Crisis and Critique

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Devetak
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Fundamental Process ◽  
Dialectical Philosophy

This chapter provides an exposition of critical international theory as currently expressed and practised. It situates the discussion in perception of disciplinary and global crisis, arguing that crisis is a condition of theoretical critique and critical international theory itself. The chapter discusