Showing papers in "Philosophy & Social Criticism in 2014"
TL;DR: The ambivalence inherent to the politics of juridification is explored in this article, where it is observed that some spheres of the life-world such as the family and the school are often pla...
Abstract: The article starts with the observation of an ambivalence inherent to the politics of juridification. On the one hand, some spheres of the life-world such as the family and the school are often pla...
136 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the conception of discourse ethics that Jurgen Habermas advances in his seminar paper, "Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification" is subject to significant revision in later work.
Abstract: In this article I argue that the conception of discourse ethics that Jurgen Habermas advances in his seminar paper, ‘Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification’, is subject to significant revision in later work. The central difference has to do with the status of the universalization principle and its relationship to the ‘rightness’ validity claim. The earlier view is structured by a desire to provide a weak-transcendental defense of the universalization principle. The later revision, however, essentially undercuts the basis of this argument, because it severs the conception of practical discourse from the analysis of speech acts. As a way of responding to the difficulties this creates, I propose a ‘reboot’ of the discourse ethics program. This involves reverting to the earlier, more Durkheimian and less Kantian, formulation of the theory. The result is a program that is no longer encumbered by sterile debates about the correct formulation of the universalization principle, but ca...
128 citations
TL;DR: A Plea for the Constitutionalization of International Law as discussed by the authors is an extension of the problematic taken up in Zur Verfassung Europas: Ein Essay (2011), translated as The Crisis of the European Union: A Response, the lecture, ‘Democracy, Solidarity, and the European Crisis’ (2013) and the essay "A Political Constitution for a Pluralist World Society” (2008).
Abstract: I read this paper, ‘A Plea for the Constitutionalization of International Law’, as an extension of the problematic taken up in Zur Verfassung Europas: Ein Essay (2011), translated as The Crisis of the European Union: A Response, the lecture, ‘Democracy, Solidarity, and the European Crisis’ (2013) and the essay ‘A Political Constitution for a Pluralist World Society’ (2008). This paper on the constitutionalization of international law builds on ideas taken from these quite recent works and it achieves an elegant level of generalization that goes beyond them. The general context for the constitutionalization of international law has been the ‘juridification of international relations’ which began after the Second World War leading to a fundamental change in our understanding of state power, suggesting a potential transnationalization of democracy. What is new in Habermas’ position regarding both the problems of the European Union and the concept of world citizenship is the special use of the concept of mixed constituent power, pouvoir constituant mixte. Although this idea is as old as Emmanuel Sieyes and James Madison, Habermas gives it a new meaning. The idea is that the development of constitutional law within the EU represents the potential for a new stage in international law viewed from the perspective of an historical reconstruction, which was originally framed by Kant. In contrast to the Euro skeptics Habermas constructs ‘a convincing new narrative’ which will characterize the potential development of the EU as a new stage in the process of the constitutionalization of international law as we move from the national to the transnational or supranational level of democratic development.
122 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Rosati discusses the new post-secular sensitivity to the remnants of mimetic and mythic worldviews within theoretical ones and discusses the sacred as a universal historical structure of human consciousness.
Abstract: This article is based on a paper given in December 2013 at a German–Italian workshop on Jurgen Habermas’ theory. Massimo Rosati had been studying Jurgen Habermas’ thought and classical sociology in the Durkheimian tradition for years. Because of his own Durkheimian reading of communicative action, he had been unsurprised when Habermas began to write systematically on religion. In this article, he addresses the new post-secular sensitivity to the remnants of mimetic and mythic worldviews within theoretical ones and discusses the sacred as a universal historical structure of human consciousness.
118 citations
TL;DR: The media hoop-la about Edward Snowden has obscured a less flashy yet more vital part of the story, namely the moral and political seriousness with which he acted t... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The media hoop-la about Edward Snowden has obscured a less flashy yet more vital – and philosophically relevant – part of the story, namely the moral and political seriousness with which he acted t...
60 citations
TL;DR: In our era of globalization, migration increasingly enforces cultural heterogeneity at the level of single societies and countries mirroring the cultural heterogeneity on the macroscopic level as discussed by the authors, i.e.
Abstract: In our era of globalization, migration increasingly enforces cultural heterogeneity at the level of single societies and countries mirroring the cultural heterogeneity at the macroscopic level, i.e...
54 citations
TL;DR: Theodor W. Adorno as mentioned in this paper reconstructed, and partially defended, Adorno's views on theory and praxis in Germany's 1960s in 11 theses, and argued that people in the 1960s have tried to change the world in various ways; the point was to interpret it.
