Is Critique “Universal”?:

Swift’s Drapier’s Letters and the Possibility of Universal Public Reason

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the dimension of “courage” or “risk” involved in the exercise of critique through a genealogical survey in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on Parrhēsia and an examination of Jonathan Swift’s Drapier’s Letters as an exemplar depicting the contours of “norm” in 18^th century public discourse. The tension between norm, truth and freedom of speech would be brought out to examine the censorship, intrinsic to the foundation of universal public reason that is pointed out by Judith Butler in her critique of the Habermasian model of public discourse. The vocabulary of public discourse will be assessed to understand whether universal normativity can at all be achieved.