The Politics of New Atheism

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 778-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Schulzke
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Richard Dawkins ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Atheism

AbstractThis article discusses the political implications of the new atheism movement that has been popularized by writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris. New atheism is largely defined by its political goals, yet it has received relatively little attention from political theorists. To the extent that scholars have commented on new atheists' political thought, they have generally misinterpreted it and presented it as being intolerant. This article will argue that new atheists' attack on religion is largely motivated by their desire to defend a liberal view of politics and liberal values.

Personification and the Political Imagination of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2016 ◽  
pp. 399-418
Author(s):  
Amanda Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Individual

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, consciousness, agency, and embodiment are not always in concert. Legal personification serves as the backdrop of my discussion of Bottom’s metamorphosis, which I see as evocative of developments within common law around the creation of artificial persons. In early modern jurisprudence, disembodiment offered an occasion for incorporation, such that the non-consensual human could be transformed into an artificial entity with agentic capacity. Through the staging of metamorphosis, A Midsummer Night’s Dream elaborates the surreal transformation of the human into the non-human as a theatrical effect with political implications, insofar as personification is an enabling condition of the collective rather than a crisis of the individual. The play’s sensitivity to artificial assemblage puts it in conversation with a strand of contemporary political thought interested in the complexity of the will beyond the human body.

Heidegger on Freedom and Community: Some Political Implications of His Early Thought

1983 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 775-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Newell
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Political Conservatism

Despite their widespread influence, Martin Heidegger's works have rarely been assessed for their own direct significance as political theory. In this article I undertake such an assessment by drawing out the political implications of Heidegger's understanding of freedom and community in two of his early works. Specifically, I argue that, although Heidegger's thought has been interpreted as advocating political conservatism, it in fact propounds a new kind of radicalism which is neither precisely conservative nor progressive, although decidedly revolutionary. When this is brought to light, it is easier to see the connection between Heidegger's works and the earlier Philosophy of Freedom, as well as ways in which they anticipate important trends in contemporary political thought.

Symbolic Patterning in Angkola Batak Adat Ritual

1985 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-778
Author(s):  
Susan Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Sequence ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Ceremonial Life

In Sumatra's Angkola Batak culture, rituals celebrating major kinship-related events such as marriage have many layers of social and symbolic meaning; they have political, kinship, musical, mythic, and philosophical dimensions as lengthy, oratory-filled ceremonies that unite wife-giving lineages with wife-receivers. This article examines several ways that the interpretive approach that is discussed in the introduction can help students of Indonesian ritual grasp diverse aspects of Batak marriage rituals such as their hidden symbolic organization and their practical political implications. The article deals with a short sequence of adat dance staged for anthropological research purposes. (Adat, once translated as customary law, roughly means Angkola ceremonial life, kinship norms, and political thought; adat is eminently flexible, redefined by each Batak generation.) The choreography of the dance (wife-receivers dancing with wife-givers), songs, clothing, the political biographies of the participants, and the fact that the event was staged render the ceremony open to both structural and social contextual inquiry.

scholarly journals “Advisor Literature” and Russian Political Thought in the Enlightenment: The Anti-Machiavellian Influence

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Bugrov
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
Effective System ◽  
The Status ◽  
Practical Guidelines

This article studies the role of the anti-Machiavellian vision of politics in the development of political thought in westernising eighteenth-century Russia. The author disputes S. Whittaker’s idea that the images of good and bad monarchs in eighteenth-century Russian “advisor literature” (rooted in the tradition of “princely mirrors”) served as a kind of political programme which the ruler was to follow (i. e. imitate good models and avoid bad ones). In “advisor literature”, one can distinguish a descriptive component, which, using the image of ideal monarchs, consolidated the status quo in the minds of subjects, and “advice” proper, suggesting a situation with several competing solutions. This type of advice was available in various spheres of state administration, including the political life of the court itself. Tracing the transformation of the genre of “princely mirrors” in Europe makes it possible to identify and understand the political implications in its Russian counterpart. Being challenged by Machiavelli, who replaced Christian ethics in politics with an immoral “state interest”, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European intellectuals produced a set of anti-Machiavellian ideas to incorporate the Machiavellian idea of political efficiency into Christian morality, prove that the most effective system of behaviour was following the ethical norms of Christianity, and develop some practical guidelines for success at court. In the eighteenth century, a number of anti-Machiavellian writings from previous centuries were translated into Russian (circulated as manuscripts and published works) and were in demand among the intellectual elite. Therefore, researchers have to consider the anti-Machiavellian influence on Russian political culture in the Enlightenment, particularly in the development of ideas about the relationship between politics and morality and the status of politicians.

