Abstract
This article takes up recent discussions of nature and the sensorium in order to rethink public reason in deeply divided societies. The aim is not to reject the role of reason-giving but rather to infuse it with new meaning, bringing the reasonable back to its sensorially inflected circumstances. The article develops this argument via a sensorial orientation to politics that not only reframes existing critiques of neo-Kantianism but also includes an alternative, renaturalized conception of public reason, one that allows us to overcome the disconnect between the account we give of reason and the way it is mobilized in a world of deep pluralism. The article concludes with a discussion of how a renaturalized conception of public reason might change the positioning of contemporary democratic theory vis-à-vis the struggle for empowerment and pluralization in an age of neo-liberalism and state-surveillance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Teoria |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 165-182 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISSN | 1122-1259 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Public reason
- democratic citizenship
- Sensation
- Sense making