Papers by Karim Sadek
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2023
In this paper we draw on the munāẓara tradition to intervene in the debate on whether argument ... more In this paper we draw on the munāẓara tradition to intervene in the debate on whether argument assessment should be agent-or act-based. We introduce and deploy the notion of sequencingthe ordering of the antagonist's critical movesto make explicit an ambiguity between the agent and the act of arguing. We show that sequencing is a component of argumentation that inextricably involves the procedure as well as the agent and, therefore, its assessment cannot be adequately undertaken if either agent-or act-based norms are ignored or demoted. We present our intervention through a challenge that virtue argumentation needs to address for it to be considered an alternative to existing theories of argument assessment (Section 2). We then briefly introduce munāẓara and focus on its notion of sequencing to explicate the interdependence between the agent and the procedure (Section 3). Next, we address the challenge by offering an account of the virtuous arguer as a virtuous sequencer (Section 4). In conclusion, we reflect on the implications of sequencing on virtue argumentation and the norms of argumentation.
Informal Logic, 2023
The aim of this paper is to highlight an interdependence between procedural and agential norms th... more The aim of this paper is to highlight an interdependence between procedural and agential norms that undermines their neat separation when appraising argumentation. Drawing on the munāẓara tradition, we carve a space for sequencing in argumentation scholarship. Focusing on the antagonist's sequencing of critical moves, we identify each sequence's corresponding values of argumentation: coalescence, reliability, and efficacy. These values arise through the mediation of virtues and simultaneously underpin procedural as well as agential norms. Consequently, an ambiguity between procedure and agent becomes apparent. This ambiguity hints at the potential for a virtue theory of argumentation that draws on procedural norms. Résumé: L'objectif de cet article est de mettre en évidence une interdépendance entre les normes procédurales et agentielles qui mine leur séparation nette lors de l'évaluation de l'argumentation. En nous appuyant sur la tradition munāẓara, nous créons un espace pour le séquençage dans les publications sur l'argumentation. En nous concentrant sur l'enchaînement des mouvements critiques de l'antagoniste, nous identifions la valeur d'argumentation correspondante de chaque séquence : coalescence, fiabilité et efficacité. Ces valeurs naissent par la médiation des vertus et sous-tendent simultanément les normes procédurales et agentielles. Par conséquent, une ambiguïté entre la procédure et l'agent devient apparente. Cette ambiguïté suggère le développement d'une théorie de la vertu de l'argumentation qui s'appuie sur les normes procédurales
The Derivative / المشتق, 2021
The post-uprising Arab world is facing a problematic socio-political situation. For some, infusin... more The post-uprising Arab world is facing a problematic socio-political situation. For some, infusing the political realm with Islamic principles and reasoning the practice of Islamic politics is key for their emancipation. For others, such an infusion entails authoritarianism. But, social and political transformation should be driven by local experience, history and aspiration. If so, then to do justice to this social reality, both the emancipatory and the authoritarian potentials of Islamic politics must be accounted for. The challenge of social and political philosophy is to develop a framework that accommodates both, the call for emancipation and the fear from authoritarianism to unleash the emancipatory potentials of Islamic politics while curbing its authoritarian potentials. The guiding question of this investigation is: How to place Islam in the post-uprising Arab world given that it is perceived as the source of both emancipation and authoritarianism? I tackle this question th...
This position paper of Working Group 2 of the European Network for Argumentation and Public Polic... more This position paper of Working Group 2 of the European Network for Argumentation and Public Policy Analysis (COST Action CA17132; https://publicpolicyargument.eu) reviews goals and functions of public argumentation. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, the paper introduces basic distinctions and charts out options. It is meant to guide reflection on the conceptual basis for the Action’s subsequent research regarding the analysis, evaluation, and design of public argumentation.
Res Philosophica, 2021
This paper presents an approach to how to make reasonable social choices when independent criteri... more This paper presents an approach to how to make reasonable social choices when independent criteria (e.g. prioritarianism, religious freedom) fail to fully determine what to do. The paper outlines different explanations of why independent criteria sometimes fail to fully determine what to do and illustrates how they can still be used to eliminate ineligible alternatives, but it is argued that the independent criteria cannot ground a reasonable social choice in these situations. To complement independent criteria when they fail to fully determine what to do, it is suggested that society must engage in public deliberation by way of generating new reasons that can determine how to rank the alternatives. It is suggested that the approach to social choice presented in the paper reveals a way of accepting the relevance of independent criteria for social choice without letting go of the idea that the attitudes of affected parties matter.
