Abstract
Critical theory is one of the liveliest intellectual traditions within the left. In particular, it provides a forum for the exploration of theoretical perspectives that combine socio-economic egalitarianism, a commitment to democracy and an embrace of cosmopolitan justice. Furthermore, it encourages a fruitful collaboration between philosophers and social scientists, and a consequential dialogue between intellectuals and activists. The annual Philosophy and Social Sciences Conference, or simply the ‘Prague conference’ as we call it, is one of the most important meeting points for scholars committed to these explorations. It is critical theorists’ most lively playground, in which, once a year, they share ideas, quarrel and develop long-lasting collaborations and friendships.
I have participated in 4 meetings of the Prague conference. The first two occasions took place when I was a graduate student, in 2000 and in 2002. I was writing my dissertation on the relation between substance and procedure in discourse ethics and deliberative democracy at the New School for Social Research (where Richard Bernstein and Agnes Heller were my advisors) and at the University of Frankfurt (where I worked with Rainer Forst as a DAAD fellow). My interest in critical theory dated from my undergraduate years at the University of Buenos Aires, as I puzzled over how to combine robust democratic practices and institutions with a serious commitment to economic justice. The Prague conference was a welcoming place where I could meet other graduate students and interact with outstanding senior scholars working on related topics. I was impressed by the combination of serious scholarly debate, the intense spirit of intellectual freedom and exchange, and the joyful socializing that flourished in the rooms of Villa Lana and extended to the streets and bars of the beautiful and inspiring Prague. I also benefited from the generous support given to young scholars that was (and is) typical of the conference. Although in 2002 I presented my paper at one of the last sessions of the last day of the conference, I found a room full of people who listened carefully and gave me valuable feedback. The paper later appeared in Philosophy & Social Criticism, a journal that is deeply intertwined with the intellectual life of the Prague conference.
I participated in the conference again in 2005 and in 2016. The hiatus resulted from my sense that some of the topics that I started to explore at the time (which concerned the justification and feasible implementation of principles of economic justice, both domestic and global) were not receiving enough attention by the critical theory community. In that period, I devoted myself to deepening my training in analytic political philosophy (which I pursued in part through visiting fellowships at the Australian National University, Oxford and Princeton). Even though I continued teaching and reading the work of critical theorists, with some exceptions, the papers and the book I wrote during those years did not focus on conversations taking place in the critical theory community. But in 2016 I was very happy to return to the Prague conference. Besides reconnecting with old friends, and making new ones, I had the pleasure to find that the intellectual community had become even broader by including many more scholars hailing from outside Europe and the United States, and to see that its thematic scope had become more comprehensive by including much more work on distributive justice and political economy. The Prague conference remains vibrant because of its capacity to gather diverse perspectives on how to critically understand and progressively change our societies. It is indeed an intellectual laboratory for the democratic and cosmopolitan left. All indications are that it will continue to be so.