The hermeneutics of suspicion: Recovering Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud

Abstract

Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud constitute a “school of suspicion” characterized by the systematic attempt to uncover causal forces behind conscious self-understandings. Modern interpretive trends have obscured this legacy by “moralizing” these thinkers, reframing their explanatory projects as normative exercises in ethics or political philosophy. However, their primary contribution lies in a naturalistic approach to philosophy that is continuous with empirical science and focused on the causal genesis of belief. Marx offers a science of society and a theory of ideology rather than a purely normative framework for distributive justice. Nietzsche utilizes moral psychology to explain the grip of values, such as the ascetic ideal, through physiological and psychological conditions. Freud maintains a scientific model of the mind to unify diverse phenomena under a consistent causal framework. By recovering the naturalistic ambitions of these thinkers, philosophy can better address the epistemic status of beliefs. A naturalistic account of the etiology of beliefs provides a rigorous basis for suspicion, as understanding the non-rational origins of conscious convictions undermines their presumptive authority as knowledge. – AI-generated abstract.