What is Pluralism? The Question of Pluralism in Politics Volker Kaul and Ingrid Salvatore (eds.), 2020
Whereas pluralism tends towards diversity and inclusion, solidarity tends towards homogeneity and... more Whereas pluralism tends towards diversity and inclusion, solidarity tends towards homogeneity and exclusion. And while pluralism and solidarity can be in tension, they are both requirements for a successful modern democratic polity. With group identities and differences increasingly characterizing the pluralism of modern societies, what is the adequate democratic response to this situation? Granting the centrality of public reasoning for the realization of the democratic ideals of freedom and equality and presuming that the proper inclusion of individuals and groups in public reasoning recognizes them as free and equal political actors and not merely as bearers of rights, in this chapter, I reflect on how to achieve inclusive public reasoning with a view to drawing implications for democratic citizenship. I defend the requirement of non-authoritarian reasoning in public debates and argue for the centrality of a non-fundamentalist attitude for the purposes of democratic civic competence. My discussion revolves around elements of the critical theoretic work of Maeve Cooke and of the political thought of the Tunisian Islamic thinker Rached al-Ghannouchi.
ECA 2019 proceedings
Which kind of disagreement should we promote? I tackle this question via a reflection on the stan... more Which kind of disagreement should we promote? I tackle this question via a reflection on the standard for determining which arguments and reasons are allowed into public debates. Drawing on the works of Maeve Cooke and Michael Gilbert I propose non-authoritarian argumentation as a model for the analysis and evaluation of public argumentation in democracies. I argue for, and explicate, the promotion of disagreement that square a dual-commitment to pluralism and solidarity.
International Journal of Political Theory, 2020
Can democracy be at once radical and Islamic? In this paper I argue that it can. My argument is b... more Can democracy be at once radical and Islamic? In this paper I argue that it can. My argument is based on a comparison and contrast of certain aspects in the social-political thought of two contemporary authors: Axel Honneth who defends a particular conception of radical democracy, and Rached al-Ghannouchi who defends a particular conception of the Islamic state. I begin with Honneth's early articulation of his model of radical democracy as reflexive cooperation, which he presents as an alternative that reconciles Arendtian republicanism and Habermasian proceduralism while avoiding their weaknesses. I also refer to his more mature conception of democracy by way of highlighting his understanding of democracy as a process of constituting civil society. This is significant for the purposes of this paper since it forms the most important link between Honneth's radical democracy and Ghannouchi's Islamic model of political rule. I then introduce Ghannouchi's theoretical account of the Islamic state with a focus on his conception of shura (consultation) in order to bring to the fore both the similarities and dissimilarities with Honneth's theory of democracy. By this point I will have identified Islamic resources for a conception of democracy that, like Honneth's democracy as reflexive cooperation, shares with proceduralism an instrumental view of democratic procedures, and with republicanism a strong connection between the pre-political social level and politics. Next, I ask whether this conception of radical Islamic democracy can square its dual commitment to pluralism and Islamic unity. Again, I draw on Ghannouchi's thought to respond to the challenge, doing so in a way that brings out the agonistic dimension in radical Islamic democracy. I conclude by making explicit how radical Islamic democracy carves out a conceptual space in which proceduralist, republican and agonistic features are combined.
“Maqasid Al Shari’a and Contemporary Muslim Reformist Thought: An Examination,” Adis Duderija (ed.), Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
This paper critically assesses Rāchid al-Ghannūshī’s employment of maṣlaḥa in his socio-political... more This paper critically assesses Rāchid al-Ghannūshī’s employment of maṣlaḥa in his socio-political reformist project. After reconstructing Ghannūshī’s project and the role maṣlaḥa plays in his conception of the Islamic state as a political model for Islamic societies in the modern period, I argue that Ghannūshī’s understanding of how to preserve the Islamic character of the state ultimately undermines the gains he achieves through maṣlaḥa; namely that the Islamic state treats all its citizens as free and equal agents. I conclude with a maṣlaḥa-inspired solution for Ghannūshī’s political model.
