Aspen Brinton: Existential Recognition: a new philosophical grounding for postmodern activism

If existential recognition might be a new philosophical grounding for postmodern activism, then three questions must be answered in order to argue for an interrelationship between these ideas: what is postmodern activism; what is existential recognition; and how does the philosophical grounding of political action matter for understanding our world? By asking these three questions together, I will attempt to show that the integration of these concerns can point towards what is both an observation and a proposition: there are forms of viable solidarity within activist and dissident organizations that might be able to transcend the problems of identity (including national identity, racial identity and class identity), while also sometimes transcending the problem of instrumentality (including suggesting an answer to the question of why people engage politically in hopeless no-win circumstances). If existential recognition is the grounding for a certain form of activism, then some (not all!) of the traditional problems of ‘modern’ political engagement might be observed on renewed philosophical grounds, revealing insights into what sustains such political action. This integration of three otherwise disparate questions, therefore, is meant to propose a theoretical schema that can generate both new research questions on political engagement and new ways of observing the political phenomena of activism and dissidence.