Essays on Political Possibility: Genealogy, Ideology, and Ideals

I aim to investigate "political possibility" - broadly, the idea that our current political arrangements can be challenged, dismantled, and replaced fruitfully. I believe that failing to imagine alternative political possibilities is partly an epistemic issue. Inspired by work in political epistemology and formal social epistemology, I hope to produce three connected essays that each consider one obstacle to political possibility:

1. Genealogy - The way contingencies may affect our current political beliefs (e.g. demographics);
2. Ideology - How best to map like-minded peers that may help us achieve political goals;
3. Ideals - Examining what sorts of knowledge claims are involved with the political ideals that guide us (e.g. freedom, justice, peace).

I will use formal tools, models, and analytical reasoning to clarify and explore these issues.

In more detail, here is a longer description of each of the three essays:

Genealogy as Path Dependence:
The contingent origins of our beliefs or representations may be thought to undermine their standing (Srinivasan 2019). Moreover, this contingency may cast doubt on a belief in some modest progress over time as we seem to be beholden to luck. If our political ideas are influenced by contingency, how can we improve them over time? To investigate this, I begin by formalising the problems raised by genealogy using the idea of path dependence from the social sciences.

Ideology as Subjective Coherence:
Ideology (understood pejoratively) or ideological false consciousness can hinder political possibility by preventing groups from acting in their own true interests. As a solution, Goodin and Spiekermann (2015) have advocated for "epistemic solidarity" - information pooling with like-minded peers. Spiekermann (2020) has since investigated the process of finding likeminded
peers by modelling group formation as dynamic network change. However, the content of and relations between beliefs can also be important clues to identifying peers. How can we better map these? By drawing on scaling models in political science and coherentism in epistemology, I hope to offer an account.

Indefinitely Extensible Ideals:
In the search for new political possibilities, there may be ideals that guide us. Some worry that these ideals may be tainted with ideology and play a role in masking injustice (Phillips 1992; Mills 2005). Others believe ideals are indispensable for critiquing the world and provide us with an external standard to strive for. To determine whether these ideals can be relied upon, what is their epistemic status? This essay relies on connecting the problem with an argument about infinite regresses that has been discussed in several places (Dummett 1993; Cohen 2003; Ypi 2012; Walden 2019).