Matheson Russell | The University of Auckland (original) (raw)
Books by Matheson Russell
Papers by Matheson Russell
Public Reason, 2019
Political discourse is often dominated by attacks on credibility at the expense of discussions ab... more Political discourse is often dominated by attacks on credibility at the expense of discussions about policy proposals. Such attacks can exacerbate political division and undermine attempts to discuss difficult policy questions in the public sphere. While this is true, it is argued in this article that it is a mistake to simply dismiss all such attacks as irrational and illegitimate deviations from the norms of deliberative argumentation. Resolving questions about whom to trust is vital to our lives as social knowers. Furthermore, the influence enjoyed by speakers (individuals and organizations) is not always warranted and deserves to be challenged. Even though it strains the norms of civility, equality, and inclusion promoted by the deliberative model of democracy, the public contestation of credibility can serve epistemically and socially valuable ends. Thus, the contestation of credibility is a profoundly ambivalent phenomenon. Nonetheless, it has a central role to play in the social rationality of public discourse and merits greater attention by democratic theorists.
Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy, 2017
Habermas asserts that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world is thrust upon us by the... more Habermas asserts that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world is thrust upon us by the pragmatics of language use. However, this is a dubious claim. A pre-linguistic relation to the world as common and objective is required for language acquisition. What's more, Husserl's analyses indicate that aspects of our experience of the common world are grounded in experiences of spatio-temporal horizonality and of the co-presence of others within that world-horizon. This is not to negate the importance of communicatively achieved intersubjectivity, nor to diminish the rational significance of our linguistically articulated 'world concepts'. But it is to suggest that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world has phenomenological, not linguistic-pragmatic, roots.
Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, 2015
It is hard to gauge the significance of Jacques Rancière’s conception of politics for contemporar... more It is hard to gauge the significance of Jacques Rancière’s conception of politics for contemporary political theory without addressing his attempt to break with the Habermasian linguistic-pragmatic paradigm and to set up an alternative model of political speech (“dissensus”) which “has the rationality of disagreement as its very own rationality.” But Rancière’s departure from Habermas’s theory of communicative action is subtle and difficult to assess. In this essay we aim to explicate and examine their disagreement. In doing so we also seek to measure the distance between the two thinkers. We argue that Rancière’s critique of Habermas is cogent and represents an innovative and provocative contribution to the theory of democracy.
Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy & Social Theory, Oct 17, 2014
Against the enthusiasm for dialogue and deliberation in recent democratic theory, the Italian phi... more Against the enthusiasm for dialogue and deliberation in recent democratic theory, the Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito and French philosopher Jacques Rancière construct their political philosophies around the nondialogical figure of the third person. The strikingly different deployments of the figure of the third person offered by Esposito and Rancière present a crystallization of their respective approaches to political philosophy. In this essay, the divergent analyses of the third person offered by these two thinkers are considered in terms of the critical strategies they employ. Contrasting Esposito’s strategy of “ethical dissensus” with Rancière’s strategy of “aesthetic dissensus,” it is argued that Esposito’s attempts to recruit the figure of the third person to dismantle the dispositif of the person are politically (if not philosophically) problematic, while Rancière’s alternative account of the third person is more promising for political theory and practice.
Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy, 2016
The practice of argumentation is often driven by social goals. Among these are goals I call 'pole... more The practice of argumentation is often driven by social goals. Among these are goals I call 'polemical'. Argumentation is 'polemical' when it aims to contest the level of credibility a speaker enjoys as a contributor to discourse. 'Polemical' disagreement differs from 'deliberative' disagreement insofar as the former concerns not merely the validity of what speakers say but also the standing of speakers as participants in the field of communication. The aim of this programmatic essay is to outline the basic features of polemical speech and to examine how polemical speech is used in struggles for recognition.
