Adam Sandel

Dissatisfaction with “the neoliberal policy consensus” has fueled the rise of “populist” parties and candidates around the world, Donald Trump being the foremost example. But what underlies this discontent? Hegel’s understanding of civil society and its proper relationship to the family and the state may provide an answer to this question. Specifically, neoliberal policies and attitudes are based upon a one-sided view of “work” and economic activity that erodes the dignity of the political community and its members. Both elites and non-elites are suffering from the cannibalization of the family and the colonization of the state by civil society, which produces social strain that goes well beyond economic anxieties. Furthermore, Kojève’s interpretation of Hegel, especially his understanding of the nature of authority, helps explain the distinctively political aspects of these developments. Neoliberalism, through its pursuit of increasing depoliticization, undermines its own sources of political legitimacy and ultimately reduces human relations to the application of force in the service of individual ends.

In this article, I suggest that an open mind wholly unburdened by preconceptions and prejudgments is a mistaken ideal. Not only is it unrealistic; it deprives us of context and background knowledge relevant to judging well. I begin with two cases that show how the ideal of the “prejudice-free” mind, though appealing, may end up thwarting good judgment: blind assessment and “blank-slate” jury selection. I then trace the prejudice-free ideal to the Enlightenment, exposing its roots in the subject-object worldview. Drawing on Heidegger, I suggest that the subject-object worldview is misguided and that all judgment involves a prior understanding of the matter we judge. To have an open mind, paradoxically, is to have a stake in defending a prior understanding, to be possessed of an understanding of the good that one wishes to promote. I then draw out the implications of this view for how we might make sense of cultural differences,...