Tiina Arppe - Affectivity and the Social Bond: Transcendence, Economy and Violence in French Social Theory

AFFECTIVITY AND THE SOCIAL BOND

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Transcendence, Economy and Violence in French Social Theory

TIINA ARPPE
University of Helsinki, Finland

ASHGATE

Tiina Arppe 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Tiina Arppe has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Arppe, Tiina.

Affectivity and the social bond : transcendence, economy and violence in French social theory / by Tiina Arppe.

pages cm. -- (Rethinking classical sociology)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-3182-4 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4094-3183-1 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-0313-1 (epub) 1. Social sciences--France--History--19th century. 2. Social sciences--France--History--20th century. I. Title.

H53.F7A77 2014

300.1--dc23

2013027936

ISBN: 978-1-4094-3182-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-4094-3183-1 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN: 978-1-4724-0313-1 (ebk-ePUB)

My interest in French social theory is long-standing and shared by a group of colleagues, nowadays working mainly in the University of Helsinki but also in other, completely non-academic settings, with whom Ive had the great fortune to read and to discuss the important works of the French scene over the years of this heterogeneous bunch I especially want to mention Elisa Heinmki, Ilpo Heln, Timo Kaitaro, Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen, Hannu Sivenius, Sami Santanen, Olli Sinivaara and Pekka Sulkunen, whose insight and erudition have been of great inspiration along the way. I am particularly indebted to Susanna Lindberg whose perceptive and thoughtful comments on the critical points of the manuscript helped me to see my way through when working with the final version of the manuscript. Of my international colleagues a special thank you is due to Camille Tarot, an eminent expert on French sociology of religion, whose illuminating remarks and unending hospitality I have had the privilege of enjoying over the years.

The institutional actors that have made this book possible are The Academy of Finland which funded the project and allowed me to work for several years in relative peace a rare luxury in the academic world nowadays and The Department of Sociology of the University of Helsinki which offered me not only the working space and the facilities, but also the academic community without which no research would ever be possible. Of the other, more informal institutional settings from which this book has greatly benefitted, I would like to mention two: the Girard study group that assembled during the years 20112012, headed by the indefatigable Olli Sinivaara, and the Summer School of the Finnish Association of Researchers, headed by Kirsti Mttnen and Tuomas Nevanlinna for as long as memory goes one of the last informal settings of the civilized world in which the researchers of social sciences and humanities can meet, discuss The Fundamental Questions (the ones that really matter) and have fun all night long during a whole summer weekend.

I also want to thank my editors Neil Jordan and Aime Feenan from Ashgate without their patience and diligence, but also their invaluable help in the concrete copy-editing process, this book would probably never have seen daylight.

The last and the greatest thanks, however, goes to my daughter Kathleen who must have used every ounce of her creativity and sense of humour to support her absent-minded mother constantly bent over a book or a computer. No love should ever be put on such trial. This book is dedicated to her.

Affectivity has become an important issue in sociology and social theory during recent decades. For example, an entire affective turn has been proclaimed,and which even nowadays characterize the discussion of the problem, albeit under the more positive label of interdisciplinarity. However, the form that the problem of affectivity took or the shape in which it was introduced to the emerging field of sociology also had its roots in the history of modern philosophy and political thought.

Schematically put, in the tradition of modern social and political theory human affectivity has been regarded from two different angles.

The same ambiguity between two different types of affectivity is repeated in modern political theory. The positive bond between men was ultimately based on sentiment (the postulate of the natural sociability of men, common in the social contract theories) whereas the relationship between passions and sociality was mostly seen in a negative manner: the basic motivation for the constitution of the political society is precisely mens desire to protect themselves from the destructive consequences of the passionate element equally implicit in their nature. This is the Hobbesian starting point of the modern political philosophy: in a hypothetical state of nature, preceding the formation of the political authority (or Leviathan, the mortal god), men free and equal by their capacities inevitably end into conflicts and rivalry over the objects of their desires, the result being

However, this strongly dualistic picture of human affectivity was nuanced during the following centuries. Already the emergence of