Stupidity in Politics Its Unavoidability and Potential

"Otobe weaves together textual analysis of various thinkers such as Deleuze, Kant, and Kobayashi, to lay bare the taken-for-granted habits in our tradition: political judgements based on exogenous source of standard, the dichotomous view of the solitary realm of thought and the plural realm of political judgment, and most importantly, the separation between the realm of righteous thinking and the realm of politics. By laying these habits bare, Otobe persuasively argues how the two realms are inseparable... Understanding the otherness in thought and plurality of politics, the book demonstrates that taking the problem of stupidity as inherent problem is the most urgent task and possibility for democratic political theory. The book successfully problematizes the problem of stupidity in a fresh way, including the discussions of the role of common sense and recurring cliché in democratic society."

--- Reviewed by Professor Shigeki Uno (University of Tokyo), in Japanese Journal of Political Thought, 2022.