• DOI:10.1177/0191453718794745
• Corpus ID: 53557630

Impure theorizing in an imperfect world: Politics, utopophobia and critical theory in Geuss’s realism

@article{Verovek2018ImpureTI,
  title={Impure theorizing in an imperfect world: Politics, utopophobia and critical theory in Geuss’s realism},
  author={Peter J. Verov{\vs}ek},
  journal={Philosophy \& Social Criticism},
  year={2018},
  volume={45},
  pages={265 - 283}
}

• Peter J. Verovšek
• Published 23 August 2018
• Philosophy
• Philosophy & Social Criticism

An “impure” realism that draws extensively on non-philosophical sources
has challenged mainstream political theory in recent years. These “new realists” reject the
“political moralism” of “ethics-first” approaches, holding that theory should start from
disagreement and conflict. My basic thesis is that its focus on “the political” and its
utopophobia prevent realism from developing normative foundations that can ground
social criticism. Many realists, including one of its primary progenitors, Raymond Geuss,
recognize this problem. Interestingly, Geuss turns to critical theory to address this
concern. While I welcome realism’s desire to make political theory more relevant to
politics, I argue that Geuss’s attempt to address the status quo bias by importing ideology
critique from the Frankfurt School is ultimately unsuccessful. In my reading the critical
theory of the Frankfurt School thus emerges as a more plausible approach to grounding
critique of the pathologies of the present.