A Theory of Aspects: Media Participation and Political Theory

Abstract

aim in this essay is to elaborate a mode of political theorizing that is not beholden to the “how do you know?” question of epistemic validation. Rather than focusing on epistemological arguments, I propose that people interested in studying political theory address the partiality of aspects that emerge when engaging works, and the participation of media in the creation of political concepts. Central to my elaborations is the aesthetic notion that there is no overarching rule that will determine how objects, peoples, and events relate to one another and stand out as relevant to political theory, and that there are no necessary qualifications for participation in political theorizing. The essay is comprised of three sections. The first engages three thinkers of the interpretive turn in political theory: Charles Taylor, Quentin Skinner, and James Tully. The second section assembles three images of thought drawn from three different expressions of three diverse thinkers: Roland Barthes, Stanley Cavell, and Jacques Derrida. In the third section I depart from the theoretical experimentation and interpretive work of the previous sections and redirect attention to the participation of media in political theorizing. I conclude the essay by suggesting that political theory is process of mediation between and amongst a diversity of elements that have no common measure.