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2. The Micropolitics of Crime: Aesthetic Comprehension and the “Brutality of Fact”
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2 TheMicropoliticsofCrime AestheticComprehensionandthe“BrutalityofFact” VocationsofPoliticalTheory Duringthelatterhalfofthetwentiethcentury,JudithShklar’svocational modelforpoliticaltheory,analyzedinchapter1,stoodindramatic contrastwiththatofanothernotablepoliticaltheorist,SheldonWolin. WhiletheybothevinceddeepcommitmentstoAmericandemocracy, producedinfluentialbodiesofwork,andservedasmentorstogenerations ofpoliticaltheorystudents,theydivergedsharplyintheirviews ofthepoliticaltheory–socialsciencerelationship.1 Wolinviewedthe developmentofamethod-obsessed,socialscientizationofpoliticalscience asradicallyincompatiblewiththevocationofthepoliticaltheorist .Incontrast,Shklarinsistedthatthereisafundamentallycongenial relationshipbetweenpoliticaltheoryandsocialandpoliticalscience becausebotharecommittedtoscientificrigor.Wolin,writingduring acoldwar–andVietnamWar–influencedperiodofintenseturmoil withintheU.S.politicalcultureatlargeaswellaswithinacademic institutions,soughttoredeemthe“tradition”ofpoliticaltheory.2 He indictedthebehavioristtrendinpoliticalscienceforits“methodism,” forexhaustingthespaceofpoliticaleducationwithmethodological detailstotheneglectofahistoricallyinformedandpoliticallyengaged knowledge.Shklar,writingmorethantwentyyearslater,duringaperiod oftheUnitedStates’post–coldwarReaganyearstriumphalism, soughttoredeemAmericanpoliticaltheorybysuggestingthatitsmajor (Euro-American)progenitors,Jefferson,Madison,andHamilton,were asrigorousasmodernsocialscientists,andthatatitsbest,political theoryremains“farfrombeingdemeaningandscientificallysuperfluous ,”itcontinuestosharesocialscience’sfact-mindedness.3 32 Deforming American Political Thought Inthischapter,Ireviewalternativeviewsoffacticity,promptedby WolinandShklar’scontrastingeffortsatredeemingpoliticaltheory, andgoontoelaborateanapproachtopoliticalthinkingthatrelieson whatGillesDeleuze,inaccordwithhisambivalentrelationshiptoImmanuel Kant’sphilosophicallegacy,calls“aestheticcomprehension.”4 Then,pursuingtheimplicationsofthismodeofcomprehension,Ioffer readingsofthecrimestoriesofdiverse“ethnic”Americans—brief treatmentsofEuro-,Latino,andAsianAmericanversionsandextended treatmentsofAfricanandNativeAmericanexamples—inorderboth toanalyzethewaysthatfacticityemergesfromalternativeexperiential andinterpretivelociandtoexposethemicropoliticaldifferencesthat obtainacrosstheUnitedStates’differentexperiential-andthoughtworlds .JacquesRancière’sobservationconnectingaesthetics,politics, andalternativeworldsisaproposhere:“Theaestheticnatureofpolitics ,”henotes,directsourattentionnotto“aspecificsingleworld,”but to“aworldofcompetingworlds.”5 Oneofthosecompetingthought-worlds,whichismanifestedin anovelthatarticulatesacrimestorywithaphilosophicallyoriented racialallegory,isexemplarywithrespecttothetensionsandconnections Iamexploring.InTheIntuitionist,ColsonWhiteheadconstructs anallegoricalplotthattiesissuesofracialinequalitytocontending epistemologiesofelevatorinspectioninAmerica’smostvertical(read hierarchical)venue,themetropolis(seeminglymodeledonNewYork City).6 BearingcomparisonwiththeShklar-Wolinencounter,thetension inthenovelinvolvestwowarringfactionsinthecity’sDepartment ofElevatorInspection:theempiricists,whooperatewithinadata-oriented rationalism,andtheintuitionists,whorelyoninstinctandtacit knowledge.Muchoftheplotiscenteredaroundthewritingsofthe (fictional)lateauthorJamesFulton,thetrajectoryofwhosevarious treatisescloselymatchestheprogressionofImmanuelKant’scritiques. Fulton,revealedtobeanAfricanAmericanwhohaspassedforwhite, beganhistheorizingofelevatorswithacanonical,empiricisttext,but hesubsequentlypublishedoneentitledTheoreticalElevators,atreatise thatintroducesanintuitionistelevatorinspectionphilosophytowhich thenovel’sprotagonist,LilaMaeWatson,theDepartment’sfirstblack womanemployee,isadevotee.LilaMae’sintuitionistapproach,which distinguishesherbothepistemicallyandpolitically,ispredicatedon theassumptionthatnoaccountofthepracticeofinspectioncanyield aclosed,finalreality(asinKant’sdiscovery,articulatedinhisthird [18.234.202.202] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:24 GMT) TheMicropoliticsofCrime 33 critique,thatthesubjectivefacultiescannotachieve“subjectivenecessity ”oradefinitiveaccordwiththeworldofthings).Sheultimately becomesacivicallyengaged“citizenofthecitytocome.”7 Asidefromthedramasurroundingtheprotagonist,whoselife...