Philosophy & Rhetoric Feb 2020

Theory Again

Steven Mailloux Loyola Marymount University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Critical theory is motivated by exigencies internal and external to academic disciplines. This essay discusses some of these motivations, in particular the need to address extreme divisions and polarized conflicts within the wider culture, especially in the domains of politics and religion. Theory can articulate the conditions of possibility for dialogue across radical difference. Such rhetorical theorizing is illustrated in the work of Jacques Derrida and Gaston Fessard, both concerned with political theology. In these two figures, with their different relations to religion and ontotheology, we see notable ways that critical theory emerged out of secular late modernity and its others. That emergence includes a break with earlier forms of philosophical reflection on how communication is accomplished across cultural differences and how the boundary between the secular and the religious is traversed, but the particular content of this transformation also demonstrates a political-theological continuity.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2020-02-21
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.53.1.0062
Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing across the curriculum multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

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Also cites 10 works outside this index ↓
  1. Chérif, Mustapha. 2008. Islam and the West: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chica…
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  2. Felski, Rita. 2015. The Limits of Critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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  3. Fessard, Gaston. 1969. “The Future of a Dialogue Now Possible: To Become Actual or to Remain Impossible?” Tra…
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  4. Frow, John. 2019. On Interpretive Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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  5. Geroulanos, Stefanos. 2011. “Heterogeneities, Slave-Princes, and Marshall Plans: Schmitt's Reception in Hegel…
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  6. Jameson, Fredric. 2004. “Symptoms of Theory or Symptoms for Theory.” Critical Inquiry 30 (2): 403–8.
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  7. Latour, Bruno. 2004. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critica…
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  8. Mailloux, Steven. 2017. Rhetoric's Pragmatism: Essays in Rhetorical Hermeneutics. University Park: Pennsylvan…
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  9. Mailloux, Steven. 2020. “Political Theologies of Sacred Rhetoric.” In Responding to the Sacred: An Inquiry in…
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  10. “Theories and Methodologies.” 2015. PMLA 130 (3): 750–818.
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