This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Reason, Detachment and Political Egalitarianism A Critically Analytical Exploration in Thomas Nagel and Pseudo-Dionysian Apophaticism Exall, Maria Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Reason, Detachment and Political Egalitarianism: A Critically Analytical Exploration in Thomas Nagel and Pseudo-Dionysian Apophaticism MARIA EXALL PhD ABSTRACT With particular constructive epistemological and political goals strategically in view, this thesis undertakes a critically analytical comparison of key aspects of the thought of Thomas Nagel and the ‘intellectual stream’ of the apophatic tradition originating from the works of Pseudo-Dionysius. In drawing on Nagel, an American ‘analytical’ philosopher, as a primary source, it seeks, in more general terms, to contribute in unique ways to a recent broader renewal of interest in Pseudo-Dionysius for contemporary philosophical and theological concerns. Substantially and specifically, however, in taking the role of detachment in both primary interlocutors as its central guiding focus, the thesis uncovers several fundamental and mutually illuminating orientational and structural resonances between the two, not least among which is a demonstration of the indispensable interwovenness and integration of the epistemological, ethical and political domains in both. Through this integration the thesis seeks further to show in new ways and along fresh trajectories not only the essential ‘this-worldly’ or socially engaged orientation at the heart of detachment, but also the full rational accountability of detachment in both Nagel and Dionysius. Despite their striking similarities, however, crucial differences will be found between the two, most especially in the ‘extent’ of the detachment allowed or demanded by each: differences which will be shown to have an especially important bearing when considering Nagel’s political theory. Whilst the ‘liberal egalitarianism’ yielded by Nagel’s programme is grounded in a ‘two standpoints’ model of detachment – a model which must retain an element of the ‘personal standpoint’ along with the detached ‘impersonal standpoint’ – the ‘radical’ detachment of Dionysian apophaticism (for which Meister Eckhart will be the later exemplar), demands a full ‘erasure’ of the personal perspective, thereby yielding what we shall be calling a ‘kenotic egalitarianism’, key commitments and characteristics of which will be explored at the conclusion. ii CONTENTS Introduction 1 1. Dionysian Studies in Contemporary Scholarship and a 2 Preliminary Rationale for Drawing on Nagel as an Interlocutor 2. Annotated Chapter Outline 12 2.a Historical and philosophical context of Dionysian 12 apophaticism (Chapters 1 and 2) 2.b Dionysian apophaticism and Nagel’s epistemology 15 and ethics (Chapters 3 and 4) 2.c Self-transcendence, detachment and universalism 16 (Chapters 5 and 6) Chapter 1: Faith, Reason and the Dionysian Dialectic 18 1. The Historical Context of the Dionysian Texts 19 1.a Historical context 20 1.b The history of the Dionysian texts 24 1.c The question of orthodoxy 31 1.d The affective turn 35 1.e The move to ‘inner’ devotion 38 Summary 40 2. Reading the Dionysian Texts Today 41 2.a Dionysian apophaticism and the development of 42 an instrumentalist spirituality 2.b Dionysian apophaticism, experientialism and 46 ‘spiritual positivism’ 2.c Dionysian apophaticism and ‘mystical 49 consciousness’? Summary 51 Chapter 2: The Plotinian Origins of the Dionysian Dialectic 53 1. Plotinus the Mystical Realist 54 1.a The teleology of non-being 54 1.b Mystical realism 60 iii 1.c From aphaeresis to apophasis 63 1.d The double status of transcendence and immanence 65 1.e Ascent or apophasis? 68 1.f The telos of the intellect 69 Summary 72 2. Dialectical Theism or Deconstruction 73 2.a Derrida and the Dionysian concept of beyond being 73 2.b Beyond Derrida 77 Summary 82 Conclusion 82 Chapter 3: Thomas Nagel’s Epistemology of Objectivity 85 1. The Starting Point of Introspection 87 1.a Objectivity, subjectivity, realism and the scope of 88 Reason 1.b Rorty, Nagel and the ‘view from nowhere’ 93 1.c The depth of reason: To the unknown within 104 1.d Reason, certainty and universality 106 1.e The infinite within the finite 109 1.f Nagel’s criticism of Kant’s concept of noumena 113 2. The View from Nowhere – Abstraction, or Ambition 116 for Transcendence? 