The Rise Of The Social And The Change In The Political

358 Pages·2016·1.74 MB·English

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE
provided by Digital Commons@Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University Dissertations
1-1-2014
The Rise Of The Social And The Change In The
Political: A Consideration Of Arendt, Habermas,
And Foucault
George Tyler
Wayne State University,
Follow this and additional works at:http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations
Part of thePolitical Science Commons
Recommended Citation
Tyler, George, "The Rise Of The Social And The Change In The Political: A Consideration Of Arendt, Habermas, And Foucault"
(2014).Wayne State University Dissertations.Paper 1030.
This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in
Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState.
THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL AND THE CHANGE IN THE POLITICAL:
A CONSIDERATION OF ARENDT, HABERMAS, AND FOUCAULT

by

GEORGE TYLER

DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Graduate School

of Wayne State University,

Detroit, Michigan

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

2014

MAJOR: POLITICAL SCIENCE

Approved by:

Advisor Date
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to my wife Emily without whose support it would not have been
possible.

ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Lawrence A. Scaff for his support and feedback throughout this
process. I would also like to thank Dr. Philip Abbott and Dr. Brad Roth for their assistance and
input. All three provided invaluable guidance during my graduate study. I would also like to
thank Dr. Sean Stidd for agreeing to serve on the committee at short notice.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iiii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viiii
Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2 Hannah Arendt ............................................................................................................... 7
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.2 The Pre-Social World of Greek Distinctions ........................................................................ 8
The Private, Animal Laborans, and Homo Faber ................................................................... 9
The Private Realm ............................................................................................................... 9
Animal Laborans ............................................................................................................... 12
Homo Faber ...................................................................................................................... 15
2.3 Arendtian Politics ................................................................................................................ 21
Zoon Politikon and the Public Realm ................................................................................... 21
The Miracle of Politics .......................................................................................................... 25
Freedom ................................................................................................................................ 32
2.4 The Origins of the Social .................................................................................................... 39
The Philosophical Leveling .................................................................................................. 39
Hobbesian Man ..................................................................................................................... 44
Imperialism ........................................................................................................................... 48
Totalitarianism ...................................................................................................................... 50
The Social Question .............................................................................................................. 53
2.5 Contemporary Politics and the Rise of the Social .............................................................. 57
iv
Introductory Remarks on the Social ..................................................................................... 57
The Rise of the Private .......................................................................................................... 60
The Rise of Economics ......................................................................................................... 61
The Rise of Other Private Concerns ..................................................................................... 66
An Interlude on Little Rock .................................................................................................. 67
The Rise of Force .................................................................................................................. 71
The Rise of Conformism ....................................................................................................... 74
The Rise of Alienation .......................................................................................................... 78
2.6 Bureaucracy and Prejudice ................................................................................................. 80
2.7 Conclusion: Problematic Distinctions and the Double Face ............................................... 83
Chapter 3 Jürgen Habermas .......................................................................................................... 92
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 92
3.2 The Public Sphere ............................................................................................................... 93
The Literary Public Sphere ................................................................................................... 97
The Political Public Sphere ................................................................................................. 101
The Philosophy of the Public Sphere .................................................................................. 105
Habermas’s Interpretation of Kant .................................................................................. 105
Habermas’s View of Marx and Hegel ............................................................................ 108
The Liberal Thought of Mill and Tocqueville ................................................................ 110
3.3 Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere ............................................................... 111
Social-Welfare and Mass Democracy ................................................................................. 111
Late Bourgeois Subjectivity ................................................................................................ 115
The Roles of Advertising and Media .................................................................................. 117
v
Politics ................................................................................................................................. 118
Further Reflections on the Public Sphere ........................................................................... 123
3.4 Crises of Legitimacy ......................................................................................................... 129
Marxist Approaches ............................................................................................................ 129
Systems Theory ................................................................................................................... 131
Rationality Crises ................................................................................................................ 133
Legitimation Crises ............................................................................................................. 135
Motivation Crises ................................................................................................................ 138
The Critical Potential Inherent in Late Capitalism ............................................................. 139
3.5 Communicative Action ..................................................................................................... 141
Universal Pragmatics .......................................................................................................... 143
Content and Force ............................................................................................................... 148
Validity ............................................................................................................................... 149
Communicative Competence .............................................................................................. 153
3.6 Ideal and Distorted Communication ................................................................................. 154
Ideal Speech ........................................................................................................................ 154
Systematically Distorted Communication .......................................................................... 156
3.7 Discourse Ethics ................................................................................................................ 158
3.8 Lifeworld and System ....................................................................................................... 165
Lifeworld ............................................................................................................................. 166
Rationalization .................................................................................................................... 172
System ................................................................................................................................. 174
System as Colonizer ............................................................................................................ 176
vi
3.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 185
Chapter 4 Michel Foucault .......................................................................................................... 186
4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 186
4.2 Panopticism ....................................................................................................................... 188
From Panopticism to Governmentality ............................................................................... 204
4.3 Biopolitics ......................................................................................................................... 206
Racism ................................................................................................................................. 212
Biopolitics of Liberalism and Resistance ........................................................................... 216
Biopolitics in Contrast and Development ........................................................................... 217
From Biopolitics to Governmentality ................................................................................. 226
4.4 Genealogy of Governmentality ......................................................................................... 227
Moving Beyond the Previous Conceptions of Power ......................................................... 230
Governmentality and Liberalism ........................................................................................ 239
Pastoralization of Power ..................................................................................................... 241
Raison d’État ....................................................................................................................... 246
Neoliberal Governmentality: Power Beyond the State ....................................................... 254
4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 272
Chapter 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 274
5.1 Parallels and Convergences .............................................................................................. 274
5.2 Practical Diagnoses and Prescriptions .............................................................................. 285
References ................................................................................................................................... 309
Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 348
Autobiographical Statement ........................................................................................................ 349
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Schema of Social Realms .............................................................................................. 97
Figure 2: Crises Points of Origin ................................................................................................ 133
Figure 3: Types of Action ........................................................................................................... 143
Figure 4: Social Interactions ....................................................................................................... 156
Figure 5: Functions of Action Oriented Toward Mutual Understanding ................................... 170

viii
1
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Several political theorists have described a change in the nature of the concept of the
political. In particular, subjects, modes of action, and ways of thinking which were once beyond
the scope of the political realm have become a part of it. The presence of these elements within
the political has broadened our contemporary understanding of the concept. As a result, the idea
of the political has been stretched beyond its initial meaning, and those considerations which are
classically political have languished from inattentiveness as they have been displaced by other
content. Theorists who have expressed concerns about the demise of the political have not
necessarily agreed upon the causal mechanism responsible for this change, or the character of the
change itself. What they have agreed upon is that the conception of politics has changed and that
this change impoverishes not just modern politics, but modern life as a whole. Within this work I
examine the notions that the political and the social are, or at least once were even if only
theoretically, distinct entities and that the social has become a component of the political.
The political realm has come to include modes of action and thought once foreign to that
realm. The content of politics has also been altered. Two of the most important aspects of this
change to the political realm have been the inclusion of the principles of economics and the use
of force, as modes of conduct, ways of thinking, and as subjects. There is theoretically, or
historically, a political point of view or mode of thought and action distinct from an approach to
life based upon economic principles. That political way of life has been replaced by the
economic approach emphasizing calculation, instrumental rationality, and the promotion of self-
benefiting action. The political mode of thought and action was also distinct from realms of life
that permitted the use of force as a means or the obsession over the use of force as a primary
issue under consideration. The changes that took place brought force’s raw power, coercion, and