Political theory between philosophy and rhetoric. Politics as transcendence and contingency
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Political theory between philosophy and rhetoric. Politics as transcendence and contingency Giuseppe Ballacci Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-349-95292-2 Contemporary Political Theory (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-019-00314-2
Since 2016, we have been living in what are surely exciting times for political theorists, even if they have been very troubling times for liberally minded citizens. The recent political ruptures have opened up new ground, nay, new and urgent need for a renewed political theory. Here I am not referring to the vain Schadenfreude that some scholars of the theoretical persuasion might have momentarily felt when the allegedly more rigorous political science, self-assured in its methods, statistics, graphs and formulas, failed in its predictions of the outcomes of both the UK referendum on EU membership and the U.S. presidential elections. Rather, this failure shows, firstly, that graphs and formulas alone remain insufficient for navigating the web of human interactions, woven by endless combinations of desires, fears, beliefs, and other variables. Perhaps more importantly, it has become quite apparent that much of political theory and philosophy, too, might need to rethink their orientation and priorities, as well as some of their basic assumptions, should they seek to fill this monumental gap in mutual trust and understanding between the experts and the demos – a gap that has become both obvious and urgent to address in our times. Giuseppe Ballacci’s Political Theory between Philosophy and Rhetoric. Politics as Transcendence and Contingency is a significant contribution to preparing this reorientation, and in this sense, could not have been timelier. A major reason for the inability of most political philosophy, political science and public deliberation to meaningfully engage with the political challenges that define our age is, Ballacci argues, their largely unquestioned adherence to the ‘hyper-rationalist paradigms’ (p. 2), and he proposes to overcome this impediment by recovering a sensibility to the role of the extra-rational in political communication. In this endeavour, Ballacci’s explorations celebrate and extend the ‘rhetoric revival in political theory’ (p. 2), most commonly associated with the work of Quentin Skinner, Maurizio Viroli, and Bryan Garsten. Yet, in a way, Ballacci is more outspoken Ó 2019 Springer Nature Limited. 1470-8914 Contemporary Political Theory www.palgrave.com/journals
Review
regarding the ambitious scope of his argument, which seeks to persuade the reader that the antagonistic relationship between philosophy and rhetoric is expressive of the near-ontological ‘tension which lies at the very core of politics: that between the contingency in which politics occurs and the transcendence towards which it strives’ (p. 3). While most contemporary political theory tends to overlook it, or even deny either contingency and/or transcendence any role in reputable political discourse in the first place – and here it would be difficult to disagree
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