Late Modern Critiques of the Bourgeois

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The bourgeoisie has loomed large in political thought since the 19th century. Karl Marx theorized the dynamic role of the bourgeoisie in preparing the communist revolution, and many thinkers since, from Joseph Schumpeter to Hannah Arendt, have analyzed the transformative political function of this social class. This panel takes up a different set of reflections on the bourgeois in modern politics: the tradition of moral critique initiated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rather than developing predictive theories about the bourgeoisie as a class, this tradition has a more psychological and diagnostic bent, analyzing contradictions in the bourgeois psyche as a path to recognizing broader tensions in the modern project.

The panel presents research on key figures in this tradition. Sophie Pangle and Kimberley Burns each present a paper on Rousseau’s foundational critique of the bourgeois. Pangle’s paper focuses on Rousseau’s engagement with John Locke’s educational writings, arguing that his dissent from Locke is representative of a broader concern that modern political thought produces divided minds. Meanwhile, Burns’ paper seeks to refine our understanding of the criterion by which Rousseau judges the bourgeois way of life, offering a novel theory of his understanding of the “contradiction in the soul.” Then, Nathan Davis and Ethan Cutler turn to 19th-century authors indebted to Rousseau. Davis’ paper suggests that Benjamin Constant sought to reconcile a similar critique of the bourgeois with his commitment to a liberal political program. Cutler’s paper turns to Friedrich Nietzsche, whose concern that bourgeois morality coincides with the dissolution of national politics led him to a radical critique not only of liberalism, but of morality as such.

Sub Unit

• Modern & Contemporary Political Theory

Chair

• Dimitrios Halikias, Princeton University

Individual Presentations

• Rousseau’s Response to Locke’s Education for Freedom - Sophie Pangle, Princeton University

• Rousseau on the “Contradiction of Soul” - Kimberley Burns, University of Dallas

• “Noble Disquiet”: Possibilities and Problems in Constant’s Liberalism - Nathan Davis, Loyola University Maryland

• The Noise of the Noisome: Nietzsche on Bürgerliche Morality - Ethan Cutler, Boston College

Discussants

• Dimitrios Halikias, Princeton University

• Paul Wilford, OSU