Corporeal Vulnerability and the New Humanism

Abstract

“Humanism” is a term that has designated a remarkably disparate set of ideologies. Nonetheless, strains of religious, secular, existential, and Marxist humanism have tended to circumscribe the category of the human with reference to the themes of reason, autonomy, judgment, and freedom. This essay examines the emergence of a new humanistic discourse in feminist theory, one that instead finds its provocation in the unwilled passivity and vulnerability of the human body, and in the vulnerability of the human body to suffering and violence. Grounded in a descriptive ontology that privileges figures such as exposure, dispossession, vulnerability, and “precariousness,” this new humanism is a corporeal humanism. This essay probes both the promise and the limitations of this emergent humanism with particular reference to recent work by feminist philosophers Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero.

Politics of Vulnerability: The Body and Social Struggles in Contemporary Social Theory

“…Buena parte de estos interrogantes se relacionan con la inquietud de, si designar a ciertos individuos, grupos o poblaciones como "vulnerables", no conduce a una paradoja con negativas consecuencias: en lugar de fortalecer sus capacidades para enfrentar situaciones de riesgo u opresión, se daría fundamento a instancias de control social o medidas paternalistas que, en nombre de su necesaria protección o cuidado, desarticulan aún más sus posibilidades de agencia política. La creciente presencia del concepto de vulnerabilidad sería así parte de aquellas formas contemporáneas de "humanitarismo" (Fassin, 2010(Fassin, /2012Murphy, 2011) que, junto con despertar sentimientos de compasión y necesidades de protección (Chouliaraki, 2006), despolitiza las causas sociales de la precariedad y la violencia. En breve, es el significado y pertinencia de una "política de la vulnerabilidad", vale decir, la compatibilidad entre el concepto de vulnerabilidad y los fines de una política emancipadora, aquello que hoy se encuentra en el centro de importantes debates de la teoría social y política (Ferrarese, 2016).…”

The Narratable Self: Adriana Cavarero with Sojourner Truth

“…Like Judith Butler, Cavarero is invested in thinking through our shared vulnerability to others, to norms, and to violence. In this regard both have been identified with a “new humanism” based on an ontology of vulnerability rooted in the human body (Murphy ). Cavarero's critique of the Western individualist tradition is also a project of reconstruction to solidify the unique, concrete, and sexed self in relation to others.…”

“…on an ontology of vulnerability rooted in the human body (Murphy 2011). Cavarero's critique of the Western individualist tradition is also a project of reconstruction to solidify the unique, concrete, and sexed self in relation to others.…”

Infinite Responsibility in the Bedpan: Response Ethics, Care Ethics, and the Phenomenology of Dependency Work

“…This article addresses these questions by situating the metaethical and normative dimensions of relations of care in the context of the lived experiences of bodily variabilities vis‐à‐vis the dependent (the cared‐for) and the dependency worker (the care‐giver). More broadly, I hope that the account I provide will offer phenomenological insights that bear upon discussions concerning the role of disability in feminist theory (Garland‐Thomson ; Hall ), the role of vulnerability and materiality in narratives of care (Murphy ; Chen ), and the role of embodiment in conceptualizing relations with respect to care ethics and feminist theory more generally (Hamington ; Wilson ).…”