Showing papers in "Critical Horizons in 2011"
TL;DR: The authors provide a comprehensive outline of Arendt's writing on the council system and a clarification of her work outside the milieu of the post-Cold War return to Arendts.
Abstract: Hannah Arendt's On Revolution offers a critique of modern representative democracy combined with a manifesto-like treatise on council systems as they have arisen over the course of revolutions and uprisings. However, Arendt's contribution to democratic theory has been obscured by her commentators who argue that her reflections on democracy are either an aberration in her work or easily reconcilable within a liberal democratic framework. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive outline of Arendt's writing on the council system and a clarification of her work outside the milieu of the post-Cold War return to Arendt. Her analyses bring to light a political system that guarantees civil and political rights while allowing all willing citizens direct participation in government. Framing her discussion within the language of the current renewed interest in constituent power, her council system could be described as a blending together of constituent power and constitutional form. Arendt resists the co...
22 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the figure of the child performs a critical function for the middle-class social imaginary, representing both an essential "innocence" of the liberal individual, and an excluded, unconscious remainder of its project of control through the management of knowledge.
Abstract: This paper argues that the figure of the child performs a critical function for the middle-class social imaginary, representing both an essential "innocence" of the liberal individual, and an excluded, unconscious remainder of its project of control through the management of knowledge. While childhood is invested with affect and value, children's agency and opportunities for social participation are restricted insofar as they are seen both to represent an elementary humanity and to fall short of full rationality, citizenship and identity. The diverse permutations of this figure, as it develops in the middle-class imagination, are traced from the writings of John Locke to the films of Michael Haneke (via Charles Dickens and Henry James), to interrogate what this ambivalence regarding childhood reflects about middle-class, adult identity.
20 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a highly simplified model is proposed to represent the interaction between value determined behavior and value-free government functions, and the validity of this model will be examined in a subsequent study of the violence in Colombia.
Abstract: I Political violence is treated as one of the manifestations of a lack of commiunication between the governnrent and the populace. A highly simplified model is proposed to represent the interaction between value determined behavior and value-free government functions. The validity of this model will be examined in a subsequent study of the violence in Colombia.
13 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine the relation between philosophical thought and the various milieus in which such thought takes place using the late work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, arguing that their assessment of this relation involves a rearticulation of philosophy as an historiophilosophy.
Abstract: This paper will examine the relation between philosophical thought and the various milieus in which such thought takes place using the late work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It will argue that Deleuze and Guattari's assessment of this relation involves a rearticulation of philosophy as an historiophilosophy. To claim that Deleuze and Guattari promote such a form of philosophy is contentious, as their work is often noted for implementing an ontological distinction between becoming and history, whereby the former is associated with the act of creation and the latter with retrospective representations of this creative process. Furthermore, when elaborating on the creative nature of philosophical thought, Deleuze and Guattari explicitly refer to philosophy as a geophilosophy that is in contrast to history. Nevertheless, this paper will demonstrate that far from abandoning the category of history, Deleuze and Guattari's analysis of the relations between philosophical thought and relative milie...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors defend universalist ethics in Habermas and Rawls and argue that such ethical reflection must involve formal anthropological considerations, in other words, it must involve a consideration of the good that also encompasses reflection on what we are as humans.
Abstract: This article seeks to defend two claims: First, that universalist ethics in Habermas and Rawls cannot function without some recourse to the good Life, or human well-being. Second, that such ethical reflection must involve formal anthropological considerations. In other words, it must involve a consideration of the good that also encompasses reflection on what we are as humans. As an example, the paper draws on Habermas' recent thoughts on "species-ethics". I will argue that "species ethics" needs to be substantiated and expanded with the help of an "anthropology of recognition".
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that police and authorities have increasingly adopted "command and control" strategies to the policing of intentionally peaceful protest crowds, and that these strategies work to close down access to a physical space in which a protest is to occur and thus in turn they effectively restrict the capacity of a citizen to engage in the democratic right of peaceful protest.
Abstract: Police and authorities have increasingly adopted "command and control" strategies to the policing of intentionally peaceful protest crowds. These strategies work to close down access to a physical space in which a protest is to occur and thus in turn they effectively restrict the capacity of a citizen to engage in the democratic right of peaceful protest.
7 citations
TL;DR: One of the most contentious of Castoriadis' ideas is his concept of creatio ex nihilo (creation from nothing). as discussed by the authors elucidates and evaluates this concept of creation, contrasting it with its classical antithesis in the philosophy of Parmenides who famously concluded that the universe must be unchanging since nothing can come to be or cease to be.
Abstract: One of the most contentious of Castoriadis' ideas is his concept of creatio ex nihilo (creation from nothing). This article elucidates and evaluates this concept of creation, contrasting Castoriadis' approach with its classical antithesis in the philosophy of Parmenides, who famously concluded that the universe must be unchanging since nothing can come to be or cease to be.