Abstract: Theodor W. Adorno inspired much of Germany’s 1960s student movement, but he came increasingly into conflict with this movement about the practical implications of his critical theory. Others – including his friend and colleague Herbert Marcuse – also accused Adorno of a quietism that is politically objectionable and in contradiction with his own theory. In this article, I reconstruct, and partially defend, Adorno’s views on theory and (political) praxis in Germany’s 1960s in 11 theses. His often attacked and maligned stance during the 1960s is based on his analysis of these historical circumstances. Put provocatively, his stance consists in the view that people in the 1960s have tried to change the world, in various ways; the point – at that time – was to interpret it.
49 citations
TL;DR: The media hoop-la about Edward Snowden has obscured a less flashy yet more vital part of the story, namely the moral and political seriousness with which he acted to make the hitherto covert scope and scale of NSA surveillance public knowledge as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The media hoop-la about Edward Snowden has obscured a less flashy yet more vital – and philosophically relevant – part of the story, namely the moral and political seriousness with which he acted to make the hitherto covert scope and scale of NSA surveillance public knowledge. Here I argue that we should interpret Snowden’s actions as meeting most of the demanding tests outlined in sophisticated political thinking about civil disobedience. Like Thoreau, Gandhi, King and countless other (forgotten) grass-roots activists, Snowden has in fact articulated a powerful defense of why he was morally obligated to engage in politically motivated law-breaking. He has also undertaken impressive efforts to explain how his actions are distinguishable from ordinary criminality, and why they need not culminate in reckless lawlessness. In fact, his example can perhaps help us advance liberal and democratic ideas about civil disobedience. First, it highlights sound reasons why, pace the orthodox view, the acceptance of pun...
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take up some of the challenges brought up by Gezi resistance to rethink the concept of democracy through the changing ways in which people engage with urban public spaces in Turkey, and beyond.
Abstract: Leaving Istanbul Bilgi University on 22 May 2013, conveners of the Istanbul Seminars could not have guessed that less than a week later the arguments they had debated would be revisited under a new light. For little did anybody know that in the summer of 2013 Istanbul would become the stage of one of the most intriguing of urban uprisings in Turkish, if not contemporary, world history. In this article I would like to take up some of the challenges brought up by Gezi resistance to rethink the concept of democracy through the changing ways in which people engage with urban public spaces in Turkey, and beyond.
43 citations
TL;DR: The concept of cosmopolitanism has been criticised for bypassing the major problem of how to tame, channel and civilize political power in legal terms even beyond the empire or the modern nation-state.
Abstract: Our section is announced under the venerable title ‘Cosmopolitanism’. I am the last person who would feel uneasy addressing this topic. But let me explain why I prefer to focus on the more specific and demanding perspective of a constitutionalization of international law. The concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’ tempts us to continue an older train of thought, rooted in Stoicism, that bypasses the major problem of how to tame, channel and civilize political power in legal terms even beyond the empire or the modern nation-state. Cosmopolitanism remains a somewhat loose conception unless it confronts the issue of a transnationalization of the achievements of the constitutional state. For the process of extending democracy and the rule of law beyond national borders German public lawyers have developed the concept of a ‘constitutionalization of international law’. Let me first explain this concept (I) and then, in a second part, use some aspects of the present European crisis as an example for identifying one major obstacle on the road that eventually may lead us to a political constitution for a multicultural world society without a world government (II).
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the role of religion in Ottoman political legitimation is explored and it is shown that the Ottoman rulers were interested in a much more expansive, diverse and diverse form of political legitimacy.
Abstract: This article explores the role of religion in Ottoman political legitimation. It shows that the Ottoman rulers were interested in a much more expansive, diverse form of political legitimation that ...
TL;DR: This article argued that the ontological deprivation has three distinct though interconnected elements: a reduction to the merely human or bare life, a separation from the common realm of humanity and abandonment, and the diminishment of agency or ability to act in the Arendtian sense.
Abstract: This article examines our moral obligations to refugees and stateless people. I argue that in order to understand our moral obligations to stateless people, both de jure refugees and de facto stateless people, we ought to reconceptualize the harm of statelessness as entailing both a legal/political harm (the loss of citizenship) and an ontological harm, a deprivation of certain fundamental human qualities. To do this, I draw on the work of Hannah Arendt and show that the ontological deprivation has three distinct though interconnected elements: a reduction to the merely human or bare life, a separation from the common realm of humanity and abandonment, and the diminishment of agency or ability to act in the Arendtian sense. If we pull apart the legal/political harm of statelessness from the ontological harm, we are better able to see that we can address some of the features of the ontological deprivation even though we may not be able to rectify the political harm. I conclude this article by discussing so...
TL;DR: Hugh Baxter's book Habermas: A Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy as discussed by the authors not only carefully recounts the political and legal theory, but also raises several insightful criticisms.
Abstract: Hugh Baxter’s book Habermas: A Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy not only carefully recounts Habermas’ political and legal theory, but also raises several insightful criticisms of Habermas. Of ...
