What is Left for Critique? On the Perils of Innocence in Neoliberal Times

IF 0.4 0 PHILOSOPHY

Torres de Lucca-Revista Internacional de Filosofia Politica Pub Date : 2022-01-07 DOI:10.5209/ltdl.77064

P. Ravecca, Elizabeth Dauphinee

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

This essay explores the implications of what we call attachments to innocence for critical scholarship and progressive politics. After tracing the appearance of innocence in various strands of contemporary thought, we turn to how it shields individuals and groups from examining the depth of our own participation in oppression and harm. This evasion of responsibility works in our perspective as a hindrance to understanding power and engaging with others ethically. The essay more concretely examines how the reductionist and authoritarian dimensions of innocence dovetail with the neoliberal uptake of ‘progressive’ politics in university and activist settings. We are interested in how academics and activists of different kinds are rewarded for cultivating their innocent-selves through discursive and material interventions that leave power relations untouched. It is not merely monetary or status rewards that perpetuate this, but the crisis produced by our implication in the very violence we reject. Working with and through the mobility of agency, power, abuse, and justice, we explore what is at stake in shedding our attachments to innocence in the hope of a different sort of encounter – one that proceeds from the recognition that innocence is not a precondition for our engagement in political life.

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批判还剩下什么?论新自由主义时代天真的危险

这篇文章探讨了我们所谓的纯真依恋对批判性学术和进步政治的影响。在探究了各种当代思想中纯真的表象之后，我们转向它是如何保护个人和群体不去审视我们自己参与压迫和伤害的深度的。在我们看来，这种逃避责任的行为阻碍了我们理解权力，阻碍了我们与他人的道德交往。本文更具体地考察了纯真的还原主义和威权主义维度如何与新自由主义在大学和激进主义背景下对“进步”政治的吸收相吻合。我们感兴趣的是，不同类型的学者和活动家是如何通过不触及权力关系的话语和物质干预来培养他们无辜的自我而获得回报的。不仅仅是金钱或地位奖励使这种情况永久化，而是我们在我们所拒绝的暴力中所隐含的危机。通过机构、权力、滥用和正义的流动性，我们探索了摆脱对纯真的依恋，并希望得到另一种相遇的危险所在——这种相遇源于认识到纯真不是我们参与政治生活的先决条件。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Torres de Lucca-Revista Internacional de Filosofia Politica PHILOSOPHY-

CiteScore

0.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

22 weeks

期刊介绍： The scientific scope of Las Torres de Lucca (International Journal of Political Philosophy) will be to comprehend the characteristics of political philosophy, in line with the interdisciplinary character that has operated in this field during the last several years. We welcome contributions from the areas traditionally linked directly to political philosophy (moral philosophy, philosophy of law, political theory), as well as from those that have been incorporated up to the present day (political economy, philosophy of history, psychology, neurophysiology and, to a lesser extent, other sciences) as long as their scope is focused on the treatment of public affairs and sheds light on contemporary political reflections. In the same way, the reference to classic problems should be brought to bear on contemporary questions. The journal does not commit itself to any school of thought, style or ideology. However, we do commit ourselves to argumentative rigor and expositive clarity. Thus, the new publication is directed towards the academic environment and designed for the specialized reader; but the publication also aspires to awake interest in the reader who is not technically formed in these disciplines, but is interested by the public questions that inevitably affect him or her. We expect that the scope of the journal will be international. Thus, articles will be published in Spanish and English, and original articles in French, Portuguese, Italian, or German will be accepted as exceptions (depending on their quality and relevance), translated into Spanish and published in a bilingual format. We are particularly interested in covering the Spanish/Latin American realm, particularly lacking in specialized publications of this type. With this in mind, we count on experts from the distinct countries included in this geographic area.