7 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored several readings of the embedded market and evaluated their capacity to revive sociologists' critical powers in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and concluded that the concept of embedded market suggests a differentiated diagnosis of our times that should allow sociology to re-enter the discussion as a critic of an ideological attempt to block public discussions about losses and dam ages of contemporary capitalism.
Abstract: When the Global Financial Crisis hit, major political economists were able to boast that they had long warned that "crazy times" were coming. By contrast, leading sociologists seem to have been wrong footed. Totalizing narratives of a new "risk society", "second modernity" and the like appeared to have sacrificed the grounds for weighing up the costs and damages of contemporary capitalism. Made famous by Karl Polanyi, the concept of the embedded market suggests a differentiated diagnosis of our times that should allow sociology to re-enter the discussion as a critic of an ideological attempt to block public discussions about losses and dam ages of contemporary capitalism. The following paper will explore several readings of this concept and will evaluate their capacity to revive sociology's critical powers.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that speakers who advocate or glorify violence against democratic institutions fall outside the parameters of what constitutes legitimate public debate and may in fact undermine the conditions necessary for the flourishing of free speech and public dialogue more generally.
Abstract: In this paper, we give an account of some of the necessary conditions for an effectively functioning public sphere, and then explore the question of whether these conditions allow for the expression of ideas and values that are fundamentally incompatible with those of liberalism. We argue that speakers who advocate or glorify violence against democratic institutions fall outside the parameters of what constitutes legitimate public debate and may in fact undermine the conditions necessary for the flourishing of free speech and public dialogue more generally.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors explores the question of whether it is possible to be a communist without Marx and explores the ontological dimension of communism, that is, the material tenor of this ontology, its residual effectiveness, the desire of human beings to go beyond capital, and the reality of the episode of statism.
Abstract: This paper explores the question of whether it is possible to be communist without Marx. This entails encountering the ontological dimension of communism, that is, the material tenor of this ontology, its residual effectiveness, the desire of human beings to go beyond capital, and the reality of the episode of statism.
5 citations
TL;DR: The work of Marcuse, unlike that of certain of his col leagues at the Institut fur Sozialforschung, is most often maligned as being excessively positive and identitarian as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The work of Herbert Marcuse, unlike that of certain of his col leagues at the Institut fur Sozialforschung, is most often maligned as being excessively positive and identitarian. His work on Freud, for example, is criticized for being grounded in a crude biological determinism which points towards an ultimate reconciliation of both psychic and social conflict. This essay will attempt to counter such readings by critically juxtaposing Marcuse's concept of non-repressive sublimation with Cornelius Castoriadis's understanding of psychic socialization. It will be suggested that the affinities between Marcuse and Castoriadis's appropriations of Freudian metapsychology reveals the degree to which the former can be read as a radical democratic thinker affirming the values of autonomy and creativity. This reading demonstrates that Marcuse has much to contribute to contemporary debates on the role of the aesthetic and the sensuous in democratic theory.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors sketch the contours of a good society, distinguished by its gender justice and the plural recognition of egalitarian difference, by reconstructing Fraser's arguments highlighting the link between distributive justice and relations of recognition, in particular as it applies to gender justice.
Abstract: This article seeks to sketch the contours of a good society, distinguished by its gender justice and the plural recognition of egalitarian difference. I begin by reconstructing Nancy Fraser's arguments highlighting the link between distributive justice and relations of recognition, in particular as it applies to gender justice. In a second step, I show that the debate on the politics of recognition has confirmed what empirical analyses already indicated, namely that Fraser's status model takes too reductive a stance towards the identity-constituting effects of relations of recognition. The simple demand that identities be recognized, however, glosses over the paradox of recognition, which arises out of the ambiguity between the demand for equal respect and the demand for the recognition of difference. This paradox cannot be resolved unless one takes into consideration the compensatory effect of value pluralism, that is, the inherent pluralism of recognition, well captured in the notion of "egalita...
TL;DR: In other words, the seductive appeal of the "costless war" fantasy rests on the desire to develop a self that is invulnerable in the face of violence.
Abstract: The technological transformation of the conduct of war, exemplified by the American employment of drones in Afghanistan and in Iraq, calls for a critical reflection about the fantasies that underpin, and are in turn animated by, the robotic revolution of the military. At play here is a fantasy of a "costless war" or a "sterile war", that is such act of military state violence against the other that is inconsequential for the self. In other words, the seductive appeal of the "costless war" fantasy rests on the desire to develop a self that is invulnerable in the face of violence. Importantly, it is a desire explicitly projected towards a particular American future (of an imagined warfare, or of a super-power status), but also one that is connected to a lacking critical reflection about the intersubjective aspects of violence in the debates about America's post-9/11 military involvements. This article reflects critically about the fantasy of the "costless war" and about its underpinning politics of ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a frame work for the analysis of the moral justification of political violence, whenever forms of collective violence can be defined as legitimate struggles of recognition, based on the two uses of the notion of violence in Honneth's theory of recognition.
