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Vulnerability: a Beginning

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Vulnerability: a Beginning 1 Vulnerability: A Beginning. The Ethical and Political Potential of The Blush and Embarrassment. Michael Kelvin Hearn Bachelor of Arts (Honours Class 1) 0000-0001-7295-2404 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in Year 2020 School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry 2 Abstract This thesis is motivated by my resistance to the view that vulnerability lacks the normative force to be at the heart of an ethico-political ideal. My intuition is that vulnerability is a necessary pre-condition for those conditions that produce moral consciousness; a consciousness that expresses itself by way of the blush and embarrassment. As such, I am arguing that if it is a moral world we are interested in, then we are compelled to promote the ethico-political conditions that best support these expressions of our vulnerability, defined now by our moral exposure to the other. With Friedrich Nietzsche and Emmanuel Levinas as my principal guides, and to a lesser but no less important extent, Judith Butler, I hope to address this view by appealing to a projection account of vulnerability, as opposed to a protection account. This language comes from a Derridean reading of the Greek problēma; insofar as it might be said of vulnerability that it presents us with a problem, then this ‘denotes as much the task of projection as the edge of protection’ (Derrida, Aporias, 1993, 11-12, 40). Regarding the former, I am interested in exploring vulnerability as an attitude, a posture informed by the body that implies a mental state, itself indicative of an idea or emotion. As such, vulnerability, I am arguing, calls on us, by expression of our ideas and emotions, to project at the very edge of that which cries out for protection. By this I mean (mindful still of Derrida), that while my instinct is to hide from that which may impinge upon me; I may even go so far as to hide my vulnerability altogether by disavowing it; in the face of such, the projection account of vulnerability compels me nonetheless towards an attitude, a posture, informed by the vulnerable body. Such an account requires that vulnerability’s voice be heard, which is to say that the body be allowed to Speak. In order to gain a clearer understanding of what the body is Saying, I will utilise social/psychology research, including the work of Raymond Crozier and Zygmunt Bauman, to support my argument that the blush communicates our genius as morally ambivalent animals. This genius further expresses itself by way of embarrassment; as both the aporia of a knowledge emotion, such as confusion, and a self-conscious emotion, like shame for example. To the extent that philosophy has anything to say about the blush, it is invariably witnessed as the pink blush (of shame). To this end, I will explore Jean Paul Sartre’s, as well as Levinas’ accounts of shame, alongside Aristotelean aidos and Norbert Elias’s genealogy of embarrassment, if only to demonstrate that perhaps there is more to be gained from blurring the distinction, in order that we might hear what the body is Saying. Regarding embarrassment, as something like the aporia of confusion, I will turn to the story of the student from Bologna, as told by Robert Antelme, in order to rehabilitate the blush and embarrassment such that they might reveal their ethical and political potential. I trust that by listening to what the body is Saying, I might go some way towards reconciling the body that knows Openness with the body of knowing that endeavours towards (thinking) openness, and in so doing reveal something of the normative potential for an ethico-political ideal that takes for its name, vulnerability. 3 Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, financial support and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my higher degree by research candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis and have sought permission from co- authors for any jointly authored works included in the thesis. 4 Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Submitted manuscripts included in this thesis No manuscripts submitted for publication. Other publications during candidature No other publications. