Theory's life aporia: Understanding the life ground of social and political thought

This dissertation outlines and engages with a heretofore-unrecognized aporia within social and political theory centred on the concept of life. It begins by establishing that such an aporia exists and then proceeds to an outline of the key concepts of the study of this problematic---life, aporia, and life-value.;This conceptual outline is followed by a detailed examination of two central figures in the creation and continuation of this aporia in theory---Karl Marx and Jurgen Habermas. The examination of Marx is undertaken by a sustained examination of the development of a life-aporia though the progression of his work from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts through to his masterwork Capital. Central to this aporia is Marx's move away from a conception of humanity as a species-being. For Habermas, the examination focuses on the creation of the life-aporia at the inception of theoretical framework of communicative action through a sustained examination of his theoretical opus, The Theory of Communicative Action, Volumes One and Two. Central to Habermas' aporia is his simultaneous forefronting and backgrounding of the concept of lifeworld as the value ground of resistance to the systems of money and power.;The thesis concludes with an examination of the possibilities of developing a theory of life-value politics through the knowledge gained by exposing this life-aporia in Marx and Habermas.