Originary Philosophy as Political Philosophy

Abstract

The substantive use of ‘the political’ instead of the usual concern with politics points to a problem whose theoretical structure becomes clear only within the principled immanence of modernity. Philosophy has been troubled since its Greek origins by its relation to the political sphere. The paradoxical nature of this relation is expressed in the pedagogical imperative that the philosopher (and his public) leave the everyday world of appearance to enter a more real or true landscape. The legitimation of this pedagogical necessity must be made explicit; the ‘transcendental turn’ cannot be presupposed or imposed. Kant’s question of enlightenment, Hegel’s already scientific path to science, and Marx’s ‘lightning of thought’ express this classical dilemma. The modern stress on the principle of immanence implies that the problem must be resolved not only from the side of the subject. The classical ‘transcendental turn’ is not only subjective, as Kant’s ‘Copernican revolution’ seems to imply. That first moment leaves an unintegrated external givenness that escapes the imperative of systematic immanence. A fully modern philosophy must show also a transformation on the side of the objective moment. Marx’s insistence that the world must become philosophical as philosophy becomes worldly calls attention to this point. Kant and Hegel confront the same difficulty without, however, explicitly naming it.