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Jón Ólafsson
Jón Ólafsson is professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland. His research interests combine cultural theory and political philosophy and his most recent papers deal with political culture, including dissent and protest action
Phone: +354 525 4423
Address: University of Iceland
Nyi Gardur, Sæmundargötu
101 Reykjavík
Phone: +354 525 4423
Address: University of Iceland
Nyi Gardur, Sæmundargötu
101 Reykjavík
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The name Vera Hertzsch is known to many Icelanders and intricately associated with Halldor Laxness and his reckoning with Soviet Communism. In the thirties Laxness was an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin and wrote two books based on his experiences of traveling in the Soviet Union.
At the height of Stalin's purge in 1937-1938, Laxness spent most of the winter in the Moscow, where he attended the last of the Moscow trials. Vera Hertzsch, who had immigrated to the Soviet Union from Germany a decade earlier, was among his acquaintances there. One night in March Vera Hertzsch was arrested by Stalin's security police, the NKVD, along with her one-year-old, half-Icelandic daughter, Erla Solveig. Laxness, who had been invited to dinner that night, witnessed the arrest.
A quarter of a century passed before he would tell the story in a memoir he published in 1963 and the fate of the mother and child remained an unsolved mystery. Vera and her little daughter shared their fate with millions of Soviet citizens: a horrendous life in prison camps, sickness and disease, slavery and hunger. They never made it back and their relatives and friends received no information about them for decades.
This powerful and strange story has now been pieced together from beginning to end. Jon Olafsson has researched Vera Hertzsch's life in the camps by chasing down facts and sources in central and local archives, visiting former camp sites and studying published and unpublished recollections of women who were held in the same camps at the same time as Vera, but unlike her, lived to tell their tale.
The book is therefore not only the story of Vera Hertzsch. It is also an exploration of life in the Gulag during and after the Great Purge, especially of the little researched special camps for women which existed between 1937 and 1939.
Jon Olafsson worked for the Icelandic Broadcasting Company, RUV, in Moscow when access was granted to Soviet archives after the collapse of the USSR. He has been a regular guest there ever since. He is author of Dear Comrades. Icelandic Socialists and the Soviet Union (1999) and has also written numerous articles on Icelandic relations with Comintern and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Olafsson received a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in 2000, and has since then worked for the University of Iceland, the Reykjavik Academy, and Bifröst University, where he is currently professor of philosophy and provost. He lives in Reykjavik.""
In the first part of the dissertation I discuss recent debates on Dewey’s philosophy centred around Richard Rorty’s interpretation of his work. I argue that because of a failure to emphasise Dewey’s methodological approach, some Dewey-scholars who claim to be true to Dewey’s word and spirit present implausible objections to the work of philosophers who, like Rorty, interpret Dewey liberally and so as to serve their own purposes for the most part. Although I do not think that Rorty presents a very useful interpretation of Dewey, I do think that the attempt to incorporate Dewey’s work into a forceful and spirited philosophical argument is more useful and interesting than a learned discussion about what Dewey’s views were exactly at any given point in time.
The second chapter of my study is devoted to an exploration of some central parts of Charles Peirce’s philosophy, especially the role and place of the belief/doubt model in Peirce’s thought. I argue that together with Peirce’s methodological realism, the so-called pragmatic principle and the kind of reasoning often referred to as abduction, the belief/doubt model outlines a framework for inquiry that defines the basic tenets of pragmatism. This framework fits just as well to Dewey’s philosophy as to Peirce’s even though Peirce employs different vocabulary than Dewey.
The chapters that follow deal with the third theme in the dissertation, which is also its main theme, Dewey’s theory of inquiry. I discuss some central parts of this theory and of Dewey’s conception of inquiry with reference to Peirce. I argue that Dewey’s presentation of reasoning at the early defining stages of inquiry makes it plausible to understand it as abductive reasoning. Such reasoning is concerned with selecting possible hypotheses and is, one could say, the crucial stage in inquiry from the viewpoint of Dewey’s theory.
Thus for Dewey the legitimacy of any particular inquiry is determined by a principle of selection of hypotheses rather than by restrictions on legitimate results, such as that conclusions are valid only if the conditions of their revision can be specified in advance.
Dewey’s idea of natural science as a model for inquiry is derived from the view that scientific success in modern times secures natural science a special status. This, according to Dewey, is something the philosophical community has failed to appreciate. He thinks that the methods and practices natural science express a conception of knowledge which philosophy has yet to catch up with.
Dewey’s examination of some concepts and procedures of natural science leads him to criticise many common philosophical assumptions, such as the idea that science must be based on a strict distinction between objective facts and subjective factors. Knowledge for Dewey should be characterised in terms of a certain relationship between an agent and his environment rather than in terms of true statements of objective facts.
