The Specter of Babel: A Reconstruction of Political Judgement

Abstract

The Spectre of Babel is a remarkable achievement. Thompson presents a no-holds barred attack on the post-metaphysical turn and its various avatars across Ethics, Critical Theory, Political Philosophy, and Social Theory. Thompson details how the academy ’ s warm embrace of pragmatics, intersubjectivity, and discourse need to be seen as deeply mis-taken: such post-metaphysical approaches are unable to act as a fulcrum for political judgement and can ironically further the rise of polarized, individualistic, and acritical pub-lics. For him, by centring abstracted intersubjective practices (be it the exchange of justifi-cations, recognition, inter alia ) critical scholarship loses its anchor in the objective social world; for example, that you and I may agree on topic X does not make our understanding of X objectively correct. Thompson ruthlessly exposes this and other weaknesses of the post-metaphysical turn. But this is not just a work of critique. Rather, Thompson proposes a radical solution: a (re-)turn to a critical social ontology, a remedy he prescribes in detail. This is thus a must-read book for philosophers, sociologists, and Critical Theorists alike. The Spectre consists of an introduction and eight substantial chapters, divided into two parts: In the Courtyard of Babel: Postmetaphysics [ sic ] and the Failure of Critical Judgement , and, Beyond Babel: Social Ontology and the Reconstruction of Critical Reason . In crude summary, Part One can be read as stating, today ’ s post-metaphysical scholarship is deeply problematic for various reasons. Part Two more or less states, here is how and why a critical social ontology would make things better. The book is propelled by the fear of the titular specter, a situation where each subject holds to a self-circumscribed explanatory and justificatory framework, devoid of reference to the external world. Thompson offers his critical