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On Hypothetical Contracts Karim Barakat Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-11-2018 On Hypothetical Contracts Karim Barakat Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Barakat, K. (2018). On Hypothetical Contracts (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/ etd/1456 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ON HYPOTHETICAL CONTRACTS A Dissertation Submitted to McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Karim Barakat May 2018 Copyright by Karim Barakat 2018 ON HYPOTHETICAL CONTRACTS By Karim Barakat Approved April 13, 2018 ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Daniel Selcer Dr. Fred Evans Associate Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Ronald Polansky Dr. Peg Birmingham Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy (Committee Member) (External Committee Member: DePaul University) ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. James Swindal Dr. Ronald Polansky Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, Department of Philosophy School of Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT ON HYPOTHETICAL CONTRACTS By Karim Barakat May 2018 Dissertation supervised by Professor Daniel Selcer My dissertation develops a critique of Rawlsian social contract theory by arguing that the normative component of democratic practices must be grounded in nonpolitical reasons. With John Rawls’s rights-based approach, social contract theory has strongly resurfaced by focusing on consent as the basic condition for the formation of a just state. The emphasis on agreement leads Rawls to exclude historical, religious, or philosophical reasons from justifying the ideal conception of justice. Consequently, Rawls completely separates politics from any nonpolitical grounding. I argue, however that Rawls’s project cannot account for its normative commitments unless it makes use of a nonpolitical ground. By invoking Foucault’s historicism and Hobbes’s materialism, I maintain that one way to justify political practices follows from conceiving the activity of political power in material terms. This materialism, moreover, makes room for recognizing iv multiple forms of power relations that have developed historically. I contend, therefore, that a historical material analysis offers a better understanding of how political power functions, and thus allows us to conduct critique effectively. However, justifying normative claims cannot follow from such a descriptive view and must appeal to cultivating virtue in individuals. I argue that recognizing the pervasive operation of power relations should lead us to cultivate a skeptical attitude with regards to our own views. This skepticism, moreover, serves the purpose of reducing antagonism between different views in favor of a more engaged politics that jettisons the divide between public and private reason. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful for the support I’ve received from my committee director, Dr. Dan Selcer, in addition to all the insightful feedback that Dr. Fred Evans provided. This project could not have been completed without the support I’ve received from my family, especially my wife Bana and my parents. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... viii Introduction ........................................................................................................................ xi Chapter One: The Normative Grounding of Reasonableness ............................................. 1 Rawls’s Reading of Hobbes ............................................................................................ 5 From Kantian Constructivism to Freestanding Politics ................................................ 13 The Inadequacy of the Political .................................................................................... 26 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter Two: Foucault’s Non-Contractarian Power ........................................................ 42 Against Juridical Power ................................................................................................ 43 Non-Contractarian Power ............................................................................................. 50 Foucault and Hobbes..................................................................................................... 54 Subjects and Material Bodies........................................................................................ 59 Materiality and Contractarianism ................................................................................. 69 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 76 Chapter Three: Method and Contract in Hobbes .............................................................. 78 Skepticism and Experience ........................................................................................... 79 Definitions and Method ................................................................................................ 88 State of Nature as Universal Condition ........................................................................ 96 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 109 Chapter Four: Reconciling Power in Foucault and Hobbes ........................................... 112 Hobbes and Positive Power ........................................................................................ 113 Foucault’s Kantian Method......................................................................................... 128 Governmentality and Power – the New Conception of Power ................................... 142 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 151 Chapter Five: Normativity in a Nonideal Approach to Politics ...................................... 153 Equality and Inequality: From Analysis to Normativity ............................................. 155 Ideal Versus Nonideal Theory .................................................................................... 163 Foucault and Rawls – Returning to Politics as War ................................................... 176 The Public/Private Divide ........................................................................................... 183 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 198 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 200 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 212 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Foucault BB – Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978- -1979, ed. Michel Senellart, trans. Graham Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). CF – Michel Foucault, “The Confession of the Flesh,” in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, trans. Colin Gordon (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1980), 194–228. DP - Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1995). GE – Michel Foucault, “On the Genealogy of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress,” in Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 1), ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: The New Press, 1998), 253–80. GSO – Michel Foucault, The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982-1983, ed. Frédéric Gros, Alessandro Fontana, and François Ewald, trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Picador, 2011). NGH - Michel Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History,” in Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume II, ed. James D. Faubion (New York: The New Press, 1999), 369–92. QM - Michel Foucault, “Questions of Method,” in Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume III, ed. James D. Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: The New Press, 2001), 223–38. SKP – Michel Foucault, “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” in Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume III, ed. James D. Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: The New Press, 2001), 349–64. SMD – Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976, ed. Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana, trans. David Macey, Reprint edition (New York:
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