Jason Stanley
Propaganda and fascist politics work by turning shared ideals against themselves and dividing people into “us” and “them” – and knowledge depends partly on what is at stake.
Placement
Epistemologist and philosopher of language, at Toronto since 2025: knowing how is a kind of knowing that, and what we know depends on what is at stake – while propaganda and fascism work by turning democratic ideals against themselves.
Key ideas
- Interest-relative invariantism
- Knowing how as knowing that
- Undermining propaganda
- The politics of “us and them”
Influence
Influenced by 1
Hannah Arendt
influenced by
Stanley drew on Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism for fascist ‘unreality’, where propaganda and conspiracy erode a shared sense of fact (How Fascism Works, 2018). J. Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018), “Unreality”; H. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Evidence: AI draft
Hannah Arendt › 1906–1975
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Gilbert Ryle
criticised
With Williamson, Stanley argued against Ryle that knowing how is a species of knowing that, propositional knowledge of a way to act (‘Knowing How’, 2001). J. Stanley & T. Williamson, “Knowing How”, Journal of Philosophy 98 (2001), 411–444; J. Stanley, Know How (2011); G. Ryle, The Concept of Mind (1949), ch. 2
Evidence: AI draft
Gilbert Ryle › 1900–1976
Position
Stanley first made his name in the philosophy of language and epistemology. With Timothy Williamson he argued, against Gilbert Ryle, that knowing how to do something is a kind of knowing that: to know how to ride a bicycle is to know, of some way of riding, that it is a way to do it. “Knowledge and Practical Interests” defended “interest-relative invariantism”: whether someone knows something can depend on what is at stake for them, so that evidence which suffices for knowledge when little hangs on the question may not suffice when much does. His later work turned to politics. “How Propaganda Works” analyses “undermining propaganda”, which appeals to ideals such as freedom or security in the service of goals that erode them, and shows how ideologies rooted in inequality make it effective. “How Fascism Works” describes recurring tactics of fascist politics, from the myth of a glorious past and contempt for intellectuals to the division of society into “us” and “them”. “Erasing History” examines campaigns to control what schools may teach about the past.
Life & context
Jason Stanley (born 1969 in Syracuse, New York) grew up in a family marked by Nazi persecution: his grandmother Ilse Stanley helped free several hundred Jewish prisoners from concentration camps before leaving Berlin with his father in 1939. He studied at Stony Brook and took his doctorate at MIT in 1995 under Robert Stalnaker. After posts at Cornell, Michigan and Rutgers he was Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale from 2013. In 2025, citing the political situation in the United States, he moved to the University of Toronto, where he holds the Bissell-Heyd Chair in American Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.
Main works
- Knowing How (with Timothy Williamson, 2001)
- Knowledge and Practical Interests (2005)
- How Propaganda Works (2015)
- How Fascism Works (2018)
- Erasing History (2024)
Appears in
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