Abstract: Basing its understanding on the two uses of the notion of violence in Honneth's theory of recognition, this paper aims at developing a frame work for the analysis of the thesis of the moral justification of political violence, whenever forms of political violence can be defined as legitimate struggles of recognition. Its contention is that the requalification of some forms of collective violence as recognition conflicts makes it possible to establish a hierarchy of justification for forms of violence which cannot be constructed through a priori criteria, but should rather be the result of a descriptive social philosophy enquiry.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the socio-political contexts in which violence occurs significantly shape agents' ideas about and responses to violence and argue that philosophers can only make sense of why perpetrators and bystanders alike may have judged violent acts morally justifiable or failed to challenge instances of violence against the backdrop of the particular characteristics of the socio political context in which it occurs.
Abstract: With reference to examples of violence during Apartheid, I argue that the socio-political contexts in which violence occurs significantly shape agents' ideas about and responses to violence. As such, philosophers can only make sense of why perpetrators and bystanders alike may have judged violent acts morally justifiable or failed to challenge instances of violence against the backdrop of the particular characteristics of the socio-political context in which it occurs.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the problem of good and evil from a post-metaphysical position and show that identifying between good and bad remains no less a pressing task in a world after the death of God.
Abstract: This article explores the problem of evil from a post-metaphysical position. Distinguishing between good and evil remains no less a pressing task in a world after the "death of God".
TL;DR: Asad, Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood, Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech as discussed by the authors, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 103-107.
Abstract: (2011). Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood, Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech. Critical Horizons: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 103-107.
TL;DR: The authors argued that the will's freedom is both the fundamental principle upon which genuinely political change can be grounded, and essentially external to, or subtractable from, any and all social alignments; but is nonetheless (c) necessarily actualized in specifically political institutions, and finally (d) only truly actualized through emanci- patory reforms of such institutions.
Abstract: My goal in this essay is to demonstrate the continuing relevance of Hegel's theory of right for contemporary emancipatory politics. Spe- cifically, my contention is that Hegel's Philosophy of Right can and should be read as defending the possibility of principled, decisive side-taking in political struggles. By revisiting Hegel's Philosophy of Right, I seek to dem- onstrate four interconnected theses: that the will's freedom is both (a) the fundamental principle upon which genuinely political change can be grounded, and (b) essentially external to, or subtractable from, any and all social alignments; but is nonetheless (c) necessarily actualized in specifically political institutions, and finally (d) only truly actualized through emanci- patory reforms of such institutions. In combination, these four theses dem- onstrate that politics is the principled, decisive and emancipatory reform of existent political institutions through historically determined political movements. Having established these basic theses, I will examine how the philosophy and politics of "prescriptive reform" operates in practice.
TL;DR: In this paper, Soper argues that the significance of Adorno's treatment of natural beauty lies in how he brings these two approaches together, affirming the skeptical point that we cannot transcend a human history alienated from nature as well as retaining redemptive hope wherein art "after" nature seeks creative possibilities from out of the very ruins of history marked by nature's destruction.
Abstract: This paper seeks to redress the marginalization of Adorno in environmental philosophical discourse. Kate Soper describes two opposing ways of conceiving nature. There is the redemptive "nature-endorsing" paradigm that lays claim to the intrinsic value or "otherness" of nature. Conversely, the "nature-sceptical" approach denies that we can access originary, untouched nature. This paper argues that the significance of Adorno's treatment of natural beauty lies in how he brings these approaches together. In writings that resonate with the dual connotations of Sebald's phrase "after nature", Adorno both affirms the skeptical point that we cannot transcend a human history alienated from nature as well as retaining redemptive hope wherein art "after" nature seeks creative possibilities from out of the very ruins of history marked by nature's destruction.
TL;DR: Granter as discussed by the authors, Critical Social Theory and the End of Work, 2011, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 91-98, discusses critical social theory and the end of work.
Abstract: (2011). Edward Granter, Critical Social Theory and the End of Work. Critical Horizons: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 91-98.
TL;DR: In this paper, the meaning of time in the moral world is discussed in terms of othering and the caesura of allowing in the context of critique as a philosophical concept that is linked to the possibility of a productive opening.
Abstract: Critique as a philosophical concept needs to be recast once it is linked to the possibility of a productive opening. In such a context critique has an important affinity to destruction and forms of inauguration. Working through writings of Marx and Walter Benjamin, specifically Benjamin's "The Meaning of Time in the Moral World", destruction and inauguration are repositioned in terns of othering and the caesura of allowing.