Extraordinary Responsibility
Politics beyond the Moral Calculus

This book explores how an impoverished understanding of responsibility as quantifiable and dischargeable sustains moralistic politics.

Shalini Satkunanandan (Author)

9781107443136, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2015

263 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'Satkunanandan argues that such “realism” overlooks the ways in which calculative responsibility is essential: the problem is to delimit the scope of such thinking, not eliminate it. What is required is "attentiveness to calculation" so the limitations of calculation can be grasped and higher forms of attentiveness can enable the incalculable, extraordinary responsibility that is constitutive of humanity. This original, deeply thoughtful argument is beautifully set out through encounters with historical thinkers and contemporary theorists and illustrated by concrete issues of public policy … Highly recommended.' J. D. Moon, Choice

Careful attention to contemporary political debates, including those around global warming, the federal debt, and the use of drone strikes on suspected terrorists, reveals that we often view our responsibility as something that can be quantified and discharged. Shalini Satkunanandan shows how Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Weber, and Heidegger each suggest that this calculative or bookkeeping mindset both belongs to 'morality', understood as part of our ordinary approach to responsibility, and effaces the incalculable, undischargeable, and more onerous dimensions of our responsibility. These thinkers also reveal how the view of responsibility as calculable is at the heart of 'moralism' - the pettifogging, mindless, legalistic, excessively judgmental, or punitive policing of our own or others' compliance with moral duties. By elaborating their narratives of a difficult 'conversion' to the open-ended and relentless character of responsibility, Satkunanandan explores how we might be less moralistic and more responsible in politics. She ultimately argues for a political ethos attentive to how calculative thinking can limit our responsibility, but that still accepts a circumscribed place for calculation (and morality) in responsible politics.

Introduction: distracted by calculation
Part I. Calculation and Indirectness: 1. Nietzsche: morality's debt perspective
2. Heidegger: the calls of conscience and calculation
3. (In)calculable conversion
Part II. The Moralizer's Critique of Calculable Responsibility: 4. Plato: the philosopher's turn from debt justice
5. Kant: the extraordinary categorical imperative
Part III. Turning from Morality in Politics: 6. Weber: the ethos of politics beyond calculation
7. Darkness at Noon: mis-turn from morality
8. Conclusion: attention to calculation.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Theology [HRLB], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]