Feminist Critique and the Realistic Spirit

Linda M. G. Zerilli University of Chicago

Abstract

ABSTRACTContemporary debates over the future of critique, feminist or otherwise, tend to neglect if not perpetuate a reliance on the philosophical tradition, with its disdain for the contingent and indifference to local audiences. If critique is to be realistic, as distinguished from realist or antirealist as the philosophical tradition has defined those terms, it must begin by clarifying the nature and extent of this reliance and begin to develop alternatives. Such an idea of critique would begin by questioning received notions of the relationship between theory and practice, which I argue are unduly inflected by philosophical prejudices. Theory should not be understood as a primarily epistemological or methodological enterprise whose task is to justify the basis of critique. Instead, theory should be conceived, with the rhetorical tradition, as a world-creating, first-order practice that gives meaning and significance to the human commons.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2017-11-15
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.50.4.0589
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (38)

  1. Ahmed, Sara. 2000. “Whose Counting?” Feminist Theory 1(1): 97–103.
  2. Bauer, Nancy. 2015. How to Do Things with Pornography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  3. Benhabib, Seyla. 1986. Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory. New York: C…
  4. Benhabib, Seyla. 1994. “Feminism and Postmodernism.” In Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, ed. S…
  5. Castoriadis, Cornelius. 1997. “Logic, Imagination, Reflection.” In World in Fragments: Writings on Politics, …
Show all 38 →
  1. Diamond, Cora. 1995. The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  2. Dreyfus, Hubert, and Charles Taylor. 2015. Retrieving Realism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  3. Ermath, Elizabeth. 2000. “What Counts as Feminist Theory?” Feminist Theory 1(1): 113–18.
  4. Fassin, Didier. 2017. “The Endurance of Critique.” Anthropological Theory 17(1): 4–29.
  5. Felski, Rita. 2015. The Limits of Critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  6. Ferguson, Niall, ed. 1999. Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals. New York: Basic Books.
  7. Foucault, Michel. 1991. “Questions of Method.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham…
  8. Goodman, Nelson. 1978. Ways of Worldmaking. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
  9. Gunnell, John G. 1993. The Descent of Political Theory: The Genealogy of an American Vocation. Chicago: Unive…
  10. Gunnell, John G. 1998. The Orders of Discourse: Philosophy, Social Science, and Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman …
  11. Habermas, Jürgen. 1994. Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  12. Harding, Sandra. 1997. “Comment on Hekman's ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited’: Whose S…
  13. Hartsock, Nancy C. M. 1997. “Comment on Hekman's ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited’: Tr…
  14. Hawthorn, Geoffrey. 1991. Plausible Worlds: Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences.…
  15. Hekman, Susan. 1997. “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited.” Signs: Journal of Women in Cul…
  16. Hill Collins, Patricia. 1997. “Comment on Hekman's ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited’: …
  17. Kompridis, Nikolas. 2005. “Disclosing Possibility: The Past and Future of Critical Theory.” International Jou…
  18. Kompridis, Nikolas. 2006. Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory Between Past and Future. Cambridge, MA: MI…
  19. Latour, Bruno. 2004. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critica…
  20. Methven, S. J. 2015. Frank Ramsey and the Realistic Spirit. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
  21. Moi, Toril. 2017. Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell. Chicag…
  22. Putnam, Hilary. 1992. Renewing Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  23. Ramal, Randy. 2008. “Realism without Empiricism: Wittgenstein and Whitehead.” Linguistic and Philosophical In…
  24. Rodowick, D. N. 2015. Philosophy's Artful Conversation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  25. Struever, Nancy S. 2009a. The History of Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of History. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
  26. Struever, Nancy S. 2009b. Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  27. Winter, Bronwyn. 2000. “Who Counts (or Doesn't Count) What as Feminist Theory? An Exercise in Dictionary Use.…
  28. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Ed. and trans. G. E. M. Anscombe. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  29. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1960. Preliminary Studies for the “Philosophical Investigations,” Generally Known as th…
  30. Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2005. Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  31. Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2015. “The Turn to Affect and the Problem of Judgment.” New Literary History 46 (2): 261–86.
  32. Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2016a. A Democratic Theory of Judgment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  33. Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2016b. “Feministische Kritik als eine politische Praxis der Freiheit.” In Feminismus und…