Event Title
Thomas Paine's (Un)Common Sense and the Politics of Disagreement
Location
King Building 325
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-28-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
4-28-2017 2:50 PM
Abstract
In my senior honors project, I juxtapose a tradition of using the phrase 'common sense' to cover up radical disagreement within politics with Thomas Paine's radical use of the phrase in his incendiary 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense. Working from the basic premise that politics is constituted by disagreement, not agreement, I argue that Paine's common sense orients us towards lines of disagreement instead of searching for an already existing consensus. I contrast Paine's common sense with an 18th century Whiggish common sense, which I also see as operative in the political philosophy of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. Once I have established Paine's decisive break with this tradition of common sense, I attempt to read Paine as a repressed radical who has more in common with contemporary radicals such as Jacques Ranciere and Louis Althusser, than the liberal tradition he is typically read within the paradigm of.
Keywords:
political theory, common sense, disagreement, democracy
Recommended Citation
Ecker, Jordan, "Thomas Paine's (Un)Common Sense and the Politics of Disagreement" (04/28/17). Senior Symposium. 18.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/seniorsymp/2017/presentations/18
Major
Politics
Advisor(s)
Marc Blecher, Politics; East Asian Studies
Project Mentor(s)
Jade Schiff, Politics
Sonia Kruks, Politics
April 2017
Thomas Paine's (Un)Common Sense and the Politics of Disagreement
King Building 325
In my senior honors project, I juxtapose a tradition of using the phrase 'common sense' to cover up radical disagreement within politics with Thomas Paine's radical use of the phrase in his incendiary 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense. Working from the basic premise that politics is constituted by disagreement, not agreement, I argue that Paine's common sense orients us towards lines of disagreement instead of searching for an already existing consensus. I contrast Paine's common sense with an 18th century Whiggish common sense, which I also see as operative in the political philosophy of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. Once I have established Paine's decisive break with this tradition of common sense, I attempt to read Paine as a repressed radical who has more in common with contemporary radicals such as Jacques Ranciere and Louis Althusser, than the liberal tradition he is typically read within the paradigm of.
Notes
Session I, Panel 7 - Political | Stories
Moderator: Joyce Babyak, Dean of Studies and Professor of Religion
Full text thesis available here.