Disagreement: Politics And Philosophy
by Jacques Rancière
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"Is there any such thing as political philosophy?" So begins this provocative book by one of the foremost figures in Continental thought. Here, Jacques Ranci re brings a new and highly useful set of terms to the vexed debate about political effectiveness and "the end of politics." What precisely is at stake in the relationship between "philosophy" and the adjective "political"? In Disagreement, Ranci re explores the apparent contradiction between these terms and reveals the uneasy meaning of show more their union in the phrase "political philosophy"--a juncture related to age-old attempts in philosophy to answer Plato's devaluing of politics as a "democratic egalitarian" process. According to Ranci re, the phrase also expresses the paradox of politics itself: the absence of a proper foundation. Politics, he argues, begins when the "demos" (the "excessive" or unrepresented part of society) seeks to disrupt the order of domination and distribution of goods "naturalized" by police and legal institutions. In addition, the notion of "equality" operates as a game of contestation that constantly substitutes litigation for political action and community. This game, Ranci re maintains, operates by a primary logic of "misunderstanding." In turn, political philosophy has always tried to substitute the "politics of truth" for the politics of appearances. Disagreement investigates the various transformations of this regime of "truth" and their effects on practical politics. Ranci re then distinguishes what we mean by "democracy" from the practices of a consensual system in order to unravel the ramifications of the fashionable phrase "the end of politics." His conclusions will be of interest to readers concerned with political questions from the broadest to the most specific and local. show lessTags
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"Disagreement is not the conflict between one who says white and another who says black. It is the conflict between one who says white and another who also says white but does not understand the same thing by it or does not understand that the other is saying the same thing in the name of whiteness."
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116+ Works 4,230 Members
Jacques Ranciere is one of the most influential philosophers writing today. He taught at the University of Paris VIII, France, from 1969 to 2000, occupying the Chair of Aesthetics and Politics from 1990 until his retirement. Steven Corcoran is a writer and translator living in Berlin. He has edited and/or translated several works by Jacques show more Rancire, including Dissensus (2010, 2016), two works by Alain Badiou, Polemics (2006) and Conditions (2008) and Alienation and Freedom by Frantz Fanon (2017). show less
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Erimielisyys : politiikka ja filosofia
- Original title
- La Mésentente: politique et philosophie
- Original publication date
- 1995
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 320.01 — Society, government, & culture Political science Types of Government Political Science Philosophy and Theory
- LCC
- JA71 .R25513 — Political Science Political science (General) Political science (General) Theory. Relations to other subjects
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 177
- Popularity
- 185,062
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.09)
- Languages
- 8 — Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 10