Husserl Studies, 2011
Over four decades, Habermas has put to paper many critical remarks on Husserl’s work as occasion ... more Over four decades, Habermas has put to paper many critical remarks on Husserl’s work as occasion has demanded. These scattered critical engagements nonetheless do add up to a coherent (if contestable) position regarding the project of transcendental phenomenology. This essay provides a comprehensive reconstruction of the arguments Habermas makes and offers a critical assessment of them. With an eye in particular to the theme of intersubjectivity (a theme of fundamental interest to both thinkers), it is argued that Habermas’s arguments do indeed show up deficiencies in Husserlian phenomenology and yet that they do not succeed in proving that we must abandon the methods and tasks of phenomenological research. On the contrary, it is argued that phenomenological methods may well be needed in order to investigate certain philosophical questions that Habermas’s theory of communication has thus far only partially addressed.
This article describes some of the main arguments for the existence of other minds, and intersubj... more This article describes some of the main arguments for the existence of other minds, and intersubjectivity more generally, that depend upon a transcendental justification. This means that our focus will be largely on ‘continental’ philosophy, not only because of the abiding interest in this tradition in thematising intersubjectivity, but also because transcendental reasoning is close to ubiquitous in continental philosophy. Neither point holds for analytic philosophy. As such, this essay will introduce some of the important contributions of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Karl-Otto Apel, all of whom use transcendental reasoning as a key part of their analyses of intersubjectivity, and we also consider the work of Peter Strawson who does likewise in the analytic tradition.
On October 4, 1957, what had long been a fantasy of science fiction passed into reality. On that ... more On October 4, 1957, what had long been a fantasy of science fiction passed into reality. On that day, the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched. This was the first human-made object to be propelled into orbit around the earth. So struck was political philosopher Hannah Arendt by this event that she began her landmark 1958 work, The Human Condition, with a meditation upon its significance. In the ‘Prologue’ to that text, Arendt remarks upon a curious reaction to this epoch-defining event expressed in the media at the time:
KiwiSaver will have an increasing impact on New Zealanders' financial wealth. The 'default' inves... more KiwiSaver will have an increasing impact on New Zealanders' financial wealth. The 'default' investment options offered by KiwiSaver schemes do not include 'socially responsible investments'. Just as the government has regulated the investment strategy of the default option for the nine default schemes, perhaps the default options of all KiwiSaver schemes should be required to use 'socially responsible investments' in their investment strategy.
History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, 2014
Sophia, Dec 2011
This essay considers the philosophical and theological significance of the phenomenological analy... more This essay considers the philosophical and theological significance of the phenomenological analysis of Christian faith offered by the early Heidegger. It shows, first, that Heidegger poses a radical and controversial challenge to philosophers by calling them to do without God in an unfettered pursuit of the question of being (through his ‘destruction of onto-theology’); and, second, that this exclusion nonetheless leaves room for a form of philosophical reflection upon the nature of faith and discourse concerning God, namely for a philosophy of religion in a phenomenological mode (as exemplified most clearly in Heidegger’s 1920/21 lectures on the phenomenology of religious life). However, it is argued that the theological roots of Heidegger’s own phenomenological analyses subvert his frequently asserted claim concerning the incompatibility of Christian faith and philosophical inquiry.
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Oct 2008
Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 2008
Hubert Dreyfus has claimed that Heidegger's phenomenological method involves a "hermeneutics of s... more Hubert Dreyfus has claimed that Heidegger's phenomenological method involves a "hermeneutics of suspicion". This is an intriguing suggestion, and if it were correct it would indicate that the standard interpretations overlook a significant aspect of the methodology of Sein und Zeit. But is there really a hermeneutics of suspicion in Sein und Zeit? Leslie MacAvoy has offered the most sustained challenge to Dreyfus on this point, arguing that his "hermeneutics of suspicion thesis" misconstrues both the overarching project and the methodological structure of Heidegger's magnum opus. In this essay, after examining Dreyfus's "hermeneutics of suspicion thesis" and MacAvoy's objections to it, I argue that the criticisms offered by MacAvoy, despite correcting some misunderstandings in Dreyfus's reading, are not fatal to the general thesis that a hermeneutics of suspicion is operative in Sein und Zeit. Indeed, I contend that Dreyfus's basic intuition is correct and that it does identify a significant and often overlooked aspect of Heidegger's phenomenological method. In the body of the essay, Dreyfus's intuition is developed into a more detailed and rigorous analysis of the "suspicious" dimension of Sein und Zeit.
