A critique of anti-essentialist sociology. Contours, performative impact and limits of a paradigmatic understanding of science in the "post-truth era"
Final Report Abstract
Contemporary society is marked by a problematic relationship to truth – a diagnosis that has become part of the standard repertoire of present-day observation at the latest since the debates about the so-called “post-truth era” in the mid-2010s. Accompanying this diagnosis is a renewed wave of long-standing critique targeting “postmodern,” “constructivist,” “critical” and similar strands of theory, which are held at least partially responsible for the perceived “crisis of truth.” In particular, this critique is directed at theoretical approaches that, following Richard Rorty, can be grouped under the label of anti-essentialist theory (aeT). These approaches are primarily concerned with challenging claims of objective truth and factual certainty – problematized as forms of essentialization, i.e. as the fixation of a given status quo through the elimination of contingent alternatives. The project aimed to take such critique seriously without either confirming or dismissing it prematurely. Its goal was thus a critique of anti-essentialist theory in the sense of boundary work: What are the epistemic contributions of aeT – and where do their limitations lie? The project reconstructs anti-essentialism as a point of convergence across theoretically diverse traditions, such as poststructuralist, feminist, pragmatist or neo-materialist approaches. Despite often considerable differences in social theory – for instance regarding the focus on structure vs. subject, or on the material vs. the discursive – these approaches share a central epistemic concern: the empirical insight that notions of supposedly unambiguous truth have historically often proven to be obstacles to knowledge. Accordingly, aeT challenge claims to truth and factuality for epistemic reasons – not, as is sometimes suggested in the post-truth debate, in order to undermine knowledge as such. As the project shows, aeT gain paradigmatic status because they offer a common solution to this epistemic problem: on the level of theorizing techniques. The insight into the potentially obstructive effects of fixed conceptual determinations becomes reflexive and is inscribed into theory itself, thereby preventing the essentialization of one’s own assumptions. Three key techniques are particularly central to this effort: critique of dichotomies, dislocation of formal logic, and ontological amorphism. These theoretical devices characterize the anti-essentialist paradigm, whose specific epistemic contribution lies in the active subversion of rigid, knowledge-hindering ways of thinking about the social. Like any paradigm, however, aeT encounter epistemic limits – particularly where new societal problem constellations emerge that differ from those of the 1960s to 1990s, when antiessentialist thinking gained prominence in the context of a wave of global democratization. The project identifies three such limitations. First: the problem of factuality – phenomena that pertain to the factually false (e.g. “fake news,” conspiracy thinking, “deep fakes”) cannot be adequately grasped with aeT. Second: the problem of totality – while aeT reject totalizing concepts (as they tend to become essentializing machines), current societal challenges (e.g. the climate crisis) increasingly confront us with realities that manifest as totalities. Third: the problem of tipping points – because aeT aim to dissolve dichotomous conceptual orders, they struggle to analyze distinct societal shifts (e.g. from democracy to autocracy). By critically analyzing the epistemic contributions and limits of a central sociological theory paradigm, the project contributes to strengthening the discipline’s capacity to engage with and diagnose the present.
Publications
-
Kritik in der Krise? Wie in der Corona- Pandemie die Grenzen klassischer Gesellschaftskritik aufscheinen. DGS/ÖGS- Kongress Wien (digital). Ad hoc-Gruppe “Untersuchungen zur pandemischen Gesellschaftskritik”.
Brichzin, Jenni, Kronau, Felix & Zey, Jakob
-
Postfaktisches Zeitalter, hyperfaktisches Zeitalter? Zum Verhältnis von sozialwissenschaftlicher Theorie und öffentlichem Diskurs. Vorlesungsreihe “Zukunftsdiskurse. Der Kampf der öffentlichen Meinung zwischen Fakt und Fiktion” an der Leuphana Universität (digital).
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Theoriebildung unter ‘postfaktischen’ Bedingungen. Erkundungen mit Hannah Arendt. Offene Herbsttagung der DGS-Sektion “Soziologische Theorie” (digital).
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Durch Widersprüche hindurchdenken. Von theoretischen Figuren des Gegensätzlichen zu Praktiken der Polarisierung. Sektionsveranstaltung (Soziologische Theorie) “Theorizing polarisierter Welten” beim DGS- Kongress in Bielefeld.
Beregow, Elena & Brichzin, Jenni
-
‘Und leider bin ich dann am Ende doch wieder beim Begriff des Rhizoms gelandet…’ Theorieinnovation durch Ent-Essenzialisierung und ihre Grenzen. Frühjahrstagung der DGS-Sektionen Soziologische Theorie und Politische Soziologie (digital).
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Editorial: Theorie und Wahrheitskrise. Behemoth 16 (2), S. 1-11.
Brichzin, Jenni, Kronau, Felix & Zey, Jakob
-
Epistemische Verantwortung? Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Denk- und Gesellschaftsordnung in Zeiten einer Wahrheitskrise. In: Jung, Simone; Hobuß, Steffi; Kramer, Sven (Hrsg.): Der Kampf um die öffentliche Meinung zwischen Fakt und Fiktion. Berlin: Verbrecher, S. 43-66.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Für eine demokratische Praxeologie. Rechtsradikale Politisierung und radikaldemokratische Konsequenzen. Transformationen des Politischen, 87-108. transcript Verlag.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Jede Theorieentscheidung hat ihren Preis. Posthuman?, 163-180. Brill | Fink.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Theorie und Wahrheitskrise. Themenheft Behemoth 16 (2).
Brichzin, Jenni, Kronau, Felix & Zey, Jakob
-
Wahrheit und Demokratie. Politische Epistemologie im Anschluss an Hannah Arendt. Behemoth 16 (2), S. 26-38.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Demokratie – ein gesellschaftstheoretisches Konzept? Tagung “Staat – Gesellschaft – Polykrise: Aktuelle Herausforderungen der Gesellschaftstheorie” der DGS-Sektionen Soziologische Theorie und Europasoziologie in Potsdam.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Demokratie, soziologisch beobachtet. Politologische Aufklärung – konstruktivistische Perspektiven, 213-230. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Durch Widersprüche hindurch denken. Über Figuren des Gegensätzlichen und die epistemische Praxis ihres Diagnostizierens. ZTS Zeitschrift für Theoretische Soziologie(2), 237-259.
Beregow, Elena & Brichzin, Jenni
-
Essentialismus revisited?. Leviathan, 52(2), 168-204.
Brichzin, Jenni & Kronau, Felix
-
Taking democracy seriously as a sociological concept. ESA Conference in Porto, Portugal.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Warum Antisemitismus?. Velbrück Wissenschaft.
Vennmann, Stefan; Krüger, Anne-Maika & Kronau, Felix
-
Warum sind ‘Fake News’ schlechte Nachrichten für Demokratien? Politikepistemologische Betrachtungen zwischen Jürgen Habermas und Hannah Arendt. Offene Tagung der DGS-Sektion Politische Soziologie in Heidelberg.
Brichzin, Jenni
-
Das klimaaktivistische Subjekt. Über den Vorschlag, das Soziale von seinen Kipppunkten her zu denken. Tagung “Die Weltgesellschaft in der Klimakrise” der DGS-Sektionen Politische Soziologie und Religionssoziologie (u.a.) in Leipzig.
Brichzin, Jenni
