Rogueish

The object of my response to his thinking is not of course to ask how true is Rancière’s account of politics. Rather, out of a basic sympathy with the provocations that prompt it, and out of a deep admiration for the way in which Rancière himself responds to those provocations in a rare and sustained act of political thinking, my reading of him is concerned to determine from whence his thought derives?

Reading this passage, you might assume that the author is an enthusiastic supporter of Rancière’s work, and what follows will be a sympathetic defense. Alas, to make that assumption would be to reveal a sad lack of familiarity with the passive-aggressive codes of academic critique; this passage in fact precedes one of the most complete dismissals of a philosopher’s work I’ve read.