InternationalPoliticalTheorySeries SeriesEditor:GaryBrowning,ProfessorofPolitics,DepartmentofInternational Relations,PoliticsandSociology,OxfordBrookesUniversity,UK The Palgrave International Political Theory series provides students and scholars with cutting-edge scholarship that explores the ways in which we theorise the international. Political theory has by tradition implicitly accepted the bounds of the state, andthisseriesofintellectuallyrigorousandinnovativemonographsandedited volumes takesthedisciplineforward,reflectingboththeburgeoningof IRasa disciplineandtheconcurrentinternationalizationoftraditionalpoliticaltheory issuesandconcepts.Offeringawide-rangingexaminationofhowinternational politics is to be interpreted, the titles in the series thus bridge the IR–political theorydivide. The aim of the series is to explore international issues in analytic, historical and radical ways that complement and extend common forms of conceiving internationalrelationssuchasrealism,liberalismandconstructivism. Titlesinclude: KeithBreenandShaneO’Neill(editors) AFTERTHENATION CriticalReflectionsonNationalismandPostnationalism GaryBrowning GLOBALTHEORYFROMKANTTOHARDTANDNEGRI GaryBrowning,RaiaProkhovnik,andMariaDimova-Cookson(editors) DIALOGUESWITHCONTEMPORARYPOLITICALTHEORISTS TonyBurnsandSimonThompson(editors) GLOBALJUSTICEANDTHEPOLITICSOFRECOGNITION RosineKelz THENON-SOVEREIGNSELF,RESPONSIBILITY,ANDOTHERNESS HannahArendt,JudithButler,andStanleyCavellonMoralPhilosophy andPoliticalAgency AlexandrosKioupkiolis FREEDOMAFTERTHECRITIQUEOFFOUNDATIONS Marx,Liberalism,CastoriadisandAgonisticAutonomy MichaelaNeacsu HANSJ.MORGENTHAU’STHEORYOFINTERNATIONALRELATIONS DisenchantmentandRe-Enchantment AnthonyO’Loughlin OVERCOMINGPOSTSTRUCTURALISM Rawls,KratochwilandtheStructureofNormativeReasoningin InternationalRelations HowardWilliams KANTANDTHEENDOFWAR ACritiqueofJustWarTheory HuwLloydWilliams ONRAWLS,DEVELOPMENTANDGLOBALJUSTICE TheFreedomofPeoples StephenWinter TRANSITIONALJUSTICEINESTABLISHEDDEMOCRACIES APoliticalTheory InternationalPoliticalTheorySeries SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–20538–3hardcover 978–0–230–20539–0paperback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNsquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England The Non-Sovereign Self, Responsibility, and Otherness Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and Stanley Cavell on Moral Philosophy and Political Agency Rosine Kelz AssistantProfessorofSocialTheory,SchoolofVisualArts,NewYork ©RosineKelz2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-50896-6 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2016by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-57681-4 ISBN 978-1-137-50897-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137508973 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Kelz,RosineJudith,1981–author. Thenon-sovereignself,responsibility,andotherness:HannahArendt,JudithButler, andStanleyCavellonmoralphilosophyandpoliticalagency/RosineKelz. pages cm.—(Internationalpoliticaltheory) Summary:“Intimesofglobalization,critiquesofsovereigntyhavebecomea pervasivefeatureofpoliticaltheory.Thisbookinvestigateshowformsofpolitical associationandtheresponsibilitieswehaveforotherscouldbeinformedby non-sovereignconceptsoftheself.Placingthereaderindialoguewith HannahArendt,JudithButlerandStanleyCavell,itengageswithdebatessurrounding thekeyconceptsofidentity,becoming,agencyandethicalresponsibility– specificallyintermsofa‘non-sovereignself’.Non-sovereigntyhighlightshow thought,language,andultimatelyone’sverysurvivaldependonsocialrelationships. Whilenon-sovereignaccountsofhumansociallifehavebecomewidely accepted,thereisanongoingdebateaboutdefinitionsandrolesofkeytermssuch as‘finitude’or‘relationality’andtheconsequencestheyhaveforpolitical thought.DrawingonHannahArendt,JudithButlerandStanleyCavell,thisbook addressescontemporarytheoreticalandpoliticaldebatesinabroadercomparative perspectiveandrearticulatestherelationshipbetweenethicsandpoliticsby highlightingthosewhoarecurrentlyexcludedfromournotionsofpolitical community”—Providedbypublisher. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. Self(Philosophy) 2. Agent(Philosophy) 3. Ethics. 4. Arendt,Hannah, 1906–1975. 5. Butler,Judith,1956– 6. Cavell,Stanley,1926– I. Title. BD438.5.K452015 170—dc23 2015023266 For my brother, Lois Kelz This page intentionally left blank Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 ArendtontheActing,ThinkingandMoralSelf 20 3 TheSituatedandEmbodiedSelf:ButlerandCavellon Subjectivity,Language,andFinitude 46 4 OthernessandanEthicsofResponsibility 78 5 ResponsibilitybeyondtheHuman? 