By Michael Meurer

Bachelard’s Poetics

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, author of works such as The Poetics of Space, is remembered for his articulation of the idea that “scientific investigation is polemical.” Bachelard cautioned that science must stay vigilant not to impede “scientific imagination” by succumbing to “the seduction of the empirical.” 

The notion of a “scientific consensus” would likely be anathema to Bachelard. He saw science as social and dialogic, an ongoing exercise in robust dialogue and debate.

Today, in a time of rancorous hyper-partisanship fueled by an atmosphere of perpetual crisis and absolutism, poor Bachelard would likely be castigated as a denier. Few people would understand that his use of the word “polemical” was, in fact, a quiet celebration of civility.

Civility is not passivity. Viable civil debate and just political-economic action to combat environmental despoliation require powerful democratic debate. But such debate cannot take hold in the face of apocalyptic absolutism, scientific or otherwise.

Civil imagination vs. political consumerism

Politico estimates that at least $10 billion will be spent in the 2020 election cycle. The orgy of spending on empty political absolutism stands in inverse proportion to the shriveling substance of daily civic life. Since our last newsletter, I have published two articles on this devolution of solutionless US politics into permanent consumer spectacle.

Political parties cannot do the work of building civil society. Only citizens can. Reimagining Politics is charting the enormous variety of citizen-driven civil associations in Europe and the Americas that are making profound change, then facilitating connections among them.

New models for a modern democratic society based on these kinds of diverse citizens’ initiatives also exist, such as Yale professor Hélène Landemore’s pioneering work on empowering “the rule of the many” in lieu of a professional class of elected representatives. 

Solutions abound, but we need the courage to pursue a different path to counter today’s toxic absolutism, which ends in dangerous political entropy at a time of unprecedented opportunity for creative problem solving.

That is why Reimagining Politics exists.

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