From Alienation to Forms of Life: The Critical Theory of Rahel Jaeggi

by Amy Allen (Editor), Eduardo Mendieta (Editor)

A leading scholar of Continental philosophy, Rahel Jaeggi reads key concepts of Hegelian-Marxist social philosophy through the lens of contemporary German and Anglo-American thinkers. This thorough introduction to her work assesses and critiques her efforts to revitalize critical theory.

The author of numerous works in social and political philosophy, Jaeggi reclaims key categories in the lexicon of Left Hegelian thought and applies them to a significant source of inspiration for her work: phenomenology. In engaging with her substantive corpus, the contributors to this volume grapple witih Jaeggi's rich and astute readings of the experience of alienation--of being "intractable" or not "available" to ourselves; with her rendering of "immanent and internal critique"; and with her success in navigating Haerbamisian-Kantian transcendentalism and Honnethian-Hegelian ethical substantialism, in an effort to pave the way toward a normatively guided critical theory of society. The result of this exchange is a deeper underdstanding of how Jaeggi's interpretations of Adorno, Heidegger, Tugendhat, Dewey, Frankfurt, and Taylor opens new, productive avenues for discourse.

Structured for classroom use and featuring essays by leading English-language scholars of phenomenology and Continental and existential philosophy, this critical introduction to Rahel Jaeggi is an insightful and generative confrontation with the most recent transformation of Frankfurt School-inspired social and philosophical critical theory.

256 pages, Paperback

Published May 22, 2018

About the author

Amy Allen is a Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, and she is also the current Department Head. Previously, she was the Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Gender and Women's Studies at Dartmouth College, and was Chair of the Department of Philosophy from 2006-2012. Her research takes a critical approach to feminist approaches of power, examines the relationship between power and autonomy in the constitution of the subject, and attempts to broaden traditional feminist understandings of power to apply to transnational issues.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of essays discussing various aspects of Jaeggi's critical theory, including an introductory essay by Jaeggi and a long response to the essays in the volume. Jaeggi's work centers upon a formal theory of progress, an account of how forms of life, ensembles of practices and institutions, can be understood to make progress, when and if they do make such progress. Her account links Hegel's idea of determinate negation, with MacIntyre's theory of traditions and epistemological crises, and Dewey's idea of practical learning processes. Very briefly, the core idea is that forms of life periodically encounter crises, problems defined on their own terms and for which solutions are not readily apparent (compare MacIntyre). But such crises are 'productive,' in a non-evaluative sense; they are productive because the crisis points toward a definite solution such that the pre- and post-crisis are not merely different but bear a determinate logical relationship (what Hegel's calls a determinate negation). Finally, such changes can be evaluated in terms of whether they are ad hoc and exclusionary, i.e., based upon efforts to limit anomalous factors, and whether they promote solutions that attempt to limit similar anomalous factors. Jaeggi offers a fascinating account of rationality and this book provide much to think about.