Ms Fanny Lederlin, Doctor of Philosophy, will present her latest book, Critique en crise- Comment prétendre changer le monde aujourd'hui ? (Criticism in crisis: How can we claim to change the world today?) - Published by PUF.
While criticism is a philosophical disposition that dates back to antiquity, it was with modernity that it became a programme. Kant laid down the method for this programme before Marx decreed its purpose: nothing less than changing the world.
But after the terrible 19th and 20th centuries, has criticism, which claims to articulate theory and practice morally and politically, not been discredited by its inability to replace the world order (‘what is’) with a more just and viable order (‘what should be’)? The question is all the more pressing given that the global capitalist order, which has taken on a neoliberal form over the last fifty years, is not merely maintaining itself: it is deteriorating politically, socially and ecologically.
Challenged by the complexity of current problems, criticism seems powerless. And the fact that it continually invites itself into public debate, proclaiming its impatience to bring about a better world, does not change the fact that criticism is in crisis. However, this crisis could become an opportunity for renewal, provided that we truly confront it and dare to ask: what is criticism responsible for? What is it capable of? And what can it still do for us?
But after the terrible 19th and 20th centuries, has criticism, which claims to articulate theory and practice morally and politically, not been discredited by its inability to replace the world order (‘what is’) with a more just and viable order (‘what should be’)? The question is all the more pressing given that the global capitalist order, which has taken on a neoliberal form over the last fifty years, is not merely maintaining itself: it is deteriorating politically, socially and ecologically.
Challenged by the complexity of current problems, criticism seems powerless. And the fact that it continually invites itself into public debate, proclaiming its impatience to bring about a better world, does not change the fact that criticism is in crisis. However, this crisis could become an opportunity for renewal, provided that we truly confront it and dare to ask: what is criticism responsible for? What is it capable of? And what can it still do for us?
