Showing papers in "Critical Horizons in 2017"
TL;DR: Several thinkers have expressed the view that the central nostrums of neoliberalism, including self-reliance, personal responsibility and individual risk, have become part of the "common sense" fab... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Several thinkers have expressed the view that the central nostrums of neoliberalism, including self-reliance, personal responsibility and individual risk, have become part of the “common sense” fab...
33 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that social critique should not draw on general normative principles, seeing such principles as bound to dominant conceptual frameworks, and that such principles should be adapted to the specific context of social critique.
Abstract: Critical theories often express scepticism towards the idea that social critique should draw on general normative principles, seeing such principles as bound to dominant conceptual frameworks. Howe...
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assume upon itself a timely and ambitious task: to rethink the relations between the intellectual traditions of postcolonial and subaltern studies on the one hand and critical theory on the other hand.
Abstract: Allen’s book assumes upon itself a timely and ambitious task: to rethink the relations between the intellectual traditions of postcolonial and subaltern studies on the one hand and critical theory ...
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors return to the outlook of the first philosopher to attempt to bring Hegel into the analytic conversation, John Niemeyer Findlay, and consider Hegel's idealism as instantiating the metaphysical position that, following the work of Findlay's former student, Arthur Prior, has come to be called modal actualism.
Abstract: Here, I suggest a hitherto relatively unexplored way beyond the opposed Aristotelian realist and Kantian idealist approaches that divide recent interpretations of the categories or “thought determinations” of Hegel’s Logic, by locating his idealism within the terrain of recent debates in modal metaphysics In particular, I return to the outlook of the first philosopher to attempt to bring Hegel into the analytic conversation, John Niemeyer Findlay, and consider Hegel’s idealism as instantiating the metaphysical position that, following the work of Findlay’s former student, Arthur Prior, has come to be called “modal actualism”
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that a craft norm can meet the standards of social critique within the Frankfurt School tradition of Critical Theory, as this tradition has been interpreted by Axel Honneth, who himself now rejects craft norms as too utopian and parochial to inform Critical Theory under contemporary economic conditions.
Abstract: Recent social theory has begun to reconsider how the activity of work can contribute to well-being or autonomy under the right conditions. However, there is no consensus on what this contribution consists in, and so on precisely which normative principles should be marshalled to critique harmful or repressive forms of workplace organisation. This paper argues that Richard Sennett’s concept of work as craft provides a normative standard against which the organisation of work can be assessed, especially when explained within a broadly Aristotelian account of the conditions of human flourishing. More precisely, the paper argues that a craft norm can meet the standards of social critique within the Frankfurt School tradition of Critical Theory, as this tradition has been interpreted by Axel Honneth. Honneth himself now rejects craft norms as too utopian and parochial to inform Critical Theory under contemporary economic conditions. In reply, this paper uses sociological studies of call centre workers ...
11 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that Ranciere's paradoxical account of identity formation through political conflicts can highlight dilemmas facing indigenous political movements across the globe, and argued that it can be used to identify the root causes of political conflicts.
Abstract: This article argues that Ranciere’s paradoxical account of identity formation through political conflicts can highlight dilemmas facing indigenous political movements across the globe. The article ...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical reading of Hannah Arendt's different notions of friendship, their weaknesses and strengths, with a view to establishing the basis for a more adequate discussion is presented.
Abstract: This essay interrogates Hannah Arendt’s different notions of friendship, their weaknesses and strengths, with a view to establishing the basis for a more adequate discussion. After examining her conception of friendship first among the ancients, and then in “dark times”, the essay asks how are we to understand friendship among the moderns when times are not particularly dark. This requires a critical reading of her conception of private intimacy and social association in order to construct a more plural understanding of friendship, and of the criteria by which it can be judged, as it is differentially instituted within, and traverses, the private, civil and political realms.
9 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that Honneth may be criticised for reducing political philosophy to moral psychology, but if his theory of recognition is reframed as one of democracy, quite another pictu...
Abstract: Axel Honneth may be criticised for reducing political philosophy to moral psychology. In what follows, I argue that if his theory of recognition is reframed as one of democracy, quite another pictu...
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between the thought of Michel Foucault and that of Axel Honneth is discussed, with the former arguing in favour of the former against the latter.
Abstract: This article deals with the relationship between the thought of Michel Foucault and that of Axel Honneth, arguing in favour of the former against the latter. I begin by considering Honneth’s early ...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the complex topic of illusion and art in Nietzsche's philosophy, focusing on two topics in particular: Nietzsche's practice of self-transformation; and the question of how to differentiate through the analysis of style those practices that are deluded from those that are transformative.
Abstract: This essay examines the complex topic of illusion and art in Nietzsche’s philosophy. It focuses on two topics in particular: Nietzsche’s practice of self-transformation; and the question of how to differentiate through the analysis of style those practices that are deluded from those that are transformative.
5 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that modern institutions and their fundamental ethos, namely self-discipline, training and the orientation to achievement, can be traced back to spiritual self-mastery and self-love.
Abstract: Peter Sloterdijk maintains that modern institutions and their fundamental ethos, namely self-discipline, training and the orientation to achievement, can be traced back to spiritual self-mastery an...
TL;DR: Although he did not invent the term, Jurgen Habermas has popularised "constitutional patriotism" as a form of political unity that avoids excessive nationalism as discussed by the authors, and this paper attempts to examine the l...
Abstract: Although he did not invent the term, Jurgen Habermas has popularised “constitutional patriotism” as a form of political unity that avoids excessive nationalism. This paper attempts to examine the l...
