The weight of freedom: Political integrity and non-sovereign autonomy /

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:McFadden, Tanner J., author.
Imprint:2015.
Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2015
Description:1 electronic resource (170 pages)
Language:English
Format: E-Resource Dissertations
Local Note:School code: 0330
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10773260
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:University of Chicago. degree granting institution.
ISBN:9781339080253
Notes:Advisors: Patchen Markell Committee members: Robert Gooding-Williams; Linda M. G. Zerilli.
Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 77-02(E), Section: A.
English
Summary:This dissertation defends autonomy as a conception of political freedom appropriate to the practice of democratic citizenship. The dissertation argues that autonomy consists in a certain sort of relation to others---that independence consists in a certain sort of dependence. To specify the form of dependence that autonomy requires, the dissertation argues that autonomy requires responsiveness, an ongoing practical acknowledgment of others' interpretive authority, and situatedness, an ongoing practical acknowledgment of our relation to structures of meaning and power that lend significance to our acts and claims. The dissertation identifies the situated, responsive practice of autonomy with political integrity as a conception of political freedom, and argues that political integrity renders autonomy available to agents under the conditions of historical and social dependence highlighted in non-sovereign accounts of human agency. In arguing that autonomy does not depend on sovereignty, the dissertation seeks to overcome the impasse in contemporary democratic theory between deliberative and agonistic conceptions of democracy. Deliberative conceptions identify democracy with formally rational institutions aimed at generating consensus, while agonistic conceptions present democracy as a mode of contestation resistant to institutionalization and animated by the exclusions inherent in every consensus. The dissertation argues that these opposed conceptions of democracy share the fundamental assumption that autonomy depends on sovereignty, and seeks to dissolve the dilemma between them by showing that autonomy requires not sovereignty but rather the acknowledgement of our mutual dependence characteristic of political integrity Chapter one diagnoses the tendency to assume that autonomy depends on sovereignty. It makes three key claims: that contemporary democratic theorists tend to assume that autonomy and non-sovereignty are mutually incompatible; that this assumption gets its grip on contemporary democratic theory through a certain way of juxtaposing Kant and Nietzsche; and that that way of juxtaposing Kant and Nietzsche ignores Kant's attempt to think through non-sovereign judgment on one side, and Nietzsche's rethinking of autonomy in terms of self-mastery on the other. Chapters two and three read Hegel and Arendt, respectively, as theorists of non-sovereign autonomy. Chapter two claims, first, that Hegel understands autonomy to be incompatible with sovereignty; and, second, that he develops a conception of autonomy that is compatible with plurality because it incorporates responsiveness. Chapter three, in turn, first argues that Arendt understands the political freedom of non-sovereign agents as normative self-determination---as autonomy---and then argues that her complex conception of the human artifice allows her to understand this autonomy as situated within historically contingent structures of meaning. Chapter four brings the concept of autonomy developed over the preceding chapters into conversation with the politics of racial integration in the U.S. It outlines the practice of political integrity, showing how it incorporates responsiveness and situatedness, and argues that this practice can orient the struggles of agents pursuing social justice on the terrain of real-world politics.

MARC

LEADER 00000ntm a22000003i 4500
001 10773260
005 20230623175210.3
007 cr un|---|||||
008 151222s2015 miu||||||m |||| ||eng d
003 ICU
020 |a 9781339080253 
035 |a (MiAaPQD)AAI3724511 
040 |a MiAaPQD  |b eng  |c MiAaPQD  |e rda 
100 1 |a McFadden, Tanner J.,  |e author. 
245 1 4 |a The weight of freedom: Political integrity and non-sovereign autonomy /  |c McFadden, Tanner J. 
260 |c 2015. 
264 1 |a Ann Arbor :  |b ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  |c 2015 
300 |a 1 electronic resource (170 pages) 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a computer  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a online resource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
500 |a Advisors: Patchen Markell Committee members: Robert Gooding-Williams; Linda M. G. Zerilli. 
502 |b Ph.D.  |c The University of Chicago, Division of the Social Sciences, Department of Political Science  |d 2015. 
510 4 |a Dissertation Abstracts International,  |c Volume: 77-02(E), Section: A. 
520 |a This dissertation defends autonomy as a conception of political freedom appropriate to the practice of democratic citizenship. The dissertation argues that autonomy consists in a certain sort of relation to others---that independence consists in a certain sort of dependence. To specify the form of dependence that autonomy requires, the dissertation argues that autonomy requires responsiveness, an ongoing practical acknowledgment of others' interpretive authority, and situatedness, an ongoing practical acknowledgment of our relation to structures of meaning and power that lend significance to our acts and claims. The dissertation identifies the situated, responsive practice of autonomy with political integrity as a conception of political freedom, and argues that political integrity renders autonomy available to agents under the conditions of historical and social dependence highlighted in non-sovereign accounts of human agency. In arguing that autonomy does not depend on sovereignty, the dissertation seeks to overcome the impasse in contemporary democratic theory between deliberative and agonistic conceptions of democracy. Deliberative conceptions identify democracy with formally rational institutions aimed at generating consensus, while agonistic conceptions present democracy as a mode of contestation resistant to institutionalization and animated by the exclusions inherent in every consensus. The dissertation argues that these opposed conceptions of democracy share the fundamental assumption that autonomy depends on sovereignty, and seeks to dissolve the dilemma between them by showing that autonomy requires not sovereignty but rather the acknowledgement of our mutual dependence characteristic of political integrity Chapter one diagnoses the tendency to assume that autonomy depends on sovereignty. It makes three key claims: that contemporary democratic theorists tend to assume that autonomy and non-sovereignty are mutually incompatible; that this assumption gets its grip on contemporary democratic theory through a certain way of juxtaposing Kant and Nietzsche; and that that way of juxtaposing Kant and Nietzsche ignores Kant's attempt to think through non-sovereign judgment on one side, and Nietzsche's rethinking of autonomy in terms of self-mastery on the other. Chapters two and three read Hegel and Arendt, respectively, as theorists of non-sovereign autonomy. Chapter two claims, first, that Hegel understands autonomy to be incompatible with sovereignty; and, second, that he develops a conception of autonomy that is compatible with plurality because it incorporates responsiveness. Chapter three, in turn, first argues that Arendt understands the political freedom of non-sovereign agents as normative self-determination---as autonomy---and then argues that her complex conception of the human artifice allows her to understand this autonomy as situated within historically contingent structures of meaning. Chapter four brings the concept of autonomy developed over the preceding chapters into conversation with the politics of racial integration in the U.S. It outlines the practice of political integrity, showing how it incorporates responsiveness and situatedness, and argues that this practice can orient the struggles of agents pursuing social justice on the terrain of real-world politics. 
546 |a English 
590 |a School code: 0330 
690 |a Political science. 
690 |a Philosophy. 
710 2 |a University of Chicago.  |e degree granting institution. 
720 1 |a Patchen Markell  |e degree supervisor. 
856 4 0 |u http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3724511  |y ProQuest 
035 |a AAI3724511 
929 |a eresource 
999 f f |i 1bbb7b97-9cb1-5f73-aa1b-70ee07258195  |s bdbeaa6c-c1e8-5bd4-9b93-6b1b8dbed002 
928 |t Library of Congress classification  |l Online  |c UC-FullText  |u http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3724511  |z ProQuest  |i 9079487