Defrosting concepts, destabilizing doxa: Critical phenomenology and the perplexing particular

A key problem for critical theory is how to problematize the very concepts that undergird its own frameworks once they have become canonical. The more that certain constructs come to dominate an intellectual landscape and train our critical gaze, the more important this task becomes. To address this challenge, I offer a phenomenological approach to concept critique. I propose to consider critical phenomenology, at least in its most radical form, as an experience-near process of concept destabilization. I build upon Arendt’s intriguing formulation: thinking is a form of experience that disquiets concepts. She calls this ‘defrosting.’ I further suggest that perplexing particulars hold this kind of disruptive defrosting potential, helping us awaken our own critical gaze.