Critique of forms of life / Rahel Jaeggi ; translated by Ciaran Cronin.

"This book was originally published as Kritik von Lebensformen (c) Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2014 "--Title page verso.

For many liberals, the question "Do others live rightly?" feels inappropriate. Liberalism seems to demand a follow-up question: "Who am I to judge?" Peaceful coexistence, in this view, is predicated on restraint from morally evaluating our peers. But Rahel Jaeggi sees the situation differently. Criticizing is not only valid but also useful, she argues. Moral judgment is no error; the error lies in how we go about judging. One way to judge is external, based on universal standards derived from ideas about God or human nature. The other is internal, relying on standards peculiar to a given society. Both approaches have serious flaws and detractors. In On the Critique of Forms of Life, Jaeggi offers a third way, which she calls "immanent" critique. Inspired by Hegelian social philosophy and engaged with Anglo-American theorists such as John Dewey, Michael Walzer, and Alasdair MacIntyre, immanent critique begins with the recognition that ways of life are inherently normative because they assert their own goodness and rightness. They also have a consistent purpose: to solve basic social problems and advance social goods, most of which are common across cultures. Jaeggi argues that we can judge the validity of a society's moral claims by evaluating how well the society adapts to crisis--whether it is able to overcome contradictions that arise from within and continue to fulfill its purpose. Jaeggi enlivens her ideas through concrete, contemporary examples. Against both relativistic and absolutist accounts, she shows that rational social critique is possible.-- Provided by publisher

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Against "ethical abstinence" -- Part I. An ensemble of practices: forms of life as social formations: What is a form of life? -- Form of life: concept and phenomenon -- Duration, depth, scope -- A modular concept of forms of life -- Forms of life as inert ensembles of practices -- What are (social) practices? -- The interconnected character of practices -- The moment of inertia -- Practice, criticism, reflection -- Part II. Solutions to problems: forms of life as normatively constituted formations: The normativity of forms of life -- Norms and normativity -- Modes of normativity -- Three types of norm justification -- "Failure to correspond to its concept" -- Forms of life as problem-solving entities -- What are problems? -- Given or made? The problem with problems -- Attempts at problem-solving: Hegel's theory of the family -- Crises of problem-solving -- Second order problems -- Part III. Forms of criticism: What is internal criticism? -- External and internal criticism -- The strategy of internal criticism -- Advantages and limits of internal criticism -- "To find the new world through criticism of the old one": immanent criticism -- Criticism of a new type -- The strategy of immanent criticism -- Potentials and difficulties -- Part IV. The dynamics of crisis and the rationality of social change: Successful and failed learning processes -- Change, learning, development, progress -- Are forms of life capable of learning? -- Deficient learning processes -- Why does history matter? -- Crisis-induced transformations: Dewey, MacIntyre, Hegel -- Social change as experimental problem-solving -- The dynamics of traditions -- History as a dialectical learning process -- Problem or contradiction? -- Problems as indeterminacy -- Crisis as a break in continuity -- Crisis as dialectical contradiction -- The problem with contradiction -- The dynamics of learning processes -- Problem-solving as an experimental learning process -- The dynamics of traditions -- "The source of progress and of degeneration" -- A dialectical-pragmatist understanding of learning processes -- Conclusion: A critical theory of criticism of forms of life.