Sentimental Empiricism: Politics, Philosophy, and Criticism in Postwar France

Sentimental Empiricism reconsiders the legacy of eighteenth and nineteenth century empiricism and moral sentimentalism for the intellectual formation of the generation of postwar French thinkers whose work came to dominate Anglophone conversations across the humanities under the guise of “French theory.” Panagia’s book first shows what was missed in the reception of this literature in the Anglophone academy by attending to how France’s pedagogical milieu plays out church and state relations in the form of educational debates around reading practices, the aesthetics of mimesis, French imperialism, and republican universalism. Panagia then shows how such thinkers as Jean Wahl, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilbert Simondon, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault develop a sentimental empiricist critical philosophy that distances itself from dialectical critique and challenges the metaphysical premise of inherent relations, especially as it had been articulated in the tradition of Aristotelian scholasticism. Panagia develops the long disputed political legacy of French theory through an exploration of how these thinkers came to understand an aesthetic of mimesis as a credentialing standard for selection to political participation. Since, in France, the ability to imitate well is a state qualification necessary to access offices of elite power, the political, aesthetic, and philosophical critique of mimesis became one of the defining features of sentimental empiricist thought. By exploring the historical, intellectual, cultural, and philosophical complexities of this political aesthetic, Panagia shows how and why postwar French thinkers turned to a tradition of sentimental empiricism in order to develop a new form of criticism attentive to the dispositional powers of domination. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Epigraph Introduction The Project A Minor Mode of Critical Thinking Some Adjacent Precursors Chapter Summaries Part I. Missed Understandings 1. Reading Political Theory in Postwar America and Postwar France Political Literarity in Postwar America Siren Songs A Peculiarly American Theoretical Dispositif The Operant A Science of and for the State Political Literarity in Postwar France Reading Texts Closely The Programme de l’Agrégation Political Relations Catholic Substances Engines, Turbines, Factories and Washing Machines Conclusion: Political Theory, Reading, and Mésentente 2. Mimesis, the explication de texte, and State Thinking The Institution of “le même” On the 1599 Ratio Studiorum Gustave Lanson and the explication de texte Conclusion Part II. Dispositionalities 3. Jean Wahl, Empirico-Criticism, and the Concrete Jean Wahl: The Interwar Years Vers le concret Conclusion 4. Simone de Beauvoir and the Elementary Structures of Patriarchy Simone de Beauvoir: A Political Thinker Patriarchy and the Indirect Passions The Sentimental Powers of Arrangement The Indirect Passion of Patriarchy Conclusion 5. More than a Unity: Gilbert Simondon’s Sentimental Empiricism The Sentimental Empiricism of Gilbert Simondon A Sentimental Empiricist Philosophy of Technical Objects 6. Gilles Deleuze: Displacing Reflection Deleuze, Reader of Hume Inversions 7. Michel Foucault and the Political Ontology of the Dispositif A Political Morphology of the Dispositif A Political Aesthetics of Foucault’s Dispositif Conclusion Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Introduction 1. Reading Political Theory in Postwar America and Postwar France 2. Mimesis, the explication de texte, and State Thinking 3. Jean Wahl, Empirico-Criticism, and the Concrete 4. Simone de Beauvoir and the Elementary Structures of Patriarchy 5. More than a Unity: Gilbert Simondon’s Sentimental Empiricism 6. Gilles Deleuze: Displacing Reflection 7. Michel Foucault and the Political Ontology of the Dispositif Epilogue Bibliography Index Author Sentimental Empiricism reconsiders the legacy of eighteenth and nineteenth century radical empiricism and moral sentimentalism for the intellectual formation of the generation of postwar French thinkers whose work came to dominate Anglophone conversations across the humanities under the guise of French theory. Panagias book first shows what was missed in the reception this literature in the Anglophone academy by attending to how Frances pedagogical milieu plays out church and state relations in the form of educational debates around reading practices, the aesthetics of mimesis, French imperialism, and republican universalism. Panagia then shows how such thinkers as Jean Wahl, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilbert Simondon, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault develop a sentimental empiricist critical philosophy that distances itself from dialectical critique and challenges the metaphysical premise of inherent relations, especially as it had been articulated in the tradition of Aristotelian scholasticism. Panagia develops the long disputed political legacy of French theory through an exploration of how these thinkers came to understand an aesthetic of mimesis as a credentialing standard for selection to political participation. Since, in France, the ability to imitate well is a state qualification necessary to access offices of elite power, the political, aesthetic, and philosophical critique of mimesis became one of the defining features of sentimental empiricist thought. By exploring the historical, intellectual, cultural, and philosophical complexities of this political aesthetic, Panagia shows how and why postwar French thinkers turned to a tradition of sentimental empiricism in order to develop a new form of criticism attentive to the dispositional powers of domination. This book is available from the publisher on an open access basis.