Thinking from Fragility
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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to claim the need to re-imagine contemporary ethical and political vocabularies from a radical recognition of―and confrontation with― fragility. More specifically, this article seeks to highlight the importance of cultivating an awareness of those moments when bodies, objects, and the worlds we inhabit begin to crack and reveal their fragility; and the relevance of recovering these moments as spaces from which to open up alternative ways of thinking and imagining. On the one hand, this article will argue for the necessity of thinking from fragility, as an opportunity to rectify the arrogant refusal to think about limits that has characterized much of modern thought, which can be achieved through an attention to practices of care, repair, and maintenance. On the other hand, it will advocate for thinking from these practices as means to cultivate forms of attention to what remains after rupture, and to claim it as a space from where to imagine which ethics and politics are possible beyond collapse.
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