The occasion of criticism: Its ethic and pedagogy

Abstract

For some time now the ethical and pedagogical functions of criticism have been understood in terms of the project to provide Romantic Bildung with a theoretical clarification and foundation. This paper argues that such a project cannot be carried through because ethical criticism is not founded in representations but in instituted ethical techniques and practices whose deployment is occasional. The relationship between ethical and theoretical criticism is then reconsidered in terms of a common regimen of ethical problematisation and person-formation.