2.a Introspection in Plotinus and Nagel 117 2.b The view from nowhere and objectiveless awareness 121 2.c Realism and the claims of human reason 123 Summary 125 Chapter 4: Reason And Ethics: Our Participation In Truth 127 1. Objectivity, Ethical Motivation and Teleology in Nagel 128 1.a Objectivity and realism in practical reasoning 129 1.b Objectivity, rationality and the source of moral 131 authority 1.c Objectivity, rationality and internalism 134 1.d Objectivity, rationality and ethical motivation 136 1.e Teleology and the participatory theory of truth 138 Summary 141 2. The Impersonal Standpoint 141 2.a Objectivity and the allocation of value in a ‘centreless’ 142 world iv 2.b The impersonal standpoint and the teleology of 147 the ‘moral gap’ 2.c Impartiality and partiality 149 2.d The problem of the two standpoints 152 2.e Impartiality and inequality 149 Summary 158 Conclusion 158 Chapter 5: Impartiality and Equality in Nagel’s Political Theory 160 1. Nagel’s Political Theory 160 1.a Nagel’s moral consquentialism and utilitarianism 161 1.b Nagel and rights-based political theory 164 2. Equality and Partiality in Nagel’s Liberal Egalitarianism 168 2.a Egalitarianism and political legitimacy 170 2.b Nagel’s case for ‘strong’ egalitarianism 173 3. Political Progress and the Integrated Life of the Self 177 3.a Politics and the transformation of motive 178 3.b Towards the egalitarian social ideal 181 3.c Nagel’s political model of self-transcendence 183 Summary 185 Chapter 6: Detachment, Universalism and Equality in 187 Nagel and Eckhart 1. Identifying Problems with Nagel’s Concept of Egalitarian 188 Political Change 1.a Universalisability, individuality and collectivity 191 in Nagel 1.b Detachment and universality: Common elements in 193 Nagel and the Dionysian tradition 1.c An irreducibility of the two standpoints and 196 the desire for integration Summary 199 2. Detachment, Equality and Spiritual Poverty 200 2.a Abstraction in Nagel and ‘naked being’ in The Book 202 of Privy Counselling 2.b Detachment, equality and ‘bare’ being in Eckhart 209 2.c The ‘nothingness’ of the self and the paradox 216 of interiority v Summary 222 Conclusion: Toward a ‘Kenotic’ Egalitarianism 224 1. Liberal Egalitarianism, Kenotic Egalitarianism and the 225 impersonal standpoint 2. Characteristics of a Kenotic Egalitarianism 233 Bibliography 236 vi Introduction Via focused engagements with central features of the philosophy of Thomas Nagel, this thesis seeks to retrieve for current understanding a renewed appreciation of the ‘intellectual stream’ of Dionysian apophaticism, with a view generally to demonstrating crucial links and commonalities between the rational demands of faith and ‘spirituality’ on the one hand, and those of philosophy and academic theology on the other. More specifically, however, in terms of its ultimate goals, the thesis aims, through the critical comparison of Nagel and Dionysian apophaticism, to offer new and constructive contributions in the area of political theology by reclaiming a kind of egalitarianism as a legitimate and productive basis for a Christian political outlook as much as it can be for an atheistic or non-religious outlook (such as Nagel’s). By taking a contemporary ‘analytical’ philosopher as a primary point of reference, this thesis also seeks to bring a new, contemporary context and voice to the understanding of ‘detachment’ in the Pseudo-Dionysian tradition and to consider the implications of this for political theology. The thesis begins with an historical and analytical exploration of Dionysian apophaticism in dialogue with the work of recent scholars, including the historian of Christian mysticism Bernard McGinn and theologian Denys Turner. Their readings of the nature of the tradition as rational, world-affirming, dialectical and a-theistic will be contrasted with other readings, both pre-modern and modern. The thesis then turns to a strategically focused critical exploration of key aspects of Nagel’s epistemology and philosophical ethics, in which the adoption of an ‘impersonal standpoint’ (a form of detachment) is a crucial and necessary component of his rational grounding of moral objectivism. While a subsequent extended critical comparison will identify strong and constructive resonances between Nagel and Dionysian apophaticism on epistemological, moral and political levels, crucial differences will also be found between the process of detachment and the ethical motivation assumed by Nagel’s political theory and those of Meister Eckhart, an exemplar of the intellectual stream of Dionysian apophaticism.