108 6 Re-ImaginingthePolitical 136 Notes 168 Bibliography 200 Index 207 vii 1 Introduction Recent debates about cultural, economic, and political globalisation havepopularisedthenotionofnon-sovereignty.Agrowingunderstand- ing of social interconnections in all areas of life has allowed for the insightthatnon-sovereignty,eventhoughitisoftenperceivedasthreat- ening,isaconditionpoliticalcommunitiesandsingularindividualscan- notovercome.Inthiscontext,non-sovereignconceptsoftheselfstress thewaysinwhichthinking,language,andultimatelyone’sverysurvival depend on social relationships. The relational nature of human exis- tencehasbeenemphasisedbymanyofthemajordirectionsofwestern thoughtsuchashermeneutics,phenomenology,post-structuralism,and post-analytic philosophy. Together with the critique of humanism in the last half of the 20th century, this has led to the reformulation of philosophical anthropologies, where the psychic and bodily aspects of human existence are accentuated. While non-sovereign accounts of human social life have become widely accepted, there is an ongoing debateaboutdefinitionsandrolesofkeytermssuchas‘finitude’,‘rela- tionality’, or ‘difference’ and the consequences they have for political thought.Inparticular,therelationshipbetweenmoralresponsibilityfor othersandpoliticalactionandjudgementremainsdisputed.Thisbook therefore investigates how the non-sovereign self can be understood, and how this concept can influence notions of political association and responsibility for others. I argue that, if formulated in a specific way,anon-sovereignnotionoftheselfcanhelpustodevelopconcep- tions of political agency and connectivity that are closely intertwined withanethicsofresponsibilitytowardsthose‘others’whoarecurrently under-representedinourpoliticalcommunities. This argument is based on the philosophical anthropologies – or notions of the self – formulated by Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and 1 2 TheNon-SovereignSelf,Responsibility,andOtherness Stanley Cavell. While their writings have been highly influential, they have so far not been considered in a comparative manner. Reading them together and against each other, I seek to establish the impor- tance of non-sovereignty for our political and moral thinking. Their approaches highlight a productive tension between assertions regard- ingthe‘communal’characterofsubjectformationandtheuniqueness or separateness of each human existence. While many notions of rela- tionalityimplythatwecannotdefineourethicalandpoliticalpositions independentlyfromtheformativeinfluenceofsociety,anemancipatory andcriticalstancetowardsoursocialenvironmentmakesitnecessaryto distance ourselves from our communities, to rely on our unique selves and develop independent judgements. The notion of non-sovereignty thisbookproposesthereforenotonlyretainsthepossibilityforcritique but defines a critical stance towards any formulation of community as the precondition for emancipatory political action and a moral relationshiptoothers. Each of the three authors this book concentrates on makes a dis- tinctive contribution to the notion of the non-sovereign self. Hannah Arendt’s work provides a unique understanding of political action that highlightsthesingularityandnon-sovereigntyofpoliticalagents.More- over, she enables us to redefine the notion of freedom as decoupled from sovereignty. Judith Butler explores the depth of the vulnerability and opaqueness of the self and the connection between our embod- iedexistenceandourlivesinlanguage.StanleyCavellstressesthatthe stance we take towards our politicalcommunities andour understand- ingofmoralsubjectivityareinterconnected.Heallowsustounderstand that ethics, rather than being merely a concern with the self, relies on acknowledgingthedifferenceofanotherperson.Furthermore,heargues thateventhoughourknowledgeaboutourselvesandothersislimited, moralrelationshipsstilldependonautonomouschoices. As my usage of the term ‘philosophical anthropology’ implies, this work rests on the assumption that our political convictions and moral values are based on broader ontological notions. Asserting ontologi- cal grounds that direct ethical and political judgements, however, has become controversial. Previously the nature of our common existence couldbeexplainedandjustifiedbyreferencetoabeliefinan omnipo- tentGodorthecognitivepowersoftherationalhumansubject.Atleast from the 19th century onwards, however, critical voices against the idea of an ‘ultimate foundation’ have become abundant. Any onto- logical project, it has been argued, is not only historically contingent butitalsooftenfunctionsasajustificationfortheformofsocietyand