Showing papers in "Critical Horizons in 2012"
TL;DR: This paper argued that habit is also important for understanding the philosophy of right in Hegel's thought, arguing that the discussion of habit and second nature occur at a critical juncture in the text.
Abstract: Discussions of habit in Hegel’s thought usually focus on his subjective spirit since this is where the most extended discussion of this issue takes place. This paper argues that habit is also important for understanding Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. The discussion of habit and second nature occur at a critical juncture in the text. This discussion is important for understanding his notion of ethical life and his account of freedom.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the rise of machination became possible through the historical process of replacing the early Greek disposition of existence, the wonder, with calculative rationalit, and that the condition of machinations marks a fundamental implementation of the hidden consummation of the mechanism of oblivion now being re-adopted into the operational clarity of calculative rationality.
Abstract: Heidegger’s discussion about the rise of the arbitrary power of “machination” (Machenschaft) in his late 1930s writings does not just echo his well-known later thinking on technology, but also affords a profound insight to the ontological mechanism of oblivion behind the history of Western thinking of being. The paper shows how this rise of the coercive power of ordering (Machenschaft) signifies an emergence of historically and spatially significant moment of completion: outgrowth of the early Greek notions of tekhne and phusis in terms of globally expanding systems of calculative orderings. The paper thus aims to show how the condition of machination marks a fundamental implementation of the hidden consummation of the mechanism of oblivion now being re-adopted into the operational clarity of calculative rationality. It is argued that the rise of machination became possible through the historical process of replacing the early Greek disposition of existence, the wonder, with calculative rationalit...
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the theoretical, practical and evaluative functions of the mind are grounded in something like a natural normativity, based on the interaction of the body's inner world with the outer world.
Abstract: Against the background of recent developments in neuroscience, the paper shows how, for Hegel, the theoretical, practical and evaluative functions of the mind are grounded in something like a natural normativity, based on the interaction of the body's inner world with the outer world. These forms of organic homeostasis are the basis for further kinds and levels of norms, and deviations from these norms, which result in mental pathologies, provide insights into the complexity of spirit.
15 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of political myth is proposed, which sitsuate itself between psycho analysis and political philosophy, in line with the tradition of critical theory that many still associate with the name of the Frankfurt School.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a specific aspect of political imaginaries: political myth. What are political myths? What role do they play within today's commoditized political imaginaries? What are the conditions for setting up a critique of them? We will address these questions, by putting forward a theory of political myth which situates itself between psycho analysis and political philosophy, in line with the tradition of critical theory that many still associate with the name of the Frankfurt School. We will first discuss the notion of political myth by illustrating the contribution of both disciplines to its understanding and then, through a discussion of the notion of social unconscious, we will apply this analysis to a contemporary example of political myth, that of a clash of civilizations.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a reconstruction of some fragments of Hegel's Jena manuscripts concerning the natural genesis of recognitive spiritual consciousness is proposed, and it is argued that recognition should not be understood as a bootstrapping process, that is, as a self-positing and self-justifying normative social phenomenon, intelligible within itself and independently of anything external to it.
Abstract: The paper proposes a reconstruction of some fragments of Hegel’s Jena manuscripts concerning the natural genesis of recognitive spiritual consciousness. On this basis it will be argued that recognition has a foothold in nature. As a consequence, recognition should not be understood as a bootstrapping process, that is, as a self-positing and self-justifying normative social phenomenon, intelligible within itself and independently of anything external to it.
12 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that Hegel's theory of the spirit is in many aspects more akin to Dewey's pragmatism than Brandom's, and compared the Hegelianism of contemporary neo-pragmatism (Brandom) and the classical philosophy of classical pragmaticism as it has been reassessed in contemporary Deweyan scholarship.
Abstract: This paper contrasts the Hegelianism of contemporary neo-pragmatism (Brandom) and the Hegelianism of classical pragmatism as it has been reassessed in contemporary Deweyan scholarship. Drawing on Dewey’s interpretation of Hegel, this paper argues that Hegel’s theory of the spirit is in many aspects more akin to Dewey’s pragmatism than Brandom’s. The first part compares Dewey’s pragmatism with Hegel’s conceptions of experience and the theory/practice relation. The second part compares Dewey’s naturalism with Hegel’s theory of the relation between nature and spirit.
11 citations
TL;DR: The Critical Horizons special issue of Critical Horizons as mentioned in this paper takes up the problematic of political imaginaries from various angles, including the conditions of possibility for "the political" (le politique) and "politics" (la politique), as well as the concrete, contemporary contexts in which they are embedded and which they, in turn, transform.
