Pluralism

Connolly William E. Connolly

Description

Over the past two decades, the renowned political theorist William E. Connolly has developed a powerful theory of pluralism as the basis of a territorial politics. In this concise volume, Connolly launches a new defense of pluralism, contending that it has a renewed relevance in light of pressing global and national concerns, including the war in Iraq, the movement for a Palestinian state, and the fight for gay and lesbian rights. Connolly contends that deep, multidimensional pluralism is the best way to promote justice and inclusion without violence. He advocates a deep pluralism-in contrast to shallow, secular pluralism-that helps to create space for different groups to bring their religious faiths into the public realm. This form of deep pluralism extends far beyond faith, encompassing multiple dimensions of social and personal lives, including household organization and sexuality.Connolly looks at pluralism not only in light of faith but also in relation to evil, ethics, relativism, globalization, and sovereignty. In the process, he engages many writers and theorists-among them, Spinoza, William James, Henri Bergson, Marcel Proust, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Talal Asad, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri. Pluralism is the first book in which Connolly explains the relationship between pluralism and the experience of time, and he offers readings of several films that address how time is understood, including Time Code, Far from Heaven, Waking Life, and The Maltese Falcon. In this necessary book Connolly brings a compelling, accessible philosophical critique together with his personal commitment to an inclusive political agenda to suggest how we might-and why we must-cultivate pluralism within both society and ourselves.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Social theory

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 16 septembre 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822387084
• Langue: English

Extrait

P L U R A L I S M

P L U R A L I S M

william e. connolly

Duke University Press Durham and London 2005

∫2005 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper$

Designed by Sam Potts Inc.

Typeset in Scala by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

3

5

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C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments

1

Prelude 1

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P L U R A L I S M A N D E V I L 11

P L U R A L I S M A N D R E L AT I V I S M 38

P L U R A L I S M A N D T H E U N I V E R S E 68

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Interlude 93

P L U R A L I S M A N D T I M E 97

P L U R A L I S M A N D S O V E R E I G N T Y 131

Postlude: Belonging to Time 161

Notes

Index

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to thank the Trustees of the Leverhulme Foundation and the faculty at Exeter University for selecting me for the Leverhulme Pro- fessorship I held at Exeter in the fall of 2003. Most of this manuscript was completed at Exeter. Three chapters were presented to the faculty. As a Leverhulme Professor I also gave papers at other universities in En- gland, including the London School of Economics, Essex University, the University of Bristol, and the University of Newcastle. Discussions and debates at these universities were valuable to me in developing this study. A faculty seminar was also organized on ‘‘Politics and Time’’ at Exeter. Its sessions helped me to think further about the central issues in this book. I mention Robin Durie, Will Large, John Dupre, Martin Wood, Tim Dunne, Ian Hampsher-Monk, Jane Bennett, and Regenia Gagnier as colleagues whose participation in the seminar and other discussions was extremely gratifying. We pushed each other to sharpen thoughts that were unclear at first and to take back things that never did become that clear. I would like, above all, to thank Nathan Widder for his admi- rable work in organizing this seminar, his thoughtful participation in it,

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AC K N O W L E D G M E N T S

and his actions well beyond the call of duty in making me feel at home in Exeter. I have given versions of these chapters at a national graduate student conference on ‘‘Critical Theory in Dark Times’’ at the University of Min- nesota in May 2004, at a meeting of the Japanese Association of Ameri- can Studies in Kyoto in the summer of 2004, at the Conference on ‘‘Experimenting with Intensities’’ at the University of Trent in May 2004, at the University of California, Berkeley, in the spring of 2002, and at a symposium at Grinnell College on ‘‘Modernity and Evil’’ in the spring of 2001. The ensuing discussions were helpful in sharpening the themes of this book. I note Wendy Brown, Constantin Boundas, Brian Massumi, Rosi Braidotti, Erin Manning, Steve Johnston, Eleanor Kaufman, Daniel Smith, Paul Patton, John Protevi, Kathy Trevenen, Paul Saurette, Fumi- aki Kubo, Davide Panagia, Atsushi Sugita, Kathleen Skerrett, and Alan Schrift in particular for insights they provided on these occasions. Johns Hopkins is a vibrant place to study political theory. Hent de Vries and Paola Marrati in the Humanities Center, Veena Das, Gyan Pandey, and Ruby Lal in the Anthropology Department, Amanda Ander- son, Michael Moon, and Jonathan Goldberg in English, and Jane Ben- nett, Jennifer Culbert, and Dick Flathman in political theory all play important roles in my thinking. Above all, I express appreciation to the graduate students in political theory and allied fields at Hopkins, for the experimental mood and reflective disposition that they bring to semi- nars. Lars Tonder, Matt Scherer, Matt Moore, Mina Suk, Bhrigu Singh, George Oppel, Simon Glezos, Paulina Ochoa, Smita Rahman, and Nick Tampio are working on related issues; their papers and critical engage- ments have been illuminating to me. Thomas Dumm and David Camp- bell kindly read every chapter of this manuscript in an earlier draft. Their commentaries have been extremely helpful to me in crafting the final version. In that respect, I thank Jane Bennett again. A seminar that we taught together at Hopkins on ‘‘Time and Politics’’ finds ample expres- sion in this book, as do the comments she has made on earlier drafts of these chapters. Two of these chapters were published elsewhere in shorter and dif- ferent versions. I thank Indiana University Press for permission to re-

AC K N O W L E D G M E N T S

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print in chapter 1 material from ‘‘Faith, Territory and Evil,’’ in Alan Schrift, ed.,Modernity and the Problem of Evil (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004). I also thank Routledge Press for permission to publish in chapter 5 sections from ‘‘The Complexity of Sovereignty,’’ in Jenny Edkins and Michael Shapir, eds.,Sovereign Lives: Power in Global Politics(London: Routledge, 2004), 23–40.