Does emancipation devour its children? Beyond a stalled dialectic of emancipation

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Political Theory
• Critical Theory

Background:

• Emancipation is paradoxical, acting as both a facilitator and destroyer of progressive agendas like equality and sustainability.
• Ingolfur Blühdorn's 'dialectic of emancipation' highlights this dilemma without offering a resolution.
• Late modernity lacks universal criteria for judging autonomy claims, risking subjectivism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reframe emancipation not as a solved problem but as an ongoing task for modern individuals.
• To propose a framework for understanding and navigating the complexities of emancipatory projects.
• To integrate insights from Foucault and Arendt to conceptualize emancipation as a political, world-building activity.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis drawing on the works of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt.
• Conceptual reinterpretation of 'emancipation' beyond Blühdorn's dialectic.
• Exploration of autonomy as a central concept in late modernity.

Main Results:

• Emancipation is presented as a continuous task, requiring individuals to claim and critically judge autonomy.
• Judging autonomy claims is reframed as a political, 'world-building' activity, not mere subjectivism.
• Critical social theory can actively participate in this process by taking sides.

Conclusions:

• Emancipation requires ongoing engagement with the tension between progressive aims and their potential negative consequences.
• The ability to judge legitimate versus illegitimate claims to autonomy is crucial for navigating late modernity.
• Critical social theory has a role in actively shaping the social and political world through engaged judgment.