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree No contributions by others. Research involving human or animal subjects No animal or human subjects were involved in this research. 5 Acknowledgments I acknowledge the assistance of Associate Professor Marguerite La Caze (Principal Supervisor) and Associate Professor Matthew Sharpe (Associate Supervisor). I also acknowledge the assistance from various members of administrative staff in School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. 6 Financial support This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. This research was supported by travel funding from School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. Keywords vulnerability, the blush, embarrassment, emotions, ethics, politics. Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ANZSRC code: 220319, Social Philosophy, 50% ANZSRC code: 220311, Philosophy Psychology, 30% ANZSRC code: 220310, Phenomenology, 20% Fields of Research (FoR) Classification FoR code: 2203, Philosophy, 70% FoR code: 1608, Sociology, 20% FoR code: 1701, Psychology, 10% 7 Table of Contents PROLOGUE 8 CHAPTER 1 - VULNERABILITY: THE BODY THAT KNOWS OPENNESS 20 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 20 1.2 – THE ‘PROBLEM’ WITH VULNERABILITY 24 1.3 – NIETZSCHE: THE BODY 26 1.4 – LEVINAS: THE SAYING; THE BODY 30 1.5 – BUTLER: THE EMBODIED SUBJECT; RESISTANCE 35 1.6 – CONCLUSION 39 CHAPTER II - VULNERABILITY: SHAME (AND EMBARRASSMENT) 42 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 42 1.2 – SHAME (AND EMBARRASSMENT); A BRIEF ‘HISTORY’ 44 1.3 – LEVINAS ON SHAME: ONTOLOGY TO ETHICS; BEING TO OTHERWISE THAN BEING 50 1.4 – SARTREAN SHAME: ALL ‘PRAISE’ THE OTHER 56 1.5 – SHAME (EMBARRASSMENT, SOMETHING LIKE CONFUSION); A SENSE OF BELONGING 62 1.6 – CONCLUSION 65 CHAPTER III - VULNERABILITY: PATHOS; EMBARRASSMENT; (THINKING) OPENNESS 67 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 67 1.2 – THE PATHOS OF OPENNESS 70 1.3 – EMBARRASSMENT (AS APORIA) 78 1.4 – LEVINAS: THE BEGINNING; OPENNESS 84 1.5 – CONCLUSION 88 CHAPTER IV - VULNERABILITY: THE BLUSH (AND EMBARRASSMENT) 92 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 92 1.2 – THE BLUSH 94 1.3 – EMBARRASSMENT (OTHER THAN APORIA) 103 1.4 – THUS SPOKE THE STUDENT FROM BOLOGNA 107 1.5 - CONCLUSION 115 CHAPTER V - VULNERABILITY: POSTMODERN ETHICS; A BEGINNING 118 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 118 1.2 – BAUMAN’S POSTMODERN ETHICS 123 1.3 – CONCLUSION 143 CHAPTER VI - VULNERABILITY: A POLITICS OF LOSS 146 1.1 – INTRODUCTION 146 1.2 – LEVINAS – THE THIRD; JUSTICE; TIME 149 1.3 – MAKING A HABIT OF THE DECISION, OF JUSTICE, AND AIDOS 159 1.4 – CONCLUSION 173 EPILOGUE 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY 182 8 Prologue If by the conclusion of this thesis it is the reader’s view that its claims are relatively modest, mundane even, I will judge it to have been a success. It would be folly to think that in the space allowed I might fully account for an ethico-political ideal that takes for its name, vulnerability. This is not to say that I think the task impossible; rather, it is to suggest the direction of future research into a politics of loss; one that retreats from the scene of ethics in order that it might reclaim it by expression of its work ethic; an ethics defined by making a habit (hexis) out of the pursuit of justice. In short, it is the pursuit of justice, rather than justice itself, by which politics can now claim itself to be virtuous. I mention politics, the subject of the final chapter, at the outset because I am aware of the context, the world, into which this document is delivered, a world riven by climate and culture wars (for the first time perhaps, when it comes to the former); a world in the grip of a global pandemic; a world that desires above all else to retreat behind borders (if certain populist leaders are to be believed), from behind which we admit only those whom we judge to be acceptable, which is to say sufficiently like us so as not to disturb the status quo. And yet, the state (of affairs) is itself riven by social and political unrest, such that the one waiting patiently on the other side of the border might well reflect on why it was they sought entry in the first place? Borders speak to protection from all that might impinge upon us by way of the unwanted, the uninvited, Other.
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