The Democratic Potential of Transindividuality. From the critique of liberal individualism to a renewal of postfoundational democratic theory.

The objective of this project is to introduce the notion of transindividuality into the debate on liberal democratic theory. Transindividuality refers to social relations constitutive of both the individual and the collective. The project aims to problematize the normative presupposition of liberal individualism, which grounds democracy in individualist foundations, by unmasking the concealed transindividual relations which underlie this individualist a priori. The disguise of these relations in liberal discourse has problematic effects on our understanding of democracy and weakens democracy’s emancipatory potential. As an alternative, this project aims to rethink democratic theory from the perspective of a transindividual understanding of social relations. To that end, it first reconstructs transindividuality as a key concept for social ontology. Second, it develops a theoretical framework for a transindividual ideology critique. Finally, it establishes transindividuality as a postfoundational concept for democratic theory, which allows us to think both the collective and the individual as the contingent result of transindividual relations. The recognition of these relations and their inherently contingent dimension is essential in view of the reinforcement of emancipatory democratic processes. This project takes Balibar’s reflections on transindividuality as a political conception a step further by introducing them into the literature on post-foundational democratic theory.

Keywords:Democratic theory, Transindividuality, Étienne Balibar

Disciplines:Social and political philosophy, Continental philosophy

Project type:PhD project