Philosophie als Klassenvorurteil

Abstract

Abstract To what extent is philosophy, as an academic discipline, shaped by classbased biases? A fruitful point of departure for addressing this question is Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological critique of philosophy, particularly as articulated in his Pascalian Meditations. Bourdieu argues that philosophical reflection typically represses the fact that its capacity for detached, abstract reasoning is not merely a cognitive faculty but one that is socially conditioned, enabled by a social position that affords liberation from everyday constraints. Yet such philosophical leisure (Greek: scholē) is profoundly ambivalent: while it makes philosophical inquiry possible in the first place, it is accessible only to certain classes, can sever ties with the sphere of practical concerns, and can obscure the social exclusivity of philosophical discourse. Particularly problematic, according to Bourdieu, is the philosophical claim to a superior capacity for judgment – a claim that contributes to the legitimation and reproduction of unjust class structures.