Showing papers in "Philosophy & Social Criticism in 2002"
TL;DR: The authors argue that both Hegel and Habermas share many basic assumptions in their respective accounts of freedom and suggest that it may offer an alternative to Rawls's 'political' account of public reason.
Abstract: Contrary to some popular interpretations, I argue that Hegel and Habermas share many basic assumptions in their respective accounts of freedom. In particular, both respond to weaknesses in Kant’s idea of freedom as acting from (certain kinds of) reasons by explicating this idea with reference to specific social practices or ‘forms of recognition’ that in turn express suppositions and expectations that actors adopt with respect to one another. I illustrate this common strategy in each and suggest that it may offer an alternative to Rawls’s ‘political’ account of public reason.
136 citations
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TL;DR: The authors blur the line between reason and passion: to rationalize (some of) the passions and to impassion reason, which is a useful revision of liberal theory which has been too pre-occupied in recent years with the construction of dispassionate deliberative procedures.
Abstract: Passion is a hidden issue behind or at the heart of, contemporary theoretical debates about nationalism, identity politics and religious fundamentalism. It is not that reason and passion cannot be conceptually distinguished. They are, however, always entangled in practice – and this entanglement itself requires a conceptual account. So it is my ambition to blur the line between reason and passion: to rationalize (some of) the passions and to impassion reason. Passionate intensity has a legitimate place in the social world. This extension of rational legitimacy to the political passions seems to me a useful revision of liberal theory which has been too pre-occupied in recent years with the construction of dispassionate deliberative procedures. It opens the way for better accounts of social connection and conflict and for more explicit and self-conscious answers to the unavoidable political questions: which side are you on?
58 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that new strategies and projects are necessary to begin the labor of destructuring and realigning sexual, racial and cultural relations of domination, as Drucilla Cornell and Sara Murphy undertake in their wide-ranging paper on the ethics and politics of living with and among a multitude of others not assimilable to one's own self-representations.
Abstract: New strategies and projects are necessary to begin the labor of destructuring and realigning sexual, racial and cultural relations of domination – as Drucilla Cornell and Sara Murphy undertake in their wide-ranging paper on the ethics and politics of living with and among a multitude of others not assimilable to one’s own self-representations. But it is vital that new strategies must bring with them new intellectual resources to be used in such a labor – new concepts, arguments and conclusions. Concepts need to be as inventive as the strategies they engender, and they need to wrench terms from previous regimes and alignments of domination for we cannot always rely on the terms provided by dominant discourses to do the radical work of the transformation of the old and production of the new. Rethinking multiculturalism and antiracism, conceptualizing them in terms that facilitate social, political and economic change, entails the creation of more thoroughly radical concepts, concepts with a less invested, and with perhaps a wider, range than that afforded by the regime of recognition. Although the paper by Drucilla Cornell and Sara Murphy provides much food for thought, and raises many central questions in the analysis of the ethics and politics of multiculturalism and racial and ethnic diversity, it is only the question of ‘identity’, and its links to recognition, subjectivation and identification, that I will focus on in this brief response. The central argument of the paper, put crudely and simply, is that the politics of recognition, which the authors identify with seeking the
50 citations
TL;DR: In theoritical and political writings, multiculturalism is most frequently understood in the language of recognition as mentioned in this paper, and multiculturalism initiatives respond to the demands of minority cultures for p...
Abstract: In theoritical and political writings, multiculturalism is most frequently understood in the language of recognition. Multiculturalist initiatives responds to the demands of minority cultures for p...
39 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a positive ontology of race is presented, and the conditions under which a constructed kind like race would be real in the United States are discussed. But the ontology does not address the social presence and impact of race and the unique way race operates at differing sites.
Abstract: In this article I present a positive ontology of ‘race’. Toward this end, I discuss metaphysical pluralism and review the theories of Ian Hacking, John Dupre and Root. Working within Root’s framework, I describe the conditions under which a constructed kind like ‘race’ would be real. I contend these conditions are currently satisfied in the United States. Given the social presence and impact of ‘race’ and the unique way ‘race’ operates at differing sites, I will argue that it is site-specific, it is socially constructed, and it is real.
