Politicization of social ontology and its paradoxes

The article reveals the historical and theoretical prerequisites for the ontological turn in political theory and the establishment of postfoundationalism, and develops a critical analysis of its inherent paradoxes and difficulties. The ontological turn in political theory became widely known in the first decades of the 21st century. The article argues that postfoundationalism represents a reaction to the dominance of foundationalism in the social sciences, according to which politics is reduced to a subsystem of society, and the ontology of politics is reduced to the regional field of social ontology. The need to overcome foundationalism and its consequences is determined by the formation of a postfoundational political ontology of society. The latter accepts as the main principle of interpretation the position about the contingency of the foundation of society and politics and, as a consequence, about the politicization of social ontology. It is shown that an attempt to shift the meaning of political ontology encounters some difficulties. Firstly, postfoundationalism, which posits the contingency of the foundation of society and politics, falls into contradiction and reveals its dependenceon foundationalism. Secondly, the provision of contingency does not entail ethical-normative principles prescribing specific forms of politics. Thirdly, postfoundationalism entails the loss of prospects for individual positions and projects of people, the possibility of their connection with strategic issues of social development. The general thesis of the article is that renewal ontology in postfoundationalism requires historicizing the interpretation of the social and political, turning to the institutional and normative mechanisms of both the representation and the formation of political subjectivity. The argumentation of this thesis is carried out in three stages, which predetermined the structure of the article. The first part discusses the ontological turn in political theory and the motives for constructing postfoundationalism. The second part substantiates the basic principles of postfoundational political ontology. The third part explains the paradoxes of postfoundationalism and analyses their consequences.