1. Introduction
Friday, 13 October 2023 15:32
The trouble with theory: Often there is an assumption that theory is simply intellectual acrobatics. Too abstract
doesn’t relate to real world problems, simply critique the world.
… but often ideas can change the world, can be dangerous.
How can we confront them if not through theory?
Language of theory can sometimes be unnecessarily complicated.
Ontology
(The philosophical study of being. It investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are
related to one another)
- Simply the theory of what it means to be human.
- What is the nature of being? What characteristics do we assume human beings to have? Violent, social
- Ontological assumptions that override our theory of politics
Kant: The metaphysical longing: We give ourselves over to something because we believe it is greater than our
selves. In order for that to be achieved there is something that must be changed within me. Metaphysical longing
connects with subjectivity.
Critchley: we are just killer apes deep down but the greatness we do conceals the tragedy and death that takes
place.
Both relate to how we have gotten to the moon... different in how they are analysed
Epistemology
The knowledge parameters in which we exist.
The question of epistemology is not a what question, it is how. How do you know what you know.
The people that you surround yourself with probably all think alike. Echo chambers
Knowledge bases are not static, constantly changing
Epistemological/pedagogical influences
1) Family
2) Friends and Peers
3) The State
4) Social Networks
5) Educational institutions
6) Etc
Danger of theoretical tunnel vision
May tend to filter everything through a particular theory, explain everything through one point of view.
Don’t start with a theory, start with the problem and allow theories to figure it out.
The object for power
We can tell a great deal of a person’s political orientation using one question:
What is the principal object for power?
a) The Nation. Sovereignty?
b) Old White Men. Who are the ones really controlling the controls…
c) The Wealthy.
d) Global Corporations. Conventional Marxist, the nation stat is a side show, real power lies with the global
corporation which does what it wants to do and finds its justification later.
e) Big-Tech
f) Gaia. The idea that the world itself is the most formidable object for power. It can bring devastation
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,f) Gaia. The idea that the world itself is the most formidable object for power. It can bring devastation
because we have devastated it
g) The Cosmos
But these can all be fundamentally contested.
Political vs critical theory
Political
- We have a fundamental separation in ontology and epistemology.
- Ideas, values and beliefs that shape our society.
- School of Athens was a school of thought which justified the action of the Greek state, same thing today;
theory informs government actions, politicians wheeled out whenever justification is needed.
Critical
- Associated with a school of thinkers which emerged after WW2.
- A profound moment of international affairs and politics but also internal self-reflection.
o How could an advanced society such as Germany sanction a holocaust?
o What does Hiroshima & Nagasaki tell us about our belief in technologically enabled progress?
o Might our very commitment to enlightenment be doing more harm than good?
- ‘The best we can do is nothing, because at least we won’t harm anybody’
Series of events taking place where there had been no economic crisis’s but there had begun being suspicions in
faith of government.
Many theories begin to emerge.
Postmodernism
The meta narratives that contribute to the violence of the state
- ‘The greater good’ to justify violence.
- Questioning of sovereignty, universality and the search for the absolute truth
- Appreciation that truth is essentially contested and there is no universal experience to human subjectivity.
-
Foucault & the bio-political
Genealogy: the history of the present
aim = not to understand past for its own sake, but to understand and evaluate the present with a view to
discrediting unjustified claims of authority.
How did we get here? Learning the processes that we use to get to places in the world.
- How do these processes get us to think the way we do? Time, culture
How does power become normal…
Post colonialists
Colonisation was first and foremost a system of violence.
- Fundamental need to reassess the legacies of colonisation.
- Such violence belongs just as much to the intellectual as physical realms.
- Notable thinkers here include, Cesaire, Fanon, Malcolm X, Spivak, Said
How does the West come to know the “global south” or ‘Third World”?
- How did we come to this conclusion to colonise them.
Can the Subaltern speak?
- Who gets to speak for those who are suppressed? A question of power
Deconstruction & Post-Structuralism
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,Deconstruction & Post-Structuralism
Take down western civilisation brick by brick, conduct and autopsy.
• Important need to rethink the constructed basis for power.
• Think of a castle. How is is build? Who lives there? What happens if we take it down, brick by brick?
What will be revealed?
We can also perform the same autopsy on language.
Social systems are not defined by statis or fixed qualities.
• Power functions through networks that are constantly evolving. The same is true for life.
• Political emancipation is not about unity. It’s about difference.
• Key protagonists include Deleuze, Derrida and Kristeva.
Critique of tech
Technology is the motor of the future.
or is it a motor of war:
⁃ every technology has been developed in war
⁃ we test out tech in areas of conflict and then we domesticate
Virilio: speed has now conquered politics
⁃ 2001: Tony Blair: this is the day the world has changed forever
We can no longer tell the difference between the real and unreal, we now live in a simulation of existence.
Media
We live in an increasingly mediatised age.
‘a society of the spectacle’
How we see and relate to the world is all about image.
Neuroscientists have proven this has fundamentally altered the structure of the mind. we are now image
conscious creatures.
Theory is not just about debating ideas, should be put into practice.
‘Concept is a brick’
• “A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the
window.” Gilles Deleuze
• “I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.’” Niccolo Machiavelli
theory could be a revolution, could change the order of power and politics.
Challenging assumed knowledge
Feminist critique of the male canon.
Integrate women into the categories of politics from which excludes.
The white men union.
• Extend concepts:
• Redefine ‘private’ activities as political: e.g. reproduction, natality, child-rearing, etc.
• Disrupt Sex/gender distinction to undermines biological determinism inherent in much of canon
• Rethink ontology – notably shift to ontological vulnerability.
Decolonize the curriculum.
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, Decolonize the curriculum.
the lack of diversity in political theorists
a more inclusive body of thought. we should be teaching these topics but maybe it would be too easy to teach
those who are simply believable.
The Racial Present
• ‘the distinctive injustice of the modern world’ (C.W. Mills, 2017)
• If we ignore this we ignore ‘real-world’ issues
• Political Theory is for all students of different life experiences
Eurocentrism
• Gives the false impression that only white, Western men have contributed to the history of ideas
• Problematise ‘Europe’ and ‘The West’ – boundaries have always been fluid and changing
•
Diversity of identity or of thought.
many of the preferred inclusions tend to be radical leftists.
Know thy enemy
You cannot understand the violence of sovereignty without Carl Schmitt. you must spend more time knowing the
enemy ‘we shouldn’t censor the opposition we should read them all the more’.
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