SUFFERING WONDER - WOOING AND COURTING IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

In a reading that plays throughout off the Eleventh Thesis on Feuerbau ch by Marx which reads: ''the philosophers have only interpreted the w orld in various ways; the point, however, is to change it,'' the autho r argues for the rather paradoxical sounding claim, following a readin g of Hannah Arendt, that to be existential, critical, and engaged we n eed to withdraw. To investigate this idea, the author further cuts aga inst the grain by returning critical theory to its ''mere '' philosoph ical roots in wonder, and in doing so keeps an eye on the tension betw een philosophy and change. The author engages a version of the private -public distinction and against the backdrop of the reading of the Ele venth Thesis links his reading with the work of Nancy Fraser and her t ake on the public sphere and her Habermasian concern for discourse eth ics. To assist in the author's utilization of Fraser's work, he weaves aspects of the thought of Arendt-namely her Kantian-inspired discussi ons of impartiality and radical plurality, as well as taste and judgme nt-into the discussion. In addition to this, the author's recent work is combined with Fraser and Arendt-particularly the concepts of the et hics of relief and the work of waiting from his Long Path to Nearness. The work begins and ends with the understanding that, as Fraser Puts it: ''something like Habermas's idea of the public sphere is indispens able to critical social theory and to democratic political practice.''