of the idea. That democracy can be justified on epistemic grounds. Um Landamore that is adopts uh um А круче дrives many familiar Anti democratic views. And she effectively turned the tables on them.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the anti‑democratic argument about the “unwise mob” and how does it challenge democratic authority?
0:00–5:24
2
How does Helene Landemore argue that democracy has a positive epistemic value?
5:24–11:34
3
What is the role of cognitive diversity in democratic reasoning?
11:34–20:08
4
How do the “talkers” and “counters” differ in producing epistemic benefits for democracy?
20:08–28:36
5
Why does Landemore link deliberation and majority rule as complementary epistemic tools?
28:36–35:57
6
How does political cognitivism address factual versus value‑based disagreements?
35:57–43:32
7
What are the implications of a procedure‑independent standard of correctness for democratic practice?
43:32–50:33
8
What future research directions does Landemore propose for expanding democratic practice?
50:33–53:52
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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