The Political Logic of Experience

Expressivity—the process tying together knowing, being, and doing—is the logic of experience itself, simultaneously transcendental and empirical. Because this logic necessarily links a socially constituting force with socially constituted individuals, it is inherently political. The book argues that political questions cannot be separated from understanding human experience, that phenomenology remains essential for addressing those questions, and that every transcendental claim about experience is inseparable from particular empirical circumstances. This framework offers expressivity as an ultra-transcendental account of phenomenality, explains the relation between transcendental and critical or applied phenomenology, provides a political understanding of experience that supports feminism, critical race theory, and queer theory, and contends that fighting oppression is phenomenological, not merely cultural or structural.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The book argues that expressivity is the key to understanding experience and phenomenology. Experience is the constant tying together of knowing, being, and doing in a way that is simultaneously transcendental and empirical, and expressivity names the process by which this tying happens, and so it functions as the logic—the ‘how’—of experience itself. This logic is inherently political, insofar as it necessarily ties together a socially constituting force and socially constituted individuals. Articulating the generative role that expressivity plays in experience therefore allows the book to argue three main claims: first, that political questions can never be entirely separated from our understanding of “human experience”; second, that phenomenology remains an essential methodological tool for understanding those ‘political’ questions; and third, that every transcendental claim concerning “human experience” is never fully separable from particular empirical circumstances. This, in turn, allows the book to offer advances in four key areas: first, it offers expressivity as an ultra-transcendental account of how phenomenality functions, building on other ultra-transcendental accounts of phenomenality such as différance (Derrida), flesh (Merleau-Ponty), and auto-affection (Henry); second, it explains the relation between transcendental phenomenology and other uses of phenomenology, such as critical phenomenology and applied phenomenology; third, it provides an understanding of the essentially political nature of experience that can undergird the work of feminism, critical race theory and queer theory; and fourth, it argues that the fight against oppression is phenomenological and not simply cultural or ‘structural.’