The Political Region of Being

• In Event: The Transcendence of Freedom

Abstract

A profound consequence of the idealization of social reality inherent in liberal political thought has been an obscuring of the political itself at the level of the constitution of consciousness. This trajectory parallels the mathematization and idealization of nature described for example by Edmund Husserl. In such a situation, a self-conscious, thematic investigation into the nature of the political becomes the most urgent task for political philosophy. This essay makes the case for a renewal of political philosophy along these lines, drawing on phenomenological concepts and methodology. Because universal experiences such as belonging, authority, and foreignness remain essentially political, they are open to philosophical elucidation and inquiry. The central claim of this essay is that political order and the political community have their own objective reality and corresponding regional ontology that, while founded in various regions, cannot be reduced to any other.

Author

• Michael Forrest Hickman, College of Charleston