TL;DR: In The Crisis of the European Union Jurgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states.
Abstract: In The Crisis of the European Union Jurgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states. By his own account, Habermas arrives at this concept of a dual constituent subject through a rational reconstruction of the genesis of the European constitution. This explanation, however, is not particularly illuminating since it is controversial what the term ‘rational reconstruction’ stands for. This article critically discusses the current state of research on rational reconstruction, develops a new reading of Habermas’ method and invokes this account for an explanation and evaluation of the notion of a European pouvoir constituant mixte.
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that moral self-determination or self-binding presupposes a kind of freedom that can in turn be explained only by recourse to already existing moral norms.
Abstract: Recent years have seen a widespread tendency to pay renewed attention to Hegel’s critique of the moral standpoint. In contemporary practical philosophy it is no longer an uncontested truth that norms or laws can be called ‘moral’ only when they can be shown through an impartial testing procedure – conducted alone or in common – to be universally obligatory or binding. There are various different reasons for the departure from this model of moral normativity, ranging from a focus on the question of moral motivation to a critique of the merely prescriptive character of the obligations derived in this way. What has emerged as the decisive objection is the paradox faced by Kant and his successors that moral self-determination or self-binding presupposes a kind of freedom that can in turn be explained only by recourse to already existing moral norms. Suppose, the argument goes, that we wish to reserve the predicate ‘moral’ for those norms that we can conceive of as ‘freely’ generated through an act of autonomous self-subjection or through an uncoerced consensus. In order to do so, we will sooner or later, but inevitably, have to bring moral norms into play so that we may first establish the agential freedom or the communicative accord that we have been presupposing. This commitment to prior norms is in effect conceded by Kant under the guise of the ‘fact of reason’, whereas discourse ethics tends to obscure it through its seemingly innocuous reference to the need for ‘complementary forms of life’. Both of these forms taken by the commitment point to the same predicament: the general validity of certain moral norms must already be presupposed in order for the procedure of individual or communicative self-determination to be intelligible in the first place. This critique of the groundlessness of a purely constructivist moral theory has led to a resurgence of approaches that set out from an
TL;DR: It is well known that Hans Kelsen and Jurgen Habermas invoked realist arguments drawn from social science in defending an international, democratic human rights regime against Carl Schmitt's attack as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: It is well known that Hans Kelsen and Jurgen Habermas invoke realist arguments drawn from social science in defending an international, democratic human rights regime against Carl Schmitt’s attack ...
TL;DR: The Arab Spring uprisings that led to the downfall of erstwhile authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya heralded the end of a state system introduced into the Middle East and North Africa.
Abstract: The Arab Spring uprisings that led to the downfall of erstwhile authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya heralded the end of a state system introduced into the Middle East and North Africa...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at a number of twentieth-century cases (and several eighteenth century cases) where religion and radical politics interacted, with very different results, and they ask whether there can be a democratic revolution and a religious revival in the same place, at the same time.
Abstract: In order to answer the question, Can there be a democratic revolution and a religious revival in the same place, at the same time?, I look at a number of twentieth-century cases (and several eighteenth-century cases) where religion and radical politics interacted – with very different results.
TL;DR: The authors compare traditional multiculturalist political theory with a new paradigm in which the usual strategies for dealing with cultural diversities are replaced by the tools used by the new paradigm to deal with cultural diversity.
Abstract: My aim in this article is to compare traditional multiculturalist political theory with a new paradigm in which the usual strategies for dealing with cultural diversities are replaced by the tools ...
TL;DR: The relationship between religion and politics is a bone of political contention and a source of deep confusion across the Islam-West divide as mentioned in this paper, with a geographical and cultural focus on the Muslim Middle East.
Abstract: The relationship between religion and politics is a bone of political contention and a source of deep confusion across the Islam–West divide. When most western liberals cast their gaze on Muslim societies today, what they see is deeply disconcerting. From their perspective there is simply too much religion in public life in the Arab-Islamic world, which raises serious questions for them about the prospects for democracy in this part of the world. This article critically explores the relationship between religion and political legitimacy with a geographical and cultural focus on the Muslim Middle East. The broad historical question that shapes this inquiry is: Why is religion a source of political legitimacy in Muslim societies today while in the West, broadly speaking, religion is a source of disagreement and illegitimacy?
TL;DR: Adorno's phenomenological study of radio offers a sociology of music in a political and cultural context as mentioned in this paper, and this phenomenology can be found in the context of Adorno's philosophical background and the wo
Abstract: Adorno’s phenomenological study of radio offers a sociology of music in a political and cultural context. Situating that phenomenology in the context of Adorno’s philosophical background and the wo...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the line she draws between empathy and imagination is arbitrary, and imagination cannot sustain the work of representative thinking, which Arendt assigns to it, and propose an alternative view of empathy put forth by Karl Jaspers.
