Luc Boltanski, Laurent Thévenot: On Justification: Economies of Worth (1991/2006)

A vital and underappreciated dimension of social interaction is the way individuals justify their actions to others, instinctively drawing on their experience to appeal to principles they hope will command respect. Individuals, however, often misread situations, and many disagreements can be explained by people appealing, knowingly and unknowingly, to different principles. On Justification is the first English translation of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s ambitious theoretical examination of these phenomena, a book that has already had a huge impact on French sociology and is likely to have a similar influence in the English-speaking world.

In this foundational work of post-Bourdieu sociology, the authors examine a wide range of situations where people justify their actions. The authors argue that justifications fall into six main logics exemplified by six authors: civic (Rousseau), market (Adam Smith), industrial (Saint-Simon), domestic (Bossuet), inspiration (Augustine), and fame (Hobbes). The authors show how these justifications conflict, as people compete to legitimize their views of a situation.

On Justification is likely to spark important debates across the social sciences.

Keywords and phrases
political philosophy, civic world, Saint-Simon, world of fame, Durkheim, city of God, relativism, Social Contract, market world, Rousseau, domestic world, However, different worlds, higher common principle, inspired world, sociology, Jansenist, cial, Aristotle, metaphysics

Originally published in French as De la Justification: Les Economies de la Grandeur by Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1991
Translated by Catherine Porter
Publisher Princeton University Press, 2006
ISBN 0691125163, 9780691125169
389 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-10-31)

Luc Boltanski: Distant Suffering. Morality, Media and Politics (1993/1999)

“Distant Suffering examines the moral and political implications for a spectator of the distant suffering of others as presented through the media. What are the morally acceptable responses to the sight of suffering on television, for example, when the viewer cannot act directly to affect the circumstances in which the suffering takes place? Luc Boltanski argues that spectators can actively involve themselves and others by speaking about what they have seen and how they were affected by it. Developing ideas in Adam Smith’s moral theory, he examines three rhetorical ‘topics’ available for the expression of the spectator’s response to suffering: the topics of denunciation and of sentiment and the aesthetic topic. The book concludes with a discussion of a ‘crisis of pity’ in relation to modern forms of humanitarianism. A possible way out of this crisis is suggested which involves an emphasis and focus on present suffering.”

Keywords and phrases
Bernard Kouchner, Georges Bataille, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, Marxism, Adam Smith, Hannah Arendt, However, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Klossowski, mediatisation, Maurice Blanchot, Gilles Deleuze, Genealogy of Morality, Marquis de Sade, spectator, Pierre Favre, sentimental literature, Paris, USSR

Originally published in French as La Souffrance à Distance by Editions Métailié, 1993

Translated by Graham D. Burchell
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1999
ISBN 0521659531, 9780521659536
246 pages

Publisher

EPUB (updated on 2019-5-15)

Paul Virilio: Speed and Politics (1977/2006)

“Speed and Politics is the matrix of Virilio’s entire work. Building on the works of Morand, Marinetti, and McLuhan, Virilio presents a vision more radically political than that of any of his French contemporaries: speed as the engine of destruction. It presents a topological account of the entire history of humanity, honing in on the technological advances made possible through the militarization of society. Parallel to Heidegger’s vision of technology, Virilio sees speed—not class or wealth—as the primary force shaping civilization. In this ‘technical vitalism,’ multiple projectile—inert fortresses and bunkers, the ‘metabolic bodies’ of soldiers, transport vessels, and now information and computer technology—mutually prosthetize each other in a permanent assault on the world and, through it, on human nature. Written at a lightning-fast pace, Virilio’s landmark book is an split-second, overwhelming look at how humanity’s motivity has shaped the way we function today, as well as a view into what might come of it.”

Keywords and phrases
glacis, total war, Vauban, Gyrovagues, deterritorialization, bourgeoisie, fascist, Clausewitz, dromocratic, Michel Poniatowski, Paris Commune, totalitarian, prosthesis, Alfred Wegener, ancien regime, Marxist, logistical, Sun Tzu, war machine

Originally published as Vitesse et Politique, Editions Galilee, Paris, 1977.

Translated by Mark Polizzotti
Introduction by Benjamin Bratton
Publisher Semiotext(e), 2006
ISBN 1584350407, 9781584350408
174 pages

Publisher

PDF (4 MB, updated on 2017-6-26)