Abstract: This special issue of Critical Horizons takes up the problematic of political imaginaries from various angles. In putting political imaginaries into question, the conditions of possibility for “the political” (le politique) and “politics” (la politique) are interrogated, as well as the concrete, contemporary contexts in which they are embedded, and which they, in turn, transform. In light of the ongoing Global Financial Crisis, the continued ecological devastation of the earth, new sites of terrorism (such as Norway), but also the recent upsurge of protest movements around the world (from the socalled Arab Spring, to the Occupy movement), the questioning of existing horizons of political imaginaries are evident and, consequently, call for elucidation. The present special issue begins to articulate a field of responses to this urgent task. The concept of political imaginaries manifests in the first instance as a specific zone within the broader field of social imaginaries, which, in turn, draws from phenomenological strands of French social and political thought. The field of social imaginaries forms a particular constellation within the broader “cultural turn” in the human sciences. Charles Taylor gave broad currency to the term “social imaginaries” in Modern Social Imaginaries. 1 In so doing, he leaned on Cornelius Castoriadis’s earlier elucidations of social imaginary
10 citations
TL;DR: Two political philosophies that emerged in the era of revolutionary critique are examined in this paper alongside Castoriadis and Lefort as mentioned in this paper, which are positioned in a critical relationship to the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and pose questions about power, the political and citizenship relevant to different civilizational settings.
Abstract: The social thought of Castoriadis and Lefort address Old World constellations. Yet both are positioned in a critical relationship to the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and pose questions about power, the political and citizenship relevant to different civilizational settings. Two political philosophies that emerged in the era of revolutionary critique are examined in this paper alongside Castoriadis and Lefort. Thomas Jefferson's philosophy of republic and empire and Simon Bolivar's creed of independence were American visions that connected with the political imaginary. Each set down traditions open to interpretation and mythologization. Both invoked an older rivalry of two images of the New World, as American or as Colombian, which was really a rivalry of Spanish and British Empires and their civilizational influences. Where earlier republican visions developed at the cusp of virtue and interest cultures had posed a particular range of questions about democracy, civic constitution and independenc...
9 citations
TL;DR: The role of imagination is so overarching that it becomes difficult to grasp its workings and consequences in detail, in particular in its relation to democracy as the political form in which autonomy is the core imaginary signification as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Cornelius Castoriadis is one of the very few social and political philosophers - modern and ancient - for whom a concept of imagination is truly central. In his work, however, the role of imagination is so overarching that it becomes difficult to grasp its workings and consequences in detail, in particular in its relation to democracy as the political form in which autonomy is the core imaginary signification. This article will proceed by first suggesting some clarifications about Castoriadis's employment of the concept. This preparatory exploration will allow us in a second step to discuss why the idea of democracy is closely linked to tragedy, and why this linkage in turn is dependent on the centrality of imagination for human action. In a third conceptual step, finally, we suggest that any concept of imagination will need to take into account the plurality and diversity of the outcomes of the power of imagination. Thus, the question of the nature of the novelty that imagination creates needs to be addr...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the rehabilitation of organicism as a positive social ontology is discussed, and it is shown that organicism does not necessarily lead to a negative socio-political life.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with organic conceptions of socio-political life and is concerned with the rehabilitation of organicism as a positive social ontology. It demonstrates that: organicism does ...
7 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the category of validity de jure can put into philosophical relief the problems of depoliticization and the sliding scale from populism to terrorism and an increased awareness of the question of validity can further develop a reflexive understanding of distinctions between what is and what ought to be.
Abstract: Politics, in an emphatic sense of the term, involves questioning, a sense of importance, rationality and a collective investment in political life. The essay discusses some of the threats against the political imaginary thus understood in contemporary Western societies. Depoliticizing trends are found in political and economic theory and echoed in discussions about political problems of global complexity. The responses to the experiences of political powerlessness include the rise of right wing populism and extremism. To analyse these currents, the essay discusses a notion of Cornelius Castoriadis that has been little developed in political theory: the distinction between validity de facto and validity de jure. It is argued that the category of validity de jure can put into philosophical relief the problems of depoliticization and the sliding scale from populism to terrorism. An increased awareness of the question of validity can further develop a reflexive understanding of distinctions between wh...
TL;DR: Fanon as discussed by the authors argues that the violence which is unavoidable in such a struggle is not violence for the sake of violence but, following Hegel, the violence that constitutes the subject in the first place.