The Relationship of Philosophy to Religion Today, 2011
On Rowan Williams: Critical Essays, 2008
political writings are littered with agonistic language. Peace, unity, harmony, and reconciliatio... more political writings are littered with agonistic language. Peace, unity, harmony, and reconciliation-these are, for Williams, nothing if not the fruits of struggle, con ict, and confrontation; they are the fruits, more speci cally, of di cult and risky "negotiations. " We may indulge in fantasies of peace as a state of passivity or pre-political innocence, but such fantasies betray a desire to be free of the responsibility of action, to be emancipated from the ambiguities of history, and to be liberated from dependence on others and their dependence on us.
Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy, 2009
Book Reviews by Matheson Russell
Recognition or disagreement? Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth present influential yet divergent ... more Recognition or disagreement? Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth present influential yet divergent contemporary approaches to critical theory. In Recognition or Disagreement, they are brought into dialogue with each other for the first time. The centerpiece of this volume is Part II, which contains three documents: (1) a short text on Honneth's theory of recognition written by Rancière; (2) a short text on Rancière's conception of political disagreement written by Honneth; and (3) the transcript of a conversation between the two in which they respond to each other's analysis of their work and press each other on points of contention. These contributions are fleshed out with two "scene setting" introductions written by the editors, Katia Genel and Jean-Philippe Deranty (Part I), and two supplementary essays penned by Rancière and Honneth (Part III). Of these latter two essays, Rancière's is a revised version of a piece that has already appeared in print, while Honneth's, which analyses and criticizes Hegel's conception of ethical life as a conception of freedom, is new, and
Public Reason, 2019
Political discourse is often dominated by attacks on credibility at the expense of discussions ab... more Political discourse is often dominated by attacks on credibility at the expense of discussions about policy proposals. Such attacks can exacerbate political division and undermine attempts to discuss difficult policy questions in the public sphere. While this is true, it is argued in this article that it is a mistake to simply dismiss all such attacks as irrational and illegitimate deviations from the norms of deliberative argumentation. Resolving questions about whom to trust is vital to our lives as social knowers. Furthermore, the influence enjoyed by speakers (individuals and organizations) is not always warranted and deserves to be challenged. Even though it strains the norms of civility, equality, and inclusion promoted by the deliberative model of democracy, the public contestation of credibility can serve epistemically and socially valuable ends. Thus, the contestation of credibility is a profoundly ambivalent phenomenon. Nonetheless, it has a central role to play in the social rationality of public discourse and merits greater attention by democratic theorists.
Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy, 2017
Habermas asserts that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world is thrust upon us by the... more Habermas asserts that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world is thrust upon us by the pragmatics of language use. However, this is a dubious claim. A pre-linguistic relation to the world as common and objective is required for language acquisition. What's more, Husserl's analyses indicate that aspects of our experience of the common world are grounded in experiences of spatio-temporal horizonality and of the co-presence of others within that world-horizon. This is not to negate the importance of communicatively achieved intersubjectivity, nor to diminish the rational significance of our linguistically articulated 'world concepts'. But it is to suggest that the 'presupposition' of the common objective world has phenomenological, not linguistic-pragmatic, roots.
Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, 2015
It is hard to gauge the significance of Jacques Rancière’s conception of politics for contemporar... more It is hard to gauge the significance of Jacques Rancière’s conception of politics for contemporary political theory without addressing his attempt to break with the Habermasian linguistic-pragmatic paradigm and to set up an alternative model of political speech (“dissensus”) which “has the rationality of disagreement as its very own rationality.” But Rancière’s departure from Habermas’s theory of communicative action is subtle and difficult to assess. In this essay we aim to explicate and examine their disagreement. In doing so we also seek to measure the distance between the two thinkers. We argue that Rancière’s critique of Habermas is cogent and represents an innovative and provocative contribution to the theory of democracy.
Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy & Social Theory, Oct 17, 2014
Against the enthusiasm for dialogue and deliberation in recent democratic theory, the Italian phi... more Against the enthusiasm for dialogue and deliberation in recent democratic theory, the Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito and French philosopher Jacques Rancière construct their political philosophies around the nondialogical figure of the third person. The strikingly different deployments of the figure of the third person offered by Esposito and Rancière present a crystallization of their respective approaches to political philosophy. In this essay, the divergent analyses of the third person offered by these two thinkers are considered in terms of the critical strategies they employ. Contrasting Esposito’s strategy of “ethical dissensus” with Rancière’s strategy of “aesthetic dissensus,” it is argued that Esposito’s attempts to recruit the figure of the third person to dismantle the dispositif of the person are politically (if not philosophically) problematic, while Rancière’s alternative account of the third person is more promising for political theory and practice.
Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy, 2016
The practice of argumentation is often driven by social goals. Among these are goals I call 'pole... more The practice of argumentation is often driven by social goals. Among these are goals I call 'polemical'. Argumentation is 'polemical' when it aims to contest the level of credibility a speaker enjoys as a contributor to discourse. 'Polemical' disagreement differs from 'deliberative' disagreement insofar as the former concerns not merely the validity of what speakers say but also the standing of speakers as participants in the field of communication. The aim of this programmatic essay is to outline the basic features of polemical speech and to examine how polemical speech is used in struggles for recognition.
Husserl Studies, 2011
Over four decades, Habermas has put to paper many critical remarks on Husserl’s work as occasion ... more Over four decades, Habermas has put to paper many critical remarks on Husserl’s work as occasion has demanded. These scattered critical engagements nonetheless do add up to a coherent (if contestable) position regarding the project of transcendental phenomenology. This essay provides a comprehensive reconstruction of the arguments Habermas makes and offers a critical assessment of them. With an eye in particular to the theme of intersubjectivity (a theme of fundamental interest to both thinkers), it is argued that Habermas’s arguments do indeed show up deficiencies in Husserlian phenomenology and yet that they do not succeed in proving that we must abandon the methods and tasks of phenomenological research. On the contrary, it is argued that phenomenological methods may well be needed in order to investigate certain philosophical questions that Habermas’s theory of communication has thus far only partially addressed.
This article describes some of the main arguments for the existence of other minds, and intersubj... more This article describes some of the main arguments for the existence of other minds, and intersubjectivity more generally, that depend upon a transcendental justification. This means that our focus will be largely on ‘continental’ philosophy, not only because of the abiding interest in this tradition in thematising intersubjectivity, but also because transcendental reasoning is close to ubiquitous in continental philosophy. Neither point holds for analytic philosophy. As such, this essay will introduce some of the important contributions of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Karl-Otto Apel, all of whom use transcendental reasoning as a key part of their analyses of intersubjectivity, and we also consider the work of Peter Strawson who does likewise in the analytic tradition.
On October 4, 1957, what had long been a fantasy of science fiction passed into reality. On that ... more On October 4, 1957, what had long been a fantasy of science fiction passed into reality. On that day, the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched. This was the first human-made object to be propelled into orbit around the earth. So struck was political philosopher Hannah Arendt by this event that she began her landmark 1958 work, The Human Condition, with a meditation upon its significance. In the ‘Prologue’ to that text, Arendt remarks upon a curious reaction to this epoch-defining event expressed in the media at the time:
KiwiSaver will have an increasing impact on New Zealanders' financial wealth. The 'default' inves... more KiwiSaver will have an increasing impact on New Zealanders' financial wealth. The 'default' investment options offered by KiwiSaver schemes do not include 'socially responsible investments'. Just as the government has regulated the investment strategy of the default option for the nine default schemes, perhaps the default options of all KiwiSaver schemes should be required to use 'socially responsible investments' in their investment strategy.