31 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that it is neither possible nor desirable to eliminate passion from politics and argue that passion should therefore be established as a central category of analysis in political theory alongside other key concerns.
Abstract: Positive arguments on behalf of passion are scarce in liberal political theory. Rather, liberal theorists tend to push passion to the margins of their theories of politics, either by ignoring it or by explicitly arguing that passion poses a danger to politics and is best kept out of the public realm. The purpose of this essay is to criticize these marginalizations and to illustrate their roots in impoverished conceptions of passion. Using a richer conception of passion as the desire for an envisioned good, I argue that it is neither possible nor desirable to eliminate passion from politics. Passion should therefore be established as a central category of analysis in political theory alongside other key concerns.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential relationship between hermeneutics and public deliberation has been investigated, i.e. the potential use of hermes for the interpretation and analysis of public deliberations.
Abstract: In recent years much has been made of the use of hermeneutics as a tool for the interpretation and the analysis of public deliberation. In particular, it has been Gadamer’s formidable reconstruction and rehabilitation of that term that has been central to the debate over the use of hermeneutics for purposes of public deliberation and, for that matter, for the ‘public use of reason’. In the following I want to consider some of the pros and cons of the issue, i.e. of the potential relationship between hermeneutics and public deliberation. In the first section of the paper I want to consider an aspect of Gadamer’s presentation of hermeneutics in Truth and Method. In the second section I will consider an important criticism of Gadamer’s characterization of hermeneutics. In the third section I want to examine some positive interpretations of that presentation from the point of view of public deliberation. Finally, I will draw some conclusions regarding the potential of hermeneutics as a philosophical foundation for an examination of public deliberation. To anticipate my conclusions, I find that the intersubjective reconstruction of Heidegger’s concept of mitwelt to be informative, based as it is on the paradigmatic I–Thou relationship performed by Gadamer, although I am somewhat disappointed by a certain normative deficit implicit in that characterization.
21 citations
TL;DR: The importance of friendship in the later work of Michel Foucault is increasingly being recognized, but the relationship between friendship and the concept of ''life as a work of art'' is not recognized as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The importance of friendship in the later work of Michel Foucault is increasingly being recognized, but the relationship between friendship and Foucault's concept of `life as a work of art' is not
19 citations
TL;DR: A broad description of a possible comparison between "savage democracy" in the terms of Claude Lefort and the "principle of anarchy" according to Reiner Schurmann is given in this article.
Abstract: This essay offers only a broad description of a possible comparison between ‘savage democracy’ in the terms of Claude Lefort and the ‘principle of anarchy’ according to Reiner Schurmann. First, I s...
15 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that commodity consumption is to the regime of political capitalism at the turn of this century what Michel Foucault claimed for discourses of sexuality in the bio-political state.
Abstract: In this essay I argue that commodity consumption is to the regime of political capitalism at the turn of this century what Michel Foucault claimed for discourses of sexuality in the bio-political state. If I am right, then understanding contemporary subjectivities requires granting greater political credence to practices of commodity consumption than they generally receive and a correlative paradigm shift in our notion of desire – from discourses of sexuality to erotics of appetite. But whatever ‘ethical substance’ we focus upon when we analyze our contemporary situation I think we must give greater consideration to practices of individual conduct. We must grant due attention to the uses to which our bodies, skills and resources are put, and to our active as well as passive participation in that usage, because our everyday conduct may be the missing link between our professed convictions and our actual political prospects.
14 citations
TL;DR: A central point of contention between Critical Theory and Heideggerian thinking concerns the question of truth as mentioned in this paper, where critical theory orients its conception of truth towards the ongoing disclosu...
Abstract: A central point of contention between Critical Theory and Heideggerian thinking concerns the question of truth. Whereas Martin Heidegger orients his conception of truth towards the ongoing disclosu...
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TL;DR: The authors argue that it has been a misfortune that the term "Reason" was interpreted by Plato and Aristotle as referring to a faculty of the divided soul, and that political choice is to be guided by the analogy with the natural subordinations recognized in the soul.
