Putting Sovereign Subjectivity to the Test: Heidegger on Anxiety
Posted: 22 Feb 2011
Abstract
The ongoing controversy surrounding Martin Heidegger’s political involvement with the Third Reich continues to inhibit creative interpretations of Heidegger’s thinking (Farias; Ott; Faye). I turn to Heidegger’s work on anxiety to put into question the political use Heidegger himself made of his writings and to develop a conception of non-sovereign political and ethical agency grounded on anxiety. Heidegger’s work on anxiety teaches us that ethics and politics are not only about acting in accordance with principles and rules but require perceptual refinement. Through a critical engagement with Heidegger’s work, I argue that anxiety allows us to see the world with new eyes, improves judgment, can motivate us to get involved in politics, and opens the self to dialogic encounters with others. Insofar as anxiety puts sovereign subjectivity to the test, it opens another dimension of experience with important implications for politics and ethics.
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