TL;DR: This paper argued that the core animus at the heart of Davidson's Spinozism is its indifference to autonomy as a concept in need of metaphysical grounding or essential to normative commitment.
Abstract: This article suggests reasons why Donald Davidson's work in philosophy of mind and metaphysics can be identified as Spinozist and also explores the significance of using proper names from the history of philosophy to describe contemporary projects. It argues that what makes Davidson's work Spinozist is not just its internal features, but the role it occupies in relation to other positions identified as Kantian and Hegelian in today's philosophical terrain. Finally, it suggests that the core animus at the heart of Davidson's Spinozism is its indifference to autonomy as a concept in need of metaphysical grounding or essential to normative commitment.
TL;DR: The essay as mentioned in this paper provides a commentary on Walter Benjamin's "News from Flowers", a review of the album of plant photography of Karl Blossfeldt, and places Benjamin's account of BLOSSfeldt's achievement both...
Abstract: The essay provides a commentary on Walter Benjamin’s “News from Flowers”, a review of the album of plant photography of Karl Blossfeldt. I place Benjamin’s account of Blossfeldt’s achievement both ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the unique contributions of Foucault's late work to critical social theory can be identified in the ways in which power relations are refined as the material condition of social relations.
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that the unique contributions of Foucault’s late work to critical social theory can be identified in the ways in which power relations are refined as the material condition o...
TL;DR: The authors investigates the astonishing volte-face that Timon performs in Shakespeare and Middleton's Timon of Athens and concludes that the main character is not unaware of what is go...
Abstract: The article investigates the astonishing volte-face that Timon performs in Shakespeare and Middleton's Timon of Athens. The main character is not, as is often claimed, unaware of what is go...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the hypothesis that it is the relation to work, and not work itself, that holds subversive or even liberating potential for women, and they make suggestions to transform this subversive potential into collective emancipatory practices.
Abstract: This article makes the hypothesis that it is the relation to work, and not work itself, that holds subversive, or even liberating, potential for women. We begin by showing the theoretical convergence between this hypothesis and feminist epistemology. In order to test the hypothesis empirically, we then look at the paradoxical ways in which many women relate to paid work. In order to understand this paradox, we argue that it is necessary to go back to a feminist definition of work by calling into question the separation between professional and domestic work. Finally, we attempt to make suggestions to transform this subversive potential into collective emancipatory practices. We insist on the necessity for the feminist movement to put domestic work back at the center of its reflection on work and on the emancipation of women.
TL;DR: In this paper, Honneth reads the young Hegel as engaged in a debate with Hobbes over the social nature of the autonomous self, and the passages that are crucial for the development of Honnths own th...
Abstract: Axel Honneth reads the young Hegel as engaged in a debate with Hobbes over the social nature of the autonomous self. In the passages that are crucial for the development of Honneth’s own th...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider Castoriadis's elucidation of autonomous thinking, both by way of the contrast he draws with the inherited tradition and in relation to his account of the demands of autonomy.
Abstract: Beginning with a consideration of Castoriadis’s elucidation of autonomous thinking, both by way of the contrast he draws with the inherited tradition and in relation to his account of the demands o...
TL;DR: In this paper, some of the issues involved in the idea of form as a practice in Kant, Blumenberg and Foucault are discussed, as well as the different contexts and approaches the individual papers collected in this special issue use to explore this idea.
Abstract: This article canvases some of the issues involved in the idea of form as a practice in Kant, Blumenberg and Foucault, and it also outlines the different contexts and approaches the individual papers collected in this Special Issue use to explore this idea.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the potential for political emancipation that lies within Kant's conception of Aufklarung, in critical dialogue with enlightenment critics and specialised Kantian literature.
Abstract: The aim of this essay is to analyse the potential for political emancipation that lies within Kant’s conception of Aufklarung, in critical dialogue with enlightenment critics and specialised Kantian literature. My thesis is that Kant’s concept of enlightenment is intrinsically political and so it must be studied from the point of view of his political philosophy, which was fully developed in the decade of the 1790s. From this standpoint, I propose we study the role and place of Aufklarung within Kant’s central political thesis, to wit: that only the united will of the people can be a legitimate authority.
TL;DR: Retrieving Realism as discussed by the authors is the final and most concise formulation of the joint philosophical goals of Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor, and it has two main objectives: first, it aims to...
Abstract: Retrieving Realism renders the joint philosophical goals of Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor into what is probably their final and most concise form. It has two main objectives: first, it aims to ...
TL;DR: In the early modern period, contempt emerged as a persistent theme in moral philosophy as discussed by the authors, and most of the moral philosophers of the period shared two basic commitments in their thinking about contempt.
Abstract: In the early modern period, contempt emerged as a persistent theme in moral philosophy. Most of the moral philosophers of the period shared two basic commitments in their thinking about contempt. F...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the ideas of Cornelius Castoriadis and Terrence W. Deacon in terms of radical ontological creation and fundamental indeterminacy, along with their analysis of subjective beings from the living organism to the social-historical, compared to Deacon's exploration of the emergence of life and mind.
Abstract: This essay compares the ideas of Cornelius Castoriadis and Terrence W. Deacon. Castoriadis’s anti-Naturalistic ontology, with its conception of radical ontological creation and fundamental indeterminacy, along with his analysis of the category of the “for-itself”, comprising all subjective beings from the living organism to the social-historical, is compared to Deacon’s exploration of the emergence of life and mind, which sees the emergence of teleological beings as resulting from the creation of form-generating constraints that involve new types of dynamic process. Significant parallels and convergences between Castoriadis and Deacon are uncovered and explored.