This thesis investigates the phenomenon of polarization within the context of a deliberative democracy, where public discourse is perceived as increasingly extreme. By examining belief and...Show moreThis thesis investigates the phenomenon of polarization within the context of a deliberative democracy, where public discourse is perceived as increasingly extreme. By examining belief and affective polarization, the study highlights both the harmful and beneficial outcomes of this intensification of opposing views. On one hand, polarization can destabilize democratic endeavors and undermine social cohesion; on the other hand, it serves as an effective strategy for addressing societal injustices and promoting social change. The research draws on the philosophies of John Rawls and Seyla Benhabib to explore these dynamics, identifying gaps in their approaches to address the complexity of polarization. To minimize the negative effects while preserving the positive aspects, the article proposes fostering political virtues such as mutual respect and self-reflection. Using the polarized debate on transgender rights in the Dutch House of Representatives as a case study, the research illustrates how these virtues can enhance reasoned discourse, genuine cooperation, and mutual understanding without undermining the valuable disagreement that advances social progress. The study emphasizes the need for a regulated public sphere, such as citizen assemblies, in order to promote these political virtues and facilitate reasoned discourse.Show less
This thesis explores the early modern coffeehouse and its bourgeois clientele in Europe in the form of a case study on Dutch coffeehouses in Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries. The chosen...Show moreThis thesis explores the early modern coffeehouse and its bourgeois clientele in Europe in the form of a case study on Dutch coffeehouses in Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries. The chosen inquiry seeks to elucidate how a new social category – the bourgeoisie – developed over altered drinking habits, materials and the corresponding aesthetical codes within the social institution of the coffeehouse. Rather newly, the coffeehouse as an institution of publicness and consumption in the Enlightenment is researched from the angle of visual and material history. On the whole, this thesis contributes to the cultural historical field of early modern consumption. One result is that the consumer goods coffee and porcelain created a balance between rational forms of conduct and individual attitudes within the public sphere of coffeehouses. A multifarious historical approach by the means of visual and textual sources towards the early modern consumption of both coffee and porcelain considers the correspondent material qualities and suggests that porcelain from China has been remarkably suitable for the coffee ritual which entered Europe from the Middle and Near East. The thereby evolved tastes were groundbreaking for the rise of the bourgeoisie. This is demonstrated by the analysis of the design and arrangement of the vessels required for the individual and collective display of the tastes around coffee-drinking, on the basis of inventories and images. From a postcolonial perspective, the present thesis outlines which associations around the historical concept of luxury accompanied the adoption of Asian coffee and porcelain coffee ware into European consumption habits, while the world of coffee has always been represented as an oriental theme in travelogues, recipe books, medicinal treatises and fashion plates. Furthermore, the thesis describes how these ideas and values associated with coffee-drinking enabled the consolidation of the social construct of a specific regional group of the urban middleclass bourgeoisie, while locating the coffeehouse in the unique historical environment of early modern Amsterdam.Show less
