“I would prefer not to”; or, Who’s Afraid of Hegel? Protagoras and Parrhêsia

Abstract

Barbara Cassin insists that she has no philosophy. This article takes that claim seriously but refuses to take it at face value, and instead traces the “world-effect” of her work. It first argues that Cassin’s rereading of Gorgias’ response to Parmenides transforms the age-old struggle between philosophy and rhetoric. The opposition is no longer between epistêmê and doxa but between ontology and logology, a contribution that Rhetorical Studies has largely overlooked. The article then turns to the political consequences of this move. It compares Cassin’s sophistic performative with Foucault’s late lectures on parrhêsia and shows that both locate a transformative politics in risky, kairotic speech whose truth appears only after it has taken effect. Finally, it reads Cassin’s self-description as “phobic of mastery” through Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to,” Lacan and Hegel. It argues that this phobia strengthens the very Master it seeks to avoid, and that the world-effect of her philosophy can only be grasped by moving beyond it.

Cite

APA

Stagnell, A. (2022). “I would prefer not to”; or, Who’s afraid of Hegel? Protagoras and parrhêsia. S: Journal of the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique, 13, 46–62.

@article{stagnell2022prefer,
  author  = {Stagnell, Alexander},
  title   = {``I Would Prefer Not To''; or, Who's Afraid of Hegel? Protagoras and Parrh\^{e}sia},
  journal = {S: Journal of the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique},
  volume  = {13},
  pages   = {46--62},
  year    = {2022}
}