In this episode we delve into Judith Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself, an illuminating book from 2005 that examines subject-formation and the relationship between the self, other people, and the normative social order. We reconstruct Butler’s efforts to ground a philosophical ethics with positive claims in the insights of three theoretical traditions that have generally been understood to frustrate moral philosophy: post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. Our core focus is the question of whether Butler’s conceptions of the ‘relationality’ and ‘opacity’ of the human self can do the kind of ethical heavy lifting that they claim.This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophyReferences:Judith Butler, Giving an Account of Oneself (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005).Music:“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related