Reason, Self-Legislation and Legitimacy: Conceptions of Freedom in the Political Thought of Rousseau and Kant

1997 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Great Generality ◽  
The Status

Rousseau and Kant both argue for contractarian theories of justice. In spite of their common contractarianism, however, Rousseau and Kant argue for conceptions of legitimacy which differ markedly. The substantive differences between their accounts of legitimacy, I suggest, illustrate the political implications of disagreement regarding the status of practical reason. Rousseau, in assigning reason to a merely instrumental status, anticipates both postmodern and empiricist skepticism regarding the power of reason to ground the choice of ends. Kant is the forerunner of contemporary accounts of justice which reject such skeptical views of practical reason. Rousseau's skepticism about practical reason ties his criterion of legitimacy directly to the actual preferences of individuals. Kant's more robust conception of practical reason (1) allows him to argue for a criterion of great generality and flexibility, but (2) ties the plausibility of his account of legitimacy directly to the soundness of his conception of practical reason.

PENSAMENTO POLÍTICO EM GIORGIO AGAMBEN

Professare ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Claudemir Aparecido Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Political Freedom ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Control ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social

<p class="resumoabstract">O professor Giorgio Agamben tem elaborado críticas à engenhosa estrutura política ocidental moderna. Avalia os mecanismos de controle estatal, nos quais os denomina ‘dispositivos’, cuja força está na imbricação às normas jurídico-teológicas com seus similares ritos e liturgias. Suas ocorrências e legitimidade preponderam no tecido social cuja organização sistêmica se põe quase como elemento natural e não cultural. O texto tem por objetivo explorar a concepção política de Agamben sobre a política contemporânea, especialmente considerando seu livro: ‘Estado de Exceção’, cuja investigação apresenta a possibilidade de atenuação dos direitos de cidadania e o enfraquecimento da prática da liberdade política e o processo de relação dos indivíduos no meio social através da redução das subjetividades ‘autênticas’. Analisamos ainda a transferência do mundo sacro elaborado pelos teólogos católicos presente na modernidade à política cuja democracia moderna faz do homem (sujeito) tornar-se objeto do poder político. Faz também, reflexão dos conceitos de subjetivação e dessubjetivação relacionando-os às implicações políticas do homem moderno. A pesquisa é bibliográfica com ênfase na análise dos conceitos elaborados por Agamben, especialmente quanto ao ‘dispositivo’. Conclui que o indivíduo ocidental, de modo geral, sofre o processo de dessubjetivação e está ‘nu’, indefeso e alienado politicamente. Ele precisa voltar-se ao processo de ‘profanação’ dos dispositivos para libertar-se das vinculações orientadoras que forçosamente o descaracteriza enquanto ser ativo e livre.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: Política. Liberdade. Subjetivação.</p><h3>ABSTRACT</h3><p class="resumoabstract">Professor Giorgio Agamben has been criticizing the ingenious modern Western political structure. It evaluates the mechanisms of state control, in which it calls them 'devices', whose strength lies in the overlap with legal-theological norms with their similar rites and liturgies. Its occurrences and legitimacy preponderate in the social fabric whose systemic organization is almost as a natural and not a cultural element. The text aims to explore Agamben's political conception of contemporary politics, especially considering his book 'State of Exception', whose research presents the possibility of attenuating citizenship rights and weakening the practice of political freedom and the individuals in the social environment through the reduction of 'authentic' subjectivities. We also analyze the transfer of the sacred world elaborated by the Catholic theologians present in the modernity to the politics whose modern democracy makes of the man - subject - to become object of the political power. It also reflects on the concepts of subjectivation and desubjectivation, relating them to the political implications of modern man. The research is bibliographical with emphasis in the analysis of the concepts elaborated by Agamben, especially with regard to the 'device'. He concludes that the Western individual, in general, suffers the process of desubjectivation and is 'naked', defenseless and politically alienated. He must turn to the process of 'desecration' of devices to free himself from the guiding bindings that forcibly demeanes him while being active and free.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Keywords</strong>: Politics. Freedom. Subjectivity. </p><p> </p>

Simone Weil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Marovich
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Creation Theology ◽  
Simone Weil

Few of Giorgio Agamben’s works are as mysterious as his unpublished dissertation, reportedly on the political thought of the French philosopher Simone Weil. If Weil was an early subject of Agamben’s intellectual curiosity, it would appear – judging from his published works – that her influence upon him has been neither central nor lasting.1 Leland de la Durantaye argues that Weil’s work has left a mark on Agamben’s philosophy of potentiality, largely in his discussion of the concept of decreation; but de la Durantaye does not make much of Weil’s influence here, determining that her theory of decreation is ‘essentially dialectical’ and still too bound up with creation theology. 2 Alessia Ricciardi, however, argues that de la Durantaye’s dismissal of Weil’s influence is hasty.3 Ricciardi analyses deeper resonances between Weil’s and Agamben’s philosophies, ultimately claiming that Agamben ‘seems to extend many of the implications and claims of Weil’s idea of force’,4 arguably spreading Weil’s influence into Agamben’s reflections on sovereign power and bare life.

The Political Thought of George Grant

1991 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-68
Author(s):  
H.D. Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
George Grant
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