Abstract: It has always been recognized that proposals about the sense of ‘reason’ and ‘rationality’ will have moral and political implications. I shall argue that it has been a misfortune that the term ‘reason’ was interpreted by Plato and Aristotle as referring to a faculty of the divided soul. The parallel between the city/social order, rightly conceived and planed, and the soul, put in order by nature, is carefully worked out. In it, political choice is to be guided by the analogy with the natural subordinations recognized in the soul. I suggest that, reversing the tradition, we start at the other end of the analogy and proceed in the opposite direction, and look at the ways that natural rational processes have both a public and inner mental use.
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretical synthesis of the two theories by finding points in common and possibilities of fruitful combinations concerning the problem of legitimacy, institutional design and effectiveness of legal norms is presented.
Abstract: Institutional economics and discourse theory stand unconnected next to each other, in spite of the fact that they both ask for the legitimacy of institutions (normative) and the functioning and effectiveness of institutions (positive). Both use as theoretical constructions rational individuals and the concept of consensus for legitimacy. Whereas discourse theory emphasizes the conditions of a legitimate consensus and could thus enable institutional economics to escape the infinite regress of judging a consensus legitimate, institutional economics has a tested social science paradigm (rational choice) of explaining and predicting the functioning of institutions. The article outlines a theoretical synthesis of the two theories by finding points in common and possibilities of fruitful combinations concerning the problem of legitimacy, institutional design and effectiveness of legal norms.
TL;DR: The authors compare the accounts of action in Arendt's Human Condition and in the ''Spirit' chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit'' and conclude with an exploration of what can be forgiven or reconciled in action.
Abstract: Among the sources of Hannah Arendt's philosophy of action is an unexplored one: the account of agency in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit . Drawing on a consideration of what has been called the `dramaturgical' character of Arendt's philosophy of action, the article compares the accounts of action in Arendt's Human Condition and in the `Spirit' chapter of the Phenomenology. Both works share a similar overall structure: in each case, the account of action begins with the opening-up of previously unseen or unexpected tragic consequences within action and concludes with an exploration of what can be forgiven or reconciled in action. The Arendtian and Hegelian appropriations of tragedy and forgiveness reveal nonetheless important differences in their view of what counts as action and how its tragic elements are to be understood.
TL;DR: In this article, a critique of Derrida's ethical works, using Camus's last novella The Fall as a critical sounding board, is presented, arguing that a danger pertains to any such highly selfreflexive position as DerrIDA's: a danger that Camus identified in The Fall, and staged in his character, Jean-Baptiste Clamence.
Abstract: This essay is a critique of Derrida’s ethical works, using Camus’s last novella The Fall as a critical sounding board. It argues that a danger pertains to any such highly self-reflexive position as Derrida’s: a danger that Camus identified in The Fall, and staged in his character, Jean-Baptiste Clamence. Clamence is a successful Parisian lawyer, on top of his personal and professional life, whose equanimity is troubled after he is the unwitting passer-by as a young woman suicides one night on the Seine. After this time, he comes to consider all his former virtues as concealed vices. He also becomes acutely aware of what he terms the ‘duplicity’ of human beings as such. In Part I, I consider how Clamence’s fall from innocence can be read ‘with’ Derrida’s deconstructive registration of a ‘double bind’ pertaining to our standing vis-a-vis what he terms ‘logocentrism’. I argue that Derrida’s is a post-lapsarian philosophy, which challenges all attempts to construct closed conceptual systems that would confer ...
TL;DR: In A History of Florence, Machiavelli recounts revolts, especially of the Ciompi of 1378, which display the repeated surfacings of the desire for freedom navigating ceaselessly between the desire to abolish freedom through the recourse to absolute power and moments when virtue triumphs over fortuna and achieves an order that, while fragile, makes the antagonisms fit in such a way that instead of fights they become debates as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In A History of Florence, Machiavelli recounts revolts, especially of the Ciompi of 1378, which display the repeated surfacings of the desire for freedom navigating ceaselessly between the desire to abolish freedom through the recourse to absolute power and moments when virtue triumphs over fortuna and achieves an order that, while fragile, makes the antagonisms fit in such a way that instead of fights they become debates. For Machiavelli, the speeches made in these situations serve to both analyze the circumstances within which the struggles take on meaning and to display the desire for freedom carving out its path using the energy deployed via the negativity of the desire not to be dominated.
