The Voice of Conscience: A Political Genealogy of Western Ethical Experience

Description

In Western thought, it has been persistently assumed that in moral and political matters, people should rely on the inner voice of conscience rather than on external authorities, laws, and regulations. This volume investigates this concept, examining the development of the Western politics of conscience, from Socrates to the present, and the formation of the Western ethico-political subject. The work opens with a discussion of the ambiguous role of conscience in politics, contesting the claim that it is the best defense against totalitarianism. It then look back at canonical authors, from the Church Fathers and Luther to Rousseau and Derrida, to show how the experience of conscience constitutes the foundation of Western ethics and politics. This unique work not only synthesizes philosophical and political insights, but also pays attention to political theology to provide a compelling and innovative argument that the experience of conscience has always been at the core of the political Western tradition. An engaging and accessible text, it will appeal to political theorists and philosophers as well as theologians and those interested in the critique of the Western civilization.

Mika Ojakangas is Professor of Political Thought at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. The author of five books and over 80 articles, his research areas include continental political theory, the history of political and ethical thought, and political theology.

In this full and fascinating study of the history of conscience in the West, Ojakangas shows how conscience is the defining signature of Western political thought. Voice of Conscience is a work of immense scholarship leading towards a devastating conclusion: this conscience, invented by Plato's Socrates, gave birth to responsibility out of the experience of utter disorientation. -- Philip Goodchild, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, UK If you have ever been troubled, ever so slightly, by the resort to conscience at crucial moments of politics and life; if you have ever harboured a suspicion that the conscience is not quite revealing its true colours, then Voice of Conscience is the book for you. Tracing a radical continuity in theories and practices of the conscience, from Aristotle to Obama, this work outdoes Foucault for insight and Agamben for meticulous care with sources, to propose an arresting and extraordinary rereading of the function of conscience at the core of Western ethics and politics. The climax of the book, in which the basis of Western sovereignty is precisely the abandoned outcast, cut free from all ties that bind, reveals both the promise and subtle snares of the conscience itself. -- Roland Boer, Faculty Research Professor, University of Newcastle, Australia. Author of Criticism of Heaven (2007), of Criticism of Earth (2012), and of Lenin, Religion, and Theology (2013) Why has the metaphor of the voice of conscience been such a determining and persistent guide for the entire Western ethical thought? Mika Ojakangas considers it as 'the fundamental dogma of the Western tradition in ethics', its 'anti-dogmatic dogmatics', constituting the inner autonomy, conviction and faith beyond all external laws. This comprehensive and meticulously researched work provides an astounding and far-reaching genealogy of this enigma, reaching back to pre-Socratic times, encompassing the Socratic foundational moment, Christianity from church fathers through scholastics to Luther, scrutinizing the modern foundational moment in natural law, Rousseau and Kant, and reaching forth to Heidegger, Freud, Derrida, Levinas and Agamben. The voice of conscience, introducing a 'measureless measure' beyond social and political laws, ultimately aims at the void at the heart of being, yet far from being the firm support it purports to be, there is an agenda of political theology to be unraveled at its core. The most comprehensive account so far, a quintessential reading. -- Mladen Dolar, University of Ljubljana, the author of A Voice and Nothing More Mika Ojakanas demonstrates the different ways, from Socrates to Derrida and Lacan, the same puzzles and tropes reappear by which conscience can be both a source of repression and of our freedom, a foundation of ethical autonomy and basis of law, authority, nation and state. This is a highly readable and impressive work of scholarly erudition that presents the reader with a compelling story of a central feature of how Occidental philosophy, theology and politics have fashioned the way we understand and govern ourselves. -- Mitchell Dean, Professor of Public Governance Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy Copenhagen Business School and author of The Signature of Power (2013)