Research Article

Emptiness of Freedom: An Analysis of Jacques Rancière’s Understanding of Politics Through Tocqueville

Number: 16 December 15, 2021
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Emptiness of Freedom: An Analysis of Jacques Rancière’s Understanding of Politics Through Tocqueville

Abstract

In this article, first, I introduce my account of Ranciere’s political thought. I argue that Ranciere’s description of politics through disagreement is a novel project due to its revelation of the paradox of politics as rational . Second, there is a general assumption about Rancière’s dismissal of any kind of politics within the police order. I oppose this criticism because Rancière does not define police and egalitarian orders as static and individual identity and subjectification as singular. Third , I show that there is a crucial problem in Rancière’s theory in terms of his understanding of the relationship between equality and freedom. I argue that the connection between equality and freedom may not be that strong as Rancière wants us to think and that the democratic ideal of equality may have adverse effects on politics by introducing Tocqueville’s criticism of democratic equality . Finally, by an analysis of political events presented in Disagreement, I argue that Rancière’s emancipatory politics demands a supposition of certain kind of human nature. Hence, the role of politics as the producer of knowledge and change, and the importance of third parties should be taken account for the manifestation of incommensurable wrong for Rancière ’s theory of politics to work.

Keywords

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Philosophy

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

December 15, 2021

Submission Date

May 31, 2021

Acceptance Date

July 8, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Number: 16

Chicago
Göksel, Gülay Uğur. 2021. “Emptiness of Freedom: An Analysis of Jacques Rancière’s Understanding of Politics Through Tocqueville”. Temaşa Erciyes Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü Dergisi, nos. 16: 20-32. https://izlik.org/JA37JR95WM.