TL;DR: In the last decade or so, it has become increasingly clear that Derrida does not allow everything to dissolve into a play of traces but rather, like Levinas, he is interested in my responsibility for,.
Abstract: The genuine import of Derrida’s work has become particularly plain in the last ten years or so. The result has been to complicate the relationship of Gadamer and Derrida in a wonderful way, to raise the level of the discussion up a notch, thereby entering two of the most important European philosophers of the 20th century into a much more interesting exchange than their ill-fated non-exchange in 1981 at the Goethe Institute in Paris would have led any of us to suspect.1 Derrida was for too long taken to be one of the ‘French followers of Nietzsche’, as Josef Simon puts it,2 someone who has let the fox of the will-to-power into the hen-house of language. However, while Nietzsche’s perspectivalism and critique of metaphysical opposites are very important for Derrida, and while Derrida worked out his early writings on language and literature in close consort with Nietzsche, it has become increasingly clear over the years that Derrida is also, perhaps even more so, a French follower of Levinas. Well, not exactly French but Algerian, and not exactly a follower, but an original and distinctive voice quite his own. It has also become clear that Derrida’s work has an ethical and political cutting edge, that it has to do with Marxism and democracy, justice, hospitality and the gift, and even with a certain religion.3 One thing that has emerged very clearly from the later writings is that both Gadamer and Derrida share an emphasis on the irreducibly ‘intersubjective’ character of language, although that is not a word that either would use in his own name. This is something they share with Levinas and on which all three differ from Heidegger. It has become increasingly clear that Derrida does not allow everything to dissolve into a play of traces but rather, like Levinas, he is interested in my responsibility for,
TL;DR: The authors argued that Kant's moral project understands the importance of ethical cultivation and is thus far more political than is often appreciated, and suggested that this rereading of Kant should encourage us to critically examine certain modes of political theorization and adopt a more overtly political stance towards the construction of moral projects in political theory and philosophy alike.
Abstract: This article seeks both to challenge common understandings of Kant’s moral project and to use that reading to reconceptualize the aims of political theory. The paper argues that while Kant’s moral work is widely praised or criticized for its formalism and its defense of the autonomous subject, an interpretation that takes seriously Kant’s remarks about humiliation in the Critique of Practical Reason challenges both these commonplaces. An examination both of the practical role that humiliation plays in Kant’s moral system and of the affective and historical traces it relies upon shows that Kant’s moral project understands the importance of ethical cultivation and is thus far more political than is often appreciated. The article therefore concludes by suggesting that this rereading of Kant should encourage us to critically examine certain modes of political theorization and adopt a more overtly political stance towards the construction of moral projects in political theory and philosophy alike.
TL;DR: In this article, a virtual conversation between Levinas's "ethics as first philosophy" and Adorno's negative dialectic is described, where the authors argue that the fixed point for critique is in the proximity and sensibility of the ethical relation that lies behind all formal alterity and...
Abstract: The article stages the beginning of a virtual conversation between Levinas’s ‘ethics as first philosophy’ and Adorno’s negative dialectic. Part I frames the problem: for both thinkers the task of critique depends on some access to a ‘fixed point’ for transcendence (Levinas) or a ‘standpoint removed’ from the domain of existence (Adorno). Part II traces the deep, even essential, connection both perceive between knowledge and violence, a link which brings the possibility of critique even more stringently into question. A standpoint removed must be both less and more than knowledge. Part III sketches Adorno’s response to this dilemma in the tracing of a negative dialectic, a thinking that is ‘the morality of thought’, and one that turns traditional dialectics inside-out. Negative dialectic seems to meet Levinas’s ethical criteria for critique. Part IV outlines Levinas’s response: the fixed point for critique is in the proximity and sensibility of the ethical relation that lies behind all formal alterity and ...
TL;DR: In this paper, a fundamental contradiction of the tension between political rationalism and popular sovereignty is examined and the terms of this contradiction are presented along with the ways in which this tension manifested itself in France during the Revolution of the 19th Century.
