The Philosophy of Propaganda – A Workshop with Jason Stanley

'Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.'
– Joseph Conrad

Philosophers like to think of themselves as the opposite of propagandists: we 'argue', propagandists 'manipulate'. But propagandists practice what philosophers theorise; in propaganda, many of the philosopher's interests overlap: political theory, epistemology, philosophy of language, aesthetics, and social ontology. Jason Stanley's recent work on propaganda stresses its philosophical significance, as well as presenting us with a model for how 'theoretical' philosophy can be brought to bear on urgent and contested political questions. We invite the submission of abstracts of up to 250 words on philosophical treatments of propaganda that engage with Stanley's work. We are particularly interested in the relationship of propaganda and political theory (What is the relationship between propaganda, democracy, and ideology? Can propaganda be properly understood using the standard methodology of political theorists?), propaganda and the philosophy of language (What does propaganda mean for the semantics/pragmatics distinction? What is the relation between propaganda and hate speech?) and propaganda and epistemology (Can propaganda be a source of knowledge? If knowledge is socially situated, how might propaganda alter one's social situation?)