Narrating evil : a postmetaphysical theory of reflective judgment

245 Pages·2007·1.59 MB·English

by  Lara

María Pía Lara
NarratiNg Evil
A Post-Metaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgement
Narrating Evil
new directions in critical theory
Amy Allen, General Editor
new directions in critical theory
Amy Allen, General Editor
New Directions in Critical Theory presents outstanding classic
and contemporary texts in the tradition of critical social theory,
broadly construed. The series aims to renew and advance the pro-
gram of critical social theory, with a particular focus on theorizing
contemporary struggles around gender, race, sexuality, class, and
globalization and their complex interconnections.
Narrating Evil
A Postmetaphysical Theory
of Reflective Judgment
María Pía Lara
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lara, María Pía.
Narrating evil : a postmetaphysical theory of reflective judgment /
María Pía Lara.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978–0–231–14030–0
ISBN-10: 0–231–14030–4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978–0–231–51166–7 (e-book)
1. Good and evil. 2. Judgment (Ethics) I. Title.
BJ1401.L37 2007
170—dc22 2006031859
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Designed by Lisa Hamm
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Nancy Fraser,
Whose friendship I value as the one true gift from life

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I: The Concepts and the Tools 23
1 Why Do We Need to Create a Moral Image of the World? 25
2 Storytelling: The Disclosive Dynamics of Understanding and Judging 43
3 Reflective Judgment and the Moral Imagination 57
4 Hannah Arendt and Negative Exemplarity:
The Moral Paradigm of History and Its Particularity 81
5 Learning from Catastrophes 99
Part II: The Judgments 115
6 What Remains? Language Remains 117
7 Hearts of Darkness: Political Judgment 135
8 Death and the Maiden 151
9 The Place of the “Angelus Novus”: Between Catastrophes 163
Epilogue 179
Notes 183
Bibliography 213
Index 219

Acknowledgments
This book was made possible through a number of research
fellowships that allowed me to complete it after spending some
time in those exciting academic environments. I would first like
to thank The Fulbright Foundation for awarding me a 2001–
2002 fellowship, which I spent as a visiting scholar at the New School
for Social Research (now the New School University) in New York City.
I want to express my gratitude to the New School for its generous as-
sistance in making my year there a wonderful experience. I also wish to
thank the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the Univer-
sity of Stanford (Stanford, California); the Institute provided a place to
start my research as a visiting scholar in 1998–99. I am indebted to my
own university—Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana—for giving me
its generous support and a permanent place to develop my ideas and
interests. For their institutional support in allowing me to finish my
manuscript, I owe sincere gratitude to my colleague and friend Rodrigo
Díaz, the dean of the division of Social Sciences; to Luis Felipe Segura,
the chair of my department; and to Max Fernández , the coordinator of
the philosophy departament. And warm thanks to Teresa Luna, secre-
tary of the department, for all her invaluable help, support, and loyalty
throughout the years that I have worked at the University.
I am greatly indebted to the Philosophy and Social Sciences Confer-
ence in Prague, which provided an important critical forum to debate
the ideas in this book. This yearly conference offered me an extraor-
dinary opportunity to meet leading scholars from all over the world.
The board of directors, all talented academics themselves—Frank
Michelman, Axel Honneth, Jean Cohen, Alessandro Ferrara, Marek