Abstract: In France there is a way of thinking about freedom that often impedes its realization. To understand this question first a fundamental contradiction of the tension between political rationalism and popular sovereignty is examined. The terms of this contradiction are presented along with the ways in which this tension manifested itself in France during the Revolution of the 19th Century. This is also shown by contrasting the French approach to producing the law-state with English liberalism which relies on a balance of powers. The French case shows that there is a way, other than representative government, to think about protective rule: the establishment of a good, rational authority based on science.
TL;DR: In this article, Levinas's notion of being and time is shown to be the organizing principle behind his challenge to Being and Time. The two main aspects of that challenge propose an ontology that is n...
Abstract: Levinas's notion of il y a (there is) existence is shown to be the organizing principle behind his challenge to Being and Time . The two main aspects of that challenge propose an ontology that is n...
TL;DR: The authors examine the ontological impact of historical models for eventfulness, those offered by Heidegger and Bergson, and explore their implication for debates between Foucauldian theorists over the technological and bodily bases required to recognize the optimistic moral significance Kant attributed to revolution in practices characterizing the new capitalism.
Abstract: Since the fall of the former Soviet Union, and following geographical and technological changes in the global economy, theorists in Europe as well as the United States have lamented the confusion and emotional disengagement of many groups formerly identified with the left. This paper addresses the Kantian origins of the idea that ‘revolution’, however defined (or deferred), is the only plausible image for effective historical engagement capable of motivating spectators to action. Drawing on Foucault’s inquiries into conditions for the possibility of ‘heroizing’ the present, I examine two frameworks for understanding the ontological impact of historical models for ‘eventfulness’, those offered by Heidegger and Bergson. I then explore their implication for debates between Foucauldian theorists over the technological and bodily bases required to recognize the optimistic moral significance Kant attributed to revolution in practices characterizing the ‘new capitalism’.
TL;DR: The authors explored Douglass's socio-political narrative through an existential lens, arguing that Douglass is contesting the proposition that essence precedes existence. Douglass, through his fi...
Abstract: Frederick Douglass’s socio-political narrative is explored through an existential lens, arguing that Douglass is contesting the proposition that essence precedes existence. Douglass, through his fi...
TL;DR: The communitarian critique of liberal agency is reminiscent of two earlier critiques: C. B. Macpherson's theory of possessive individualism and Marx' theory of alienation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The communitarian critique of liberal agency is reminiscent of two earlier critiques: C. B. Macpherson’s theory of possessive individualism and Marx’s theory of alienation. As with the communitarian critique, Macpherson and Marx saw the liberal individual as being in some way ‘disembodied’. Where they differed from communitarians was in the attention they paid to the actual social relations that gave rise to such an image. The comparison is thus fruitful because the emphasis Macpherson and Marx give to the concrete circumstances of disempowerment highlights the overly abstract nature of the communitarian critique, demonstrating how it, and other similarly abstract normative theories, might maintain a focus on actual social relations.
TL;DR: The authors explores the origins of a certain dynamic and productive notion of negativity in Hegel's dialectic and describes its evolution in the works of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno as a process of de-determination that finds its culmination in Derrida's notion of difference.
Abstract: Despite accusations of irresponsibility and negativity, Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction has had an immense influence on contemporary social, political and cultural critique. ‘Evolving negativity’ offers a preliminary explanation of this influence by tracing the philosophical ‘family tree’ that links deconstruction to German Critical Theory via the Frankfurt School. The paper explores the origins of a certain dynamic and productive notion of negativity in Hegel’s dialectic and describes its ‘evolution’ in the works of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno as a process of de-determination that finds its culmination in Derrida’s notion of ‘differance’. Set free of its totalizing, teleological force, Derrida’s negativity as ‘differance’ is compared with Hegel’s more general and generative notion of Negativitat. The paper concludes that for this branch of ‘critical’ thinking, to flourish in the shadow of Hegel means also to be continually reinventing his respect for difference and negativity, and transforming it ...