Abstract: Hannah Arendt has been one of empathy’s most formidable and influential critics among contemporary political theorists. In this article, I suggest that her argument against empathy is no argument at all. The line she draws between empathy and imagination is arbitrary, and imagination cannot – in and by itself – sustain the work of representative thinking, which Arendt assigns to it. With this critique of Arendt, and the introduction of an alternative view of empathy put forth by Karl Jaspers, Arendt’s mentor and friend, I hope to open the way for a reconsideration of the distrust with which empathy is met among many political theorists.
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive metaphysics of "biosocial becoming" is presented, which can stand accountable both to empirical/descriptive and to normative claims, and adumbrations are offered for such a metaphysics.
Abstract: There are many in the social sciences and social philosophy who would aspire to overcome the ‘nature/culture binary’, including some who, with at least an implicit nod toward a putatively ‘anti-essentialist’ process ontology, have set out with an orientation toward a paradigm of ‘biosocial becoming’ (Ingold and Palsson, 2013). Such contemporary work, however, in areas such as social and cultural anthropology and sciences studies has often failed to clarify, let alone justify, the warrants of their most basic assumptions and assertions. In what follows, adumbrations will be offered for a comprehensive metaphysics of ‘biosocial becoming’ that can stand accountable both to empirical/descriptive and to normative claims.
TL;DR: The Revisionist Psychoanalysis as mentioned in this paper criticizes the Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis for losing the critical edge of Freud's theory with regard to social critique, which is the basis of our work.
Abstract: In ‘The Revisionist Psychoanalysis’, Adorno criticizes the neo-Freudian psychoanalysis for losing the critical edge of Freud’s theory with regard to social critique. Neo-Freudians whom Adorno calls...
TL;DR: The power of narrative fiction has the power to unsettle our deep-seated intuitions and expectations about what it means to live an ethically good life, and the kind of society that best facilitates this as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Narrative fiction has the power to unsettle our deep-seated intuitions and expectations about what it means to live an ethically good life, and the kind of society that best facilitates this. Somet...
TL;DR: The philosophy of Gabriel Marcel is informed by the classical tradition of American philosophy as mentioned in this paper, most notably William James, William Ernest Hocking and Josiah Royce. At a time when Marcel scholarsh...
Abstract: The philosophy of Gabriel Marcel is informed by the classical tradition of American philosophy – most notably William James, William Ernest Hocking and Josiah Royce. At a time when Marcel scholarsh...
TL;DR: In this article, recent attempts by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to address the problems of Alevi citizens in Turkey are analysed. And the Alevis question reveals many aspects of the problematic nature of secularism in Turkey.
Abstract: In this article, recent attempts by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to address the problems of Alevi citizens in Turkey are analysed. After briefly outlining the sources of Alevi revitalization in the 1990s, the article critically discusses different aspects of the Alevi Opening process. It concludes by arguing that the Alevi question reveals many aspects of the problematic nature of secularism in Turkey.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors express enthusiastic solidarity with Axel Honneth's inheritance and transformation of several core Hegelian ideas, and express one major disagreement, which is not so muc...
Abstract: In this paper I express enthusiastic solidarity with Axel Honneth's inheritance and transformation of several core Hegelian ideas, and express one major disagreement. The disagreement is not so muc...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors integrate Levinas' and Logstrup's considerations in a form of Habermasian communicative ethics that can transmit the substantial moral judgement from a spontaneous communal perspective to a pragmatic societal perspective expressed in political terms.
Abstract: Zygmunt Bauman’s entire body of work has been dedicated to exploring sociological issues. However, problems of moral philosophy have come to play an increasingly crucial role for his understanding of social life in later works. In particular, the Danish philosopher Knud Ejler Logstrup’s moral philosophy has shaped Bauman’s thinking. Logstrup argued that there is an unconditional imperative in the ethical demand to take care of the Other, and this imperative cannot be superseded, rationalized, calculated, or strategically managed. Bauman is right in telling us that the personal ethics is the point of departure for a moral judgement. In this context it is very relevant to integrate Levinas’ and Logstrup’s considerations. However, this perspective cannot stand alone. It is necessary to move forward to a form of Habermasian communicative ethics that can transmit the substantial moral judgement from a spontaneous communal perspective to a pragmatic societal perspective expressed in political terms. In other wo...
TL;DR: Deliberative democracy's approach with its emphasis on a multidimensional conception of freedom is very well suited to offer a sophisticated and critical account of freedom of speech in the democra... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Deliberative democracy’s approach with its emphasis on a multidimensional conception of freedom is very well suited to offer a sophisticated and critical account of freedom of speech in the democra...