Freedom and the Human in “Evolutionary” Political Theory

• Date: 01 June 2014
• Author: Elisabeth Anker
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912914523347
• Published date: 01 June 2014
• Subject Matter: Mini-symposium: Species Evolution and Cultural FreedomGuest Editor: Steven Johnston

523347PRQXXX10.1177/1065912914523347Political Research QuarterlyAnker
research-article2014
Mini-Symposium
Political Research Quarterly
2014, Vol. 67(2) 453 –456
Freedom and the Human in
© 2014 University of Utah
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“Evolutionary” Political Theory
DOI: 10.1177/1065912914523347
prq.sagepub.com
Elisabeth Anker1
Abstract
“Evolutionary” political theory is a dynamic process of scholarship that collides disparate ideas into each other to form
new, symbiogenetic concepts that were previously unthinkable. As evolutionary political theory, “Species Evolution
and Cultural Freedom” enacts the dynamics of species evolution the essay examines, colliding theories of freedom
into theories of evolution to offer new ways of imagining the self. Yet I argue that the essay’s evolutionary argument
moves beyond the “self” to untether freedom from the human and to redefine the human as the symbiogenetic effect
of colliding force fields: both human and nonhuman, cultural and environmental, genetic and evolutionary.
Keywords
Keywords, Freedom, Evolution, New Materialism, Agency, William Connolly
Evolutionary Political Theorizing
The methodology of Connolly’s scholarship, in this
sense, enacts the dynamics of species evolution he exam-
In recent years, William Connolly’s scholarship has
ines. He brings disparate fields of thought together—
emphasized the importance of micropolitical, affective,
new materialism and pluralism in political theory, with
and nonhuman forces in cultivating political action and
developmental and dynamic theories of evolution in sci-
shaping political worlds. Connolly pursues what might
entific research—to create a collision between them that
seem to be contradictory tasks: to challenge robust con-
produces new connections between freedom and evolu-
figurations of human agency in relation to the nonhuman
tion. Connolly’s work in political theory is well estab-
world, yet to encourage humans to foster gratitude for
lished, while his turn to evolutionary theory is relatively
their lives on earth; to challenge the righteous sureties of
unexpected and thus travels a more contingent path. As
implacable political positions, yet to reinvigorate invest-
these two different disciplinary species collide in the
ments in democratic practice; to emphasize the way that
essay to form a composite, their symbiosis alters each.
politics takes shape in microregisters, yet to use mic-
Yet while Connolly’s argument on freedom and evolu-
ropolitics to analyze macropolitical shifts in the contem-
tion was likely set off by a “teleo-searching process,” its
porary global condition. Connolly not only holds these
production cannot be simply reduced to the intent and
tasks together but also shows how they are, in fact, com-
interests of the author. Rather it emerged within the dis-
plementary, even dependent upon each other. So for
tributed agency of creative processes in which many
instance, democratic practice is reinvigorated by soften-
human and nonhuman factors, accountable and unac-
ing a rigid moralism, and an ethos of gratitude is nour-
countable sources, geopolitical and micropolitical shifts,
ished by a decentered understanding of human agency.
likely played a role in its formation.
Connolly achieves these feats in part because of the
The essay thus parallels the creativity of species evo-
approaches he takes. By refusing fealty to any singular
lution, or at least of Connolly’s reading of evolutionary
thinker, political program, or analytic method, Connolly
processes. Is this evolution, exactly? Is this what biolo-
creates new ways of doing political theory by generating
gists or physical scientists might find when they study
heterogeneous connections between seemingly incom-
mensurate fields of study and sets of ideas. “Species
Evolution and Cultural Freedom” works in this vein to
1George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
argue that scientific research on evolution and political/
...