%0 Journal Article
%T Debating exemplarity: The ¡°communis¡± in sensus communis
%A Alessandro Ferrara
%J Philosophy & Social Criticism
%@ 1461-734X
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0191453718786134
%X In this paper I respond to Lois McNay¡¯s article ¡°The politics of exemplarity: Ferrara on the disclosure of new political worlds.¡± After contextualizing her appraisal of my views on exemplarity within the current debate about critical theory and postcolonialism, and after clarifying my interpretation of Kant¡¯s notion of sensus communis, I defend the function that this concept plays within an immanent and experience-near approach to critical theory. Sensus communis is what makes of a subjective grievance a cogent critique. I then elucidate how the transcontextual communicability of human flourishing can be understood, along lines still compatible with Kant¡¯s theory of judgment. In the final section of the paper, McNay¡¯s suggestion to reconceptualize critique in experience-near terms is integrated as a genealogical reconstruction of sensus communis as nourished by encounters with experiences of injustice
%K sensus communis
%K Kant
%K exemplarity
%K disclosure
%K judgment
%K critique
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0191453718786134