Social Ontology: Butler via Arendt via Loidolt

Abstract

This short contribution is written on the occasion of the book discussion of Sophie Loidolt’s Phenomenology of Plurality: Hannah Arendt on Political Intersubjectivity (2018) at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. It presents an attempt to read the two key notions Loidolt elaborates in her book – spaces of meaning and spaces of the public and private – from a critical perspective offered by Judith Butler’s taking up of Arendt’s work. Offering Butler’s conception of social ontology through several major points of contestation with Arendt, I argue against an all too simple reduction of her understanding of the political and normativity to poststructuralist ones.

Ovaj kratak doprinos napisan je povodom diskusije o knjizi Phenomenology of Plurality: Hannah Arendt on Political Intersubjectivity Sofi Lojdolt na Institutu za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju. On predstavlja pokušaj čitanja dva ključna pojma koja Lojdolt izlaže u svojoj knjizi – prostori značenja i prostori javnog i privatnog – iz kritičke perspektive koju Džudit Batler nudi baveći se radom Arentove. Razmatrajući koncepciju socijalne ontologije Batler kroz nekoliko značajnih tačaka njene rasprave sa Arent zalagaću se protiv olake redukcije njenih shvatanja političkog i normativnog na poststrukturalistička shvatanja.