Analiza i Egzystencja
Political Epistemology and Deep Disagreement
DOI: 10.18276/aie.2026.76-03
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| ISSN: | 1734-9923 |
| eISSN: | 2300-7621 |
| Authors: |
Manuel
Knoll
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) |
| Keywords: | practical knowledge moral facts moral knowledge ethical realism cognitivism relativism skepticism meta-ethics |
| Issue / book publication date: | 2026 |
| Page range: | 20 (47-66) |
| OAI-PMH: | Metadata |
 
 
 
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Abstract
Political epistemology asks whether there is knowledge about values, the good, the just, and the morally right that could be applied to political issues. Debates on such questions go back to the ancient Greeks. While Protagoras claims that no moral facts and no moral knowledge exist, Plato strives to overcome Protagoras’s skeptical claims. This article argues in the tradition of Protagoras that there is no ultimate moral knowledge to orientate political decisions ethically. The main argument against the existence of a mind-independent and objective moral reality about which moral knowledge could be acquired is based on the existence of myriad deep disagreements on values, justice, morality, and ethics, which are resistant to rational resolution. The arguments presented against ethical realism and cognitivism
in section II are mainly based on Max Weber’s and Isaiah Berlin’s views that deep disagreements on values, morality, and ethics exist. The arguments set out against
these positions in section III rest on deep philosophical disagreements on social and political justice, which are a characteristic feature of the history of political thought. Drawing on Aristotle’s and Machiavelli’s ideas about practical knowledge, the conclusion argues that this type of knowledge remains relevant for contemporary politics.
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