The most important aspect of Dewey’s theory of inquiry is in my view its treatment of inquiry as a way of acting and of the inquiring agent as a creature able to enter into intellectual relationships with his environment. This model can be extremely helpful in creating a basis for problem solving and conflict resolution, in practical matters such as political decision making and in moral and public reasoning. This major achievement of Dewey’s philosophical enterprise should in my view be appreciated and taken seriously while one should forgive Dewey for not adding much useful to the history and philosophy of science."
In recent years we have seen many new and radical approaches to making democratic processes more deliberative and more participatory. The idea of democratic decision-making as mere aggregation of fixed opinions is outdated – deliberation is an invitation to change and review one's opinions, rather than simply measuring relative strength.
One way to increase democratic participation is through national and local referenda on political issues. Referenda are, however, neither the only way, nor necessarily the best way, to involve the public in policy- and decision-making.
In my talk I discuss some pros and cons of national referenda and some alternative ways of public consultation."
The Icelandic Constituent Council (CC) submitted a proposal for a new constitution of the Republic of Iceland to the Icelandic Parliament (Althing) in 2011. Since then the Parliament has been struggling to determine what to do with the proposed bill. According to the current constitution, any amendments must be approved by two different parliaments, making it necessary to pass the constitutional bill before and after a general election. A popular demand for a referendum on the proposal, however, has made it unlikely that the parliament will vote on the proposal without first submitting it to a national referendum. Opinions about what to do are widely divergent ranging from a full dismissal on one side of the political spectrum to full support. Some politicians and CC members have expressed the opinion that no changes to the proposal should be considered or that any changes made must have the approval of CC members. The talk will explore whether the politics of constitution making have brought the whole project to a standstill and whether anything can be learned from the process.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union maintained a strong presence in Iceland, due to Iceland’s military importance and the American base in Keflavík. Despite a couple of incidents that revealed Soviet espionage in Iceland, no real Icelandic spies were ever caught. This final essay is a reflection on Cold War spy mania, and raises the question of whether there were any Icelandic spies.
Kant’s moral philosophy offers a way to deal with moral issues that makes decision-making depend on very general, but universally applicable rules. Kant himself tended to interpret his own philosophy quite narrowly. For example, he made truth-telling an absolute duty, always to be preferred to lying, no matter what the circumstances. Kant’s narrow interpretation opens up a curious insight into the Kantian mind, especially when one looks at his less philosophical works. Kant made a clear distinction between lying and bluffing, and while he was strict about lying, bluffing could often be justified. Unlike direct lies, bluffing requires an act of thinking by the individual being deceived and that act of thinking suffices to make that person responsible for having adopted a false belief. Thus Kant turns out to be at the same time too strict about ethical behavior and too lenient, which raises interesting questions about Kantian ethics as a whole.
Fraud in science started to fuel emotional debates in Iceland in 2003 when the first volume of a projected three-volume biography of Halldór Laxness was published by a Reykjavík publishing house. The author, a university professor and well-known political commentator, was accused of plagiarizing parts of the book from Laxness’s own writings. He defended himself fiercely and got some support from the general public. Eventually, however, he was ordered by the Icelandic Supreme Court to pay damages to Laxness’s widow, though he did not lose his academic position. In this chapter I put this particular case in the context of scientific and scholarly fraud and discuss the various ways in which fake science appears.
Philosophical pragmatism has gone through various episodes of enthusiastic reception, rejection and everything in between. For the last couple of decades pragmatism has become progressively more important in both analytic and continental philosophy. The works of John Dewey have, as a result, been rejuvenated. In this essay I discuss recent Icelandic translations of two of Dewey’s most important works, How we think (1933) and Experience and education (1938), and I use the opportunity to give a more general assessment of Dewey’s philosophy and its core concepts and reflect on its relevance for contemporary moral, political and educational philosophy.
Halldór Laxness, the Icelandic novelist who won the Nobel prize in 1955, was an ardent Socialist in the thirties and forties and traveled to the Soviet Union many times. During the thirties he wrote two books about the Soviet Union. In them he defended the Stalinist regime and argued that Soviet Communism embodied the future of human society. In the early sixties Laxness recanted in a book of memoirs entitled Skáldatími (Poets’ time, 1963). The memoir shows Laxness attempting to go back to his earlier writings. He reassesses them, and to some extent rewrites them, through complimentary experiences and perceptions that sometimes also contradict his earlier reflections. The essay focuses on Laxness’s self-reflection and the way in which he revisits his earlier self. It argues that Skáldatími has many characteristics of a confession, although this is a thoroughly concealed purpose of the work.