History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, 2014
Sophia, Dec 2011
This essay considers the philosophical and theological significance of the phenomenological analy... more This essay considers the philosophical and theological significance of the phenomenological analysis of Christian faith offered by the early Heidegger. It shows, first, that Heidegger poses a radical and controversial challenge to philosophers by calling them to do without God in an unfettered pursuit of the question of being (through his ‘destruction of onto-theology’); and, second, that this exclusion nonetheless leaves room for a form of philosophical reflection upon the nature of faith and discourse concerning God, namely for a philosophy of religion in a phenomenological mode (as exemplified most clearly in Heidegger’s 1920/21 lectures on the phenomenology of religious life). However, it is argued that the theological roots of Heidegger’s own phenomenological analyses subvert his frequently asserted claim concerning the incompatibility of Christian faith and philosophical inquiry.
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Oct 2008
Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 2008
Hubert Dreyfus has claimed that Heidegger's phenomenological method involves a "hermeneutics of s... more Hubert Dreyfus has claimed that Heidegger's phenomenological method involves a "hermeneutics of suspicion". This is an intriguing suggestion, and if it were correct it would indicate that the standard interpretations overlook a significant aspect of the methodology of Sein und Zeit. But is there really a hermeneutics of suspicion in Sein und Zeit? Leslie MacAvoy has offered the most sustained challenge to Dreyfus on this point, arguing that his "hermeneutics of suspicion thesis" misconstrues both the overarching project and the methodological structure of Heidegger's magnum opus. In this essay, after examining Dreyfus's "hermeneutics of suspicion thesis" and MacAvoy's objections to it, I argue that the criticisms offered by MacAvoy, despite correcting some misunderstandings in Dreyfus's reading, are not fatal to the general thesis that a hermeneutics of suspicion is operative in Sein und Zeit. Indeed, I contend that Dreyfus's basic intuition is correct and that it does identify a significant and often overlooked aspect of Heidegger's phenomenological method. In the body of the essay, Dreyfus's intuition is developed into a more detailed and rigorous analysis of the "suspicious" dimension of Sein und Zeit.
The Relationship of Philosophy to Religion Today, 2011
On Rowan Williams: Critical Essays, 2008
political writings are littered with agonistic language. Peace, unity, harmony, and reconciliatio... more political writings are littered with agonistic language. Peace, unity, harmony, and reconciliation-these are, for Williams, nothing if not the fruits of struggle, con ict, and confrontation; they are the fruits, more speci cally, of di cult and risky "negotiations. " We may indulge in fantasies of peace as a state of passivity or pre-political innocence, but such fantasies betray a desire to be free of the responsibility of action, to be emancipated from the ambiguities of history, and to be liberated from dependence on others and their dependence on us.
Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy, 2009
Recognition or disagreement? Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth present influential yet divergent ... more Recognition or disagreement? Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth present influential yet divergent contemporary approaches to critical theory. In Recognition or Disagreement, they are brought into dialogue with each other for the first time. The centerpiece of this volume is Part II, which contains three documents: (1) a short text on Honneth's theory of recognition written by Rancière; (2) a short text on Rancière's conception of political disagreement written by Honneth; and (3) the transcript of a conversation between the two in which they respond to each other's analysis of their work and press each other on points of contention. These contributions are fleshed out with two "scene setting" introductions written by the editors, Katia Genel and Jean-Philippe Deranty (Part I), and two supplementary essays penned by Rancière and Honneth (Part III). Of these latter two essays, Rancière's is a revised version of a piece that has already appeared in print, while Honneth's, which analyses and criticizes Hegel's conception of ethical life as a conception of freedom, is new, and
"Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy" invites interested authors to exp... more "Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy" invites interested authors to explore the topics of intersubjectivity and recognition across different traditions, including phenomenology, critical theory, and German Idealism. Questions that arise may include: What is distinctive of the phenomenon of being with others? Is apperceiving another the same as recognising her/him as subject? To what extent do intersubjective-shared practices inform our encounter with the other? In what sense do intersubjectivity and recognition refer to distinct and yet different forms of encounter with another?
The deadline for submissions is 31/12/2016.
Please submit your papers online:
http://www.metodo-rivista.eu/index.php/metodo
Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy. Vol. 5. No. 1, 2017