The Arab uprisings have, in some countries, ousted authoritarian rulers and everywhere expressed ... more The Arab uprisings have, in some countries, ousted authoritarian rulers and everywhere expressed democratic aspirations of an Arab public sphere. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to break a long cycle of authoritarianism and oppression, and the chance for Arab populations to realise their right to political self-determination.
Workshops by Karim Sadek
فكر وفن. عدد 101 (2014). ص 50ـ51
تقرير عن المدرسة الصيفية في جامعة برلين الحرة وعن مشروع الدراسات العربية برؤى متعددة
لشتيفان مي... more تقرير عن المدرسة الصيفية في جامعة برلين الحرة وعن مشروع الدراسات العربية برؤى متعددة
لشتيفان ميليش وكريم صادق
Book Reviews by Karim Sadek
Constellations, 2022
In Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion, Mohammed Bamyeh adopts a sociological appro... more In Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion, Mohammed Bamyeh adopts a sociological approach to explore the features that made Islam survive as a relevant perspective among others in a modern world. Accordingly, Islam, like any other religion or ideology, acquires its meaning from "the use to which it is put" (p. 205). Consequently, the social life of Islam depends on how useful it is for the lives of its adherents; its ability to persuade rather than oppress to maintain itself; and whether alternative ideologies become more practically effective. Lifeworlds of Islam argues that Islam survived not because it has an essential meaning or because it determined "anyone's behavior in specific ways" but "precisely because it lacked" such features (p. 4). Bamyeh borrows the term "lifeworlds" from phenomenology to refer to "spheres of practice" that sustain the life of a religion without oppression. The book traces, historically as well as in the present, how Islam was increasingly drawn upon as secular authorities failed to deliver on social solidarity, participatory ethics, political legitimation, social justice, and general civic ethics. Its main conclusion is that Islam serves as a "reserve discourse"-a reservoir of tools, ideas, and strategies that can be recruited when needed. The book's three core chapters explicate this conception of Islam by respectively examining how Islam functioned in social movements, public philosophy, and the global order. Chapter 1 elaborates on five characteristics of modern movements that rely on Islam as a language for social mobilization. These movements start out as mutual aid services (pp. 34-42); offer ways for social organization outside the state (pp. 42-54); politicize excluded sections of society (pp. 54-63); employ Islam for state as well as nonstate oriented participation (pp. 63-69); and their stated position fail to predict the way they transform once they gain political power (pp. 69-82). Best exemplified in the Muslim Brotherhood, such movements, Bamyeh argues, should be construed as ongoing "broad experiments of social engagement" corresponding "to broad participatory demands" unable to find expression in formal and institutional settings (pp. 82-83). Chapter 2 traces how the retreat of traditional Islam as "a taken-for-granted, self-evident compass of everyday intellectual reflections" (p. 87) gave way first, to "instrumental Islam" and then to "hermeneutic Islam" as different modes of thinking that justify modern religiosity; that define the modern place and role of Islam in the public realm. Instrumentalism is concerned with "how to apply" the text and thus requires one to begin "from religion so as to bring life into alignment with it," whereas hermeneutics is concerned with "how to know" the text and thus requires one to begin "from life so as to bring religion into alignment with it" (p. 115). This difference in modes of thinking translates into opposing ways in which religiosity relates, first, to a sense of superiority and, second, to a particular collective identity (nationalism) (pp. 109-125). Chapter 3 addresses the main sociological features of Islam as a discourse for organizing a global society. Three principles (political, social, cultural) made the Muslim world appear "as a predictable world system, and acceptable as legitimate to most of its inhabitants" (p. 138): "partial control" (pp. 139-173), "free movement" (pp. 174-179), and "cultural heteroglossia" (pp. 179-191). According to Bamyeh, with the aid of these principles, "any global system could function with maximal systematicity and minimal interruption" (p. 138), and he helpfully indicates how current globalization patterns suggest a return to these principles. Lifeworlds of Islam is insightful for understanding Islamic mobilization, knowledge production, and political manifestation. It engages with key figures of classical and contemporary Islam (e.g., al-Shafi'i, al-Ash'ari, al-Ghazali, Taha, Nursi,
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2020
Uploads
Papers by Karim Sadek
Workshops by Karim Sadek
لشتيفان ميليش وكريم صادق
Book Reviews by Karim Sadek
لشتيفان ميليش وكريم صادق