In the late twenties Sigmund Freud discussed civilization, culture and politics in two short works where he explained social issues and trends in the context of his psychoanalytic theory. The result is a remarkable reflection on Western civilization in the years between the wars. I argue that while Freud should not be taken too seriously as a social theorist, his thinking in Future of an illusion (1927) and Civilization and its discontents (1930) displays a certain pragmatism, which sheds an unexpected light on his psychological theories. I argue that one should see Freud’s understanding of science as a pragmatic approach and in many ways parallel to John Dewey’s philosophy of science."
Utopian discussion has for decades been excluded from real politics and in liberal theory utopia and dystopia are logically equivalent: What some find utopian is dystopian to others, and thus utopia ultimately becomes dystopia. There is a second reason for not taking utopia seriously as a political concept. Utopia always seems to require a jump from actual circumstances into the projected utopian world but with at least a part of the causal chain missing. The utopian is committed to simply believing that certain conditions, defined by the utopian, will produce utopia. The interesting thing about utopia, however, is its resurrection in science, where the missing link between cause and effect seems not to be seen as a problem. Many proponents of modern science firmly believe that scientific progress will lead, for example, to advances in medicine that will radically alter the ways patients are treated, effectively making it possible to anticipate most serious illnesses and thus prevent rather than cure them. I argue that there are no grounds for believing in utopia through science any more than through politics.
A way of life reflects attitudes, views, habits, desires and needs which on the whole create the framework of the normal for every individual person. I argue in this chapter that circumstances of long-standing conflict will generate ways of life that prevent the conflict from being resolved, rather than facilitating conflict resolution. An important part of solving such a conflict must therefore consist of loosening up ways of life that have become fixed, through facilitating self-critical reflection. I argue that the concept of irony, in a sense similar to Richard Rorty’s, is useful in thinking about conflict and possibly even in solving conflict.
Political discussion is regulated by a number of constraints, some of which are implicit and some explicit. Radicalism in politics is characterized by an attempt to test these constraints and push beyond them. Thus radical groups may demand that issues not accepted as part of the political realm be admitted into political debates, and in this way issues become “politicized.” Differences between liberals or radicals on the one hand and conservatives on the other often revolve around legitimate political projects. I argue that a radical approach to politics must emphasize the need for allowing moral and religious values in, rather than excluding them from the political realm.
The Western world is a Christian world in a deep and important sense. Even if the countries belonging to the West (politically if not geographically) are more or less secular, and religions other than Christianity predominant in some (such as Japan), the pervasive influence of the Christian world view in the development of Western civilization makes it impossible to ignore the Christian layer present in Western culture. What is more, the Christian world has been in conflict with the Muslim world for more than a millennium, and at the same time, the Muslim world has in many ways played an important role in the development of the West. I argue in this chapter that multiculturalism, which by some is seen as a threat to Western lifestyles, is the best way to accommodate the fact that the West is both more and less culturally diverse than opponents of multiculturalism claim. I offer this argument to support cautious conservatism towards the Church and Christianity in general, including the role of the clergy within the school system.
Philosophers associated with pragmatism have sometimes been described as not particularly radical. Classical pragmatism was even charged with being “acquiescent” in the sense of tending to conform with the dominant way of thinking at a given time. However, a closer scrutiny of the works of some of the leading pragmatists, such as John Dewey, shows that pragmatists are fundamentally opposed to ideologies and “fixed” ways of thinking and therefore tend towards a radical rather than an acquiescent stance. In this chapter I try to show that pragmatism is radical in the sense that it accepts and calls for radical approaches in all politics.
The rationality of democratic institutions is one fundamental belief of the liberal mind. Democracy can only generate rational engagement within a rational institutional system. In order for democratic politics to guarantee rational decision-making, however, one could argue that there must be limits on political discussion, whereby certain beliefs and values are made exempt from political discussion and deliberation and thus pushed into the private realm. In this essay I argue that this presents a problem for radicalism, since it tends to introduce a wider range of issues into political discussion than “conventional” politics does.
Opposition to public plans and decisions often seems to require justification, and in some cases such justification is stated in moral terms. In this chapter I refer to this kind of opposition as “resistance on moral grounds,” and I discuss to what extent resistance can be justified and whether it always needs justification. In exploring the public discussion on environmental issues that was fueled by fierce resistance to the construction of a hydropower station in eastern Iceland, I show how resistance and protest have led to a fundamental divide in Icelandic politics through moral polarization. Fundamental distrust towards public projects turns political participation into moral resistance.