Aesthetic Judgment and the Public Sphere in the Thought of Hannah Arendt

This essay is on the conception of political space as a space of singular events, rhetorical speech and plurality. It shows that Arendt’s deep suspicion of a cognitively-based practice of political judgment is not based on a naïve concept of logical reasoning. Her point is not to exclude so-called rational discourse or knowledge claims from the practice of aesthetic or political judgment – as if something or someone could stop us from making arguments in public contexts – but to press us to think about what we are doing when we reduce the practice of politics or judgment to the contest of better arguments. She disputes not the idea of argument as such but rather the assumption (central to Habermas’ discourse ethics) that agreement in procedures for making arguments ought to produce agreement in conclusions, hence agreement in the political realm can be reached in the manner of giving proofs.This essay is on the conception of political space as a space of singular events, rhetorical speech and plurality. It shows that Arendt’s deep suspicion of a cognitively-based practice of political judgment is not based on a naïve concept of logical reasoning. Her point is not to exclude so-called rational discourse or knowledge claims from the practice of aesthetic or political judgment – as if something or someone could stop us from making arguments in public contexts – but to press us to think about what we are doing when we reduce the practice of politics or judgment to the contest of better arguments. She disputes not the idea of argument as such but rather the assumption (central to Habermas’ discourse ethics) that agreement in procedures for making arguments ought to produce agreement in conclusions, hence agreement in the political realm can be reached in the manner of giving proofs

Rumo a uma teoria feminista do julgamento

Resumo O curto, mas importante, ensaio recente de Susan Okin, publicado em 1997, Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? [O Multiculturalismo é Ruim para as Mulheres?] esteve no centro de um animado debate sobre a relação entre feminismo e multiculturalismo. Focalizando sua atenção no viés ocidental da análise de Okin, os críticos não se deram conta do que pode bem ser seu ponto central, conquanto não explicitado: Nós (as feministas e os(as) cidadãos(ãs) das democracias ocidentais) precisamos julgar práticas culturais muitas vezes diferentes das nossas e, onde apropriado, declará-las “prejudiciais às mulheres”, recusando dar-lhes apoio político. A questão deixada inexplorada pela feminista liberal Susan Okin refere-se a como poderiam ser estabelecidos julgamentos que não envolvessem uma aplicação das regras das culturas liberais ocidentais às peculiaridades de culturas e práticas não-ocidentais e não-liberais. Valendo-me da obra de Hannah Arendt, procuro desenvolver uma concepção de julgamento que possa propiciar uma relação mais crítica com nossas próprias normas ou regras, facilitando assim uma prática menos etnocêntrica. Palavras-chave: Feminismo; universalismo; multiculturalismo; avaliação, julgamento, opinião; Hannah Arendt; Susan Okin.   Abstract The recent Susan Okin’s short but important 1997 essay, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?”, has been at the center of a lively debate about the relationship between feminism and multiculturalism. Focusing their attention on the Western bias in Okin’s analysis, critics have missed what may well be the essay’s central if unstated claim: We (feminists and citizens of Western democracies) need to make judgments about cultural practices often different from our own and, where appropriate, declare them “bad for women” and refuse them our political support. The question, left unexplored by the liberal feminist Okin, is how judgments might be formed that would not involve an application of the rules of Western liberal cultures to the particulars of non-Western and non-liberal cultures and practices. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt, I attempt to develop a conception of judgment that would enable a more critical relation to one’s own norms or rules, thus facilitating a less ethnocentric practice. Keywords: feminism; universalism; multiculturalism; judgment; Hannah Arendt; Susan Okin