Towards an ethics of undoing
: Reimagining precarity, instrumental reason, and moral philosophy with Adorno and Butler

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Towards an Ethics of Undoing critically intervenes in debates about the relationship between precarity, instrumental reason, and moral philosophy. It draws on the work of Theodor Adorno and Judith Butler to conceptualise an ethics of undoing. I argue for an ethics that suspends the right to judgment in favour of a critical reflection on the complexities and limitations of our social and conceptual frameworks. Butler’s account of critique offers a way of thinking what is released once the categories that limit thought and action are undone. The ethical gesture, I argue, entails this undoing. However, this does not guarantee that the results that follow will be right. Rather, it acknowledges the limitations imposed by the existing categories that constitute the terms on which we currently live.
The thesis reworks Butler’s theorisation of precarity with recourse to Adorno’s reframing of morality in terms of suffering and responsiveness. I argue that instrumental practices of rationality require precarity as their other face. The critique of the set of distinctions between humans and animals, rationality and materiality, and subjects and objects demonstrate the other face of instrumental forms of reason. These distinctions establish the human as that which is beyond matter, affect and animality. The notion of the human as universal, disguises the violence that those deemed non-human, or animal like, are exposed to through precarity.
The thesis thus intervenes in contemporary debates about post-foundational ethics turning to the neglected importance of materiality for ethical life. The project rearticulates Adorno’s work on constellations, the somatic and the primacy of the object in order to re-conceptualise the concept of precarity and its connection with instrumental reason. Drawing on Adorno’s critique of Kant’s notion of practical reason, I argue that moral philosophy contributes to the production of precarity. This re-reading of Adorno’s work pushes Butler’s account of ethical life to address the implication of our relation to objects in any ethics. Adorno's exploration of the somatic demonstrates the inseparability of morality from embodiment. The thesis concludes by proposing a shift towards an ethic of care centred on the primacy of the object. I argue that an3ethics beginning with the primacy of the object, undoes distinctions that constrain both thought and action. This notion of ethical life extends beyond Adorno's framework. Henceforth, objects are perceived as a multiplicity of becomings and humans’ relations to those becomings vary in each case. This proliferation surpasses the constraints that define the terms upon which domination is built.
Date of AwardMay 2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Brighton
SupervisorClare Woodford (Supervisor) & Mark Devenney (Supervisor)

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