Abstract: I argue that Franz Fanon can usefully be situated in the tradition of German Idealism in the sense that he takes from Kant and especially Hegel the conception of agency as something to be achieved through struggle for the ideal of humanity as self-determining. Fanon sees the suffering cased by colonial rule in Africa and elsewhere as deriving from the systematic deprivation of agency by the colonial power. Using the work of Hegel, Fanon seeks to reconstruct the emancipatory project of the black man in close analogy to Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. The violence which Fanon sees as unavoidable in such a struggle is not violence for the sake of violence but, following Hegel, the violence that constitutes the subject in the first place.
TL;DR: In this article, a middle path between the liberal ban on comprehensive beliefs and the anti-liberal claim that comprehensive beliefs should be given full pride of place in public deliberations is proposed.
Abstract: This paper wrestles with the issue of the place of comprehensive beliefs within the public space. It tries to strike a middle path between the liberal ban on comprehensive beliefs and the anti-liberal claim that comprehensive beliefs should be given full pride of place in public deliberations. The article relies on arguments that are inspired by the pragmatist tradition. It starts locating the main cause of failures at articulating comprehensive beliefs and public reason in a central feature of liberal epistemology, namely the way it conceives public reason via a preliminary distinction between public and non-public beliefs. After criticizing this distinction, the article introduces a distinction between the normative practice of justification and the normative practice of adjudication as a more perspicuous way to establish the place that comprehensive beliefs should play within political forums. It then concludes showing that this approach provides a satisfying answer to the issue of the public r...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore social doing in its non-subjective aspects; as such, it is preparatory rather than programmatic, and reflect on Castoriadis's elaboration of "praxis" and "teukhein".
Abstract: Cornelius Castoriadis understood history as a self-creating order. In turn, he elaborated history in two directions: as the political project of autonomy, and as the ontological modality of the social-historical. On his account, history as self-creation was only possible through the interplay of social (or political) imaginaries and social doing. Although social imaginaries are readily situated within the non-subjective field, non-subjective modes of doing have been less explored. Yet non-subjective contexts are integral to both the "doing" and "imaginary" dimensions of the human condition, and form the preconditions for concrete varieties of social and political action and politics (as la politique), more generally. The present paper begins to clear a path to reflect on social doing in its non-subjective aspects; as such, it is preparatory rather than programmatic. After briefly reviewing the field of "social imaginaries", it reflects on Castoriadis's elaboration of "praxis" and "teukhein". It th...
TL;DR: This article reviewed Lefort's writings on totalitarianism, a theme that runs like a red thread through his oeuvre and plays a key role in different stages of his intellectual development.
Abstract: This essay starts by reviewing Claude Lefort's writings on totalitarianism, a theme that runs like a red thread through his oeuvre and plays a key role in the different stages of his intellectual development. The analysis of the USSR is a central interest of Lefort and his colleagues at Socialisme ou Barbarie (and inspires them to adopt an explicitly "political" approach against the "economism" of their fellow Marxists); the problem of totalitarianism features prominently in Lefort's theory of democracy and human rights (where it functions as the "flipside" of democracy); and the theme holds Lefort's attention well after the events of 1989. The emphasis of this essay, however, is not on the chronology of Lefort's trajectory, but on the methodological role of totalitarianism in his theoretical framework. Lefort's account of totalitarianism serves him as a tool to dissect the symbolic fabric of modern society. In Arendt's view, totalitarian rule reveals something of the essence of modernity, as a mo...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the philosophy of subjective spirit in the mature Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences contains the outlines of a philosophically rich notion of the constitutive temporality of subjectivity.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to show that the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit in Hegel’s mature Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences contains the outlines of a philosophically rich notion of the constitutive temporality of subjectivity. The temporality of the being of Hegel’s concrete subject is intimately connected with embodiment and sociality, and is thus an essential element of its fully detranscendentalized inner-worldly nature.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the problem of the new requires thinking about receptivity in a new way, making it normatively and epistemically prior to creativity, and illuminate their new approach to receptivity through detailed engagement with Russell Hoban's brilliant novel, The Medusa Frequency.
Abstract: In this paper I address what Arendt called the “problem of the new”, or, as Castoriadis put it, the problem of how to make the new “the object of our praxis”. I argue that the problem of the new requires thinking about receptivity in a new way, making it normatively and epistemically prior to creativity. I illuminate my new approach to receptivity through detailed engagement with Russell Hoban’s brilliant novel, The Medusa Frequency
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a book about Hegel's Naturalism: Mind, Nature and the Final End of Life. Critical Horizons: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp 275-287.
Abstract: (2012). Hegel’s Naturalism: Mind, Nature and the Final Ends of Life. Critical Horizons: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 275-287.