Defrosting concepts, destabilizing doxa: Critical phenomenology and the perplexing particular

A key problem for critical theory is how to problematize the very concepts that undergird its own frameworks once they have become canonical. The more that certain constructs come to dominate an intellectual landscape and train our critical gaze, the more important this task becomes. To address this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnthropological theory Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 415 - 439
Main Author Mattingly, Cheryl
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2019
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Anthropology
Concepts
Critical theory
Ethnography
Phenomenology
critical theory
structural violence, Arendt
concepts
experience
ethnography
critical phenomenology
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Summary:A key problem for critical theory is how to problematize the very concepts that undergird its own frameworks once they have become canonical. The more that certain constructs come to dominate an intellectual landscape and train our critical gaze, the more important this task becomes. To address this challenge, I offer a phenomenological approach to concept critique. I propose to consider critical phenomenology, at least in its most radical form, as an experience-near process of concept destabilization. I build upon Arendt’s intriguing formulation: thinking is a form of experience that disquiets concepts. She calls this ‘defrosting.’ I further suggest that perplexing particulars hold this kind of disruptive defrosting potential, helping us awaken our own critical gaze.
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ISSN:1463-4996
1741-2641
DOI:10.1177/1463499619828568