“White” and “black” genealogy: Affirmative and pejorative histories of values in Taylor and Foucault

Hartmut Rosa

doi:10.15448/1984-7289.2025.1.47548

Authors

Hartmut Rosa Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8030-7405

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2025.1.47548

Keywords:

Social Criticism, Methodology, Genealogy, Modernity

Abstract

The subject of the present article is the contrasting genealogical approaches of Charles Taylor and Michel Foucault in understanding the socio-constitutive role of self-interpretations and world interpretations in shaping social reality. While Taylor's genealogy underlines moral aspirations and contradictions of modernity, Foucault's genealogy uncovers the power dynamics and constraints inherent in these aspirations. My proposal is a “gray” genealogy that integrates both perspectives and allows for a nuanced understanding of modern socio-historical conditions and the exploration of viable alternatives. The case of autonomy and authenticity in the context of social acceleration illustrates how Taylor’s and Foucault’s genealogies can be applied to critique contemporary society, denoting the relevancy of a combined approach enabling a more profound and balanced critique of modernity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Hartmut Rosa, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.

References

Beck, Ulrich. 2007. Weltrisikogesellschaft: auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Sicherheit. Edition zweite Moderne.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507

Foucault, Michel. 1977. “Nietzsche, genealogy, history.” In Language, counter-memory, practice: selected essays and interviews, edited by Donald F. Bouchard. Cornell University Press.

Foucault, Michel. 2005. “Was ist Aufklärung.” In Schriften in vier Bänden = Dits et écrits, edited by Daniel Defert and François Ewald. Vol. 4. Suhrkamp.

Gergen, Kenneth J. 2000. The saturated self: dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. Basic Books.

Giddens, Anthony. 2003. Runaway world: how globalisation is reshaping our lives. 2nd ed. Routledge.

Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. 2002. Empire: die neue Weltordnung. Campus.

Hiley, David R., James Bohman, and Richard Shusterman, eds. 1991. The Interpretive turn: philosophy, science, culture. Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735028. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735028

Jameson, Fredric. 2009. The cultural turn: selected writings on the postmodern 1983–1998. Verso.

Joas, Hans. 2009. “The emergence of universalism: an affirmative genealogy.” In Frontiers of sociology, edited by Peter Hedström and Björn Wittrock. Annals of the International Institute of Sociology. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004165694.i-450.5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004165694.i-450.5

Reckwitz, Andreas. 2021. Subjekt. Uni-Taschenbücher GmbH. https://doi.org/10.36198/9783838554556. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36198/9783838554556

Reckwitz, Andreas, and Hartmut Rosa. 2023. Late modernity in crisis: why we need a theory of society. Polity.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2005. Beschleunigung die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne. Suhrkamp (Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft, 1760).

Rosa, Hartmut. 1998. Identität und kulturelle Praxis: politische Philosophie nach Charles Taylor. Campus.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2019. Resonance: a sociology of the relationship to the world. Polity Press.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2013. Social acceleration: a new theory of modernity. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/rosa14834. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/rosa14834

Rosa, Hartmut. 2020. The uncontrollability of the world. Polity Press.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2012. “‘Weiße’ und ‘schwarze’ Genealogie: affirmative und pejorative Wertgeschichten bei Taylor und Foucault.” In Perspektiven der Aufklärung: zwischen Mythos und Realität, edited by Dietmar J. Wetzel. Fink. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846752043_003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846752043_003

Saar, Martin. 2007. Genealogie als Kritik: Geschichte und Theorie des Subjektes nach Nietzsche und Foucault. Campus.

Taylor, Charles. 2007. A secular age. Belknap Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674044289

Taylor, Charles. 1979. Hegel and modern society. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139171489

Taylor, Charles. 1985. “Interpretation and the sciences of man.” In Philosophy and the human sciences. Philosophical papers. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173490.002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173490.002

Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity. Harvard University Press.

Taylor, Charles. 1988. “The moral topography of the self.” In Hermeneutics and psychological theory: interpretive perspectives on personality, psychotherapy, and psychopathology, edited by Stanley B. Messer, Louis Arnorsson Sass and Robert L. Woolfolk. Rutgers University Press.

Wagner, Peter. 1995. Soziologie der Moderne: Freiheit und Disziplin. Campus Verlag.

Young, Iris Marion. 1980. “Throwing like a girl: a phenomenology of feminine body comportment, motility, and spatiality.” Human Studies 3 (2): 137–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02331805. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02331805

Zaretsky, Eli. 2005. Secrets of the soul: a social and cultural history of psychoanalysis. Vintage.