Events

Public defense of the doctoral dissertation “Liberal Realism: Politics of Difference beyond Universalist-Contextualist Debate” by the doctoral student of the doctoral programme Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Ilia State University, Ivane Lomidze, will be held on January 14, at 13:00, under the Cotutelle Agreement between University of Münster (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster) and Ilia State University.

The joint project gives the doctoral student an opportunity to defend a dissertation based on the cotutelle principle and obtain a double doctoral degree and diplomas from both universities.

The dissertation examines the problem of difference in democratic theory, critiquing liberalism’s universalism and realism’s inability to normatively adjudicate differences. Building on moral particularism’s meta-ethical insights on practical rationality, it introduces the idea of “particularist political principles”, addressing the limitations of both liberalism and realism and offering an alternative framework − liberal realism − that enables the politics of representing difference in contemporary democratic societies characterized by deep pluralism.

Supervisor from the University of Münster: Professor Thomas Gutmann

Supervisor from Ilia State University: Professor Giga Zedania

Working language: English

Time: January 14; 13:00

Venue:  Ilia State University, S800, 3 G. Tsereteli str.

2025