Soho Char
Program Area(s): Political Theory
I completed my undergraduate studies at Brown in 2018, with a concentration in philosophy. It seems increasingly commonplace for democratic societies to experience a breakdown of comity, restraint, and capacity for problem‐solving. Today, the necessary conditions for productive dialog between citizens seem attenuated by extreme polarization. My goal is to find a way to conceptualize the self such that political rivalry is diminished and civility becomes increasingly possible. There is not a single causal factor for democratic dysfunction, but I believe that one salient reason is that identities have always been determined by how one stands in opposition to an "other". I would like to figure out if there is a way to overcome the apparent irony that we must stand in opposition to an "other" to understand our [own] selves.