TL;DR: Rorty's irony is compatible with the liberal commitments to human flourishing and can clear up many of the conceptual difficulties that liberal reformers face today as mentioned in this paper, but it also increases the likelihood that two liberal commitments that he judges essential, the separation of the public and the private, and the aversion of wilful cruelty, will clash with one another.
Abstract: This paper calls into question Richard Rorty's recasting of the traditional justifications of liberal political philosophy in an anti-foundationalist ironic mould. Rorty suggests not only that his irony is compatible with the liberal commitments to human flourishing but also that it can clear up many of the conceptual difficulties that liberal reformers face today. Two objections are raised against the Rortian approach to politics, one conceptual, the other practical. Conceptually, because Rorty does not wish to burden political irony and imagination with a constraining political theory, his proposal increases the likelihood that two liberal commitments that he judges essential, the separation of the public and the private, and the aversion of wilful cruelty, will clash with one another. Practically, the success of his anti-foundationalist irony among sophisticated liberal reformers is jeopardized by its potentially negative impact upon the non-ironic, metaphysically minded political actors who most need ...
TL;DR: In this paper, an attempt is made to delineate the common ground of feminist concerns and the work of Wittgenstein by alluding to several areas of theory - among them are the orality-literacy distinction, the notion of the universal, and the realm of particulars.
Abstract: An attempt is made to try to delineate the common ground of feminist concerns and the work of Wittgenstein by alluding to several areas of theory - among them are the orality-literacy distinction, the notion of the universal, and the realm of particulars. I cite portions of both the Tractatus and the Investigations, and utilize the work of commentators such as Anscombe, Fogelin and Genova. The broader argument is that Wittgenstein’s turn away from a kind of logical atomism is a move that can readily be used for feminist purposes, but that it requires precise articulation and a clear setting-out of conditions.
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical appraisal of some claims recently advanced by Crispin Wright and others in support of a response-dispositional (RD) approach to issues in epistemology, ethics, political theory, and philosophy of the social sciences is presented.
Abstract: This essay offers a critical appraisal of some claims recently advanced by Crispin Wright and others in support of a response-dispositional (RD) approach to issues in epistemology, ethics, political theory, and philosophy of the social sciences. These claims take a lead from Plato’s discussion of the status of moral value-judgements in the Euthyphro and from Locke’s account of ‘secondary qualities’ such as colour, texture and taste. The idea is that a suitably specified description of best opinion (or optimal response) for some given area of discourse will provide all that is needed in the way of objectivity while avoiding the problems raised by anti-realists like Michael Dummett with respect to the existence of truth-values that transcend our utmost powers of recognition or verification. I focus on three main areas - mathematics, morals and constitutional law - and argue that an RD approach falls short in certain crucial respects. That is to say, it works out either as a trivial (tautological) claim to t...
TL;DR: In the years since Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was published, Mouffe's essays in The Democratic Paradox are any indication, the answer is ‘not well’ as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Chantal Mouffe is best known for writing Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (1985) with Ernesto Laclau (a second edition appeared in 2001). To many observers, Hegemony was exciting because it promised to reconcile left-wing politics with theories variously identified with poststructuralism and postmodernism. Hegemony was a critique of the ‘essentialist’ elements of orthodox Marxism and in it Laclau and Mouffe developed a leftwing alternative called ‘radical democracy’ that subsumed socialism and the new social movements under the broader category of ‘democracy’. Democracy was in turn interpreted (borrowing from Claude Lefort) as a pluralist society in which legitimacy and unity could no longer be established by rationalist or religious means; instead democracy legitimizes struggle and contestation over what is legitimate and illegitimate; and democratic decisions are contingent and always open to future revision. The emphasis on pluralism and contingency was also intended to open the left to a rapprochement with liberal ideas, as well as to embody anti-essentialist ideals. Radical democracy is an attractive idea. How has it fared in the years since Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was published? If Mouffe’s essays in The Democratic Paradox are any indication, the answer is ‘not well’. The book recycles ideas and arguments from her 1993 essay collection, The Return of the Political. Both books are too narrowly focused on criticizing academic political theory, as represented by Rawls, Habermas and the communitarians. This is strange because the