Repository | Book | Chapter

One of the programmatic key quotes of the emergent modern culture of reflexivity can be found in the preface to the first edition of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781): "Our age is, to a special degree, the age of criticism, and to criticism everything must submit' (Kant 9). While this observation has frequently been acknowledged as "the foundation of modern philosophy' (cf. Höffe), its ambiguity rests at the heart of all theoretical enterprises which were to follow (including Kant's own): On the one hand, the formula implies a new understanding of theory predicated on establishing models, systems, schools of thought, or theories by means of questioning the world in order to ascertain unquestionable truth (or at least valid and workable descriptions). In this mould, criticism leads to construction. On the other hand, the formula acknowledges the potential inconclusiveness of the persistent questioning that is at the heart of the critical method. In this dimension, criticism implies perspective and relativity, and theory emerges (in the singular) as an attitude of persistent reflection and (eventually) deconstruction. Modern reflexivity accordingly manifests itself in two modes: a constructive one ultimately aiming at applicability and viability (cf. von Glasersfeld), and an ultimately deconstructive one which acknowledges the intractable surplus of complexity in the world. As these two modes are to a certain extent mutually exclusive, they generate an inherently ambiguous understanding of theory which in turn generates a wide spectrum of cultural practices, so much so in fact that one could speak of distinct cultures of reflexivity in different discursive realms of modern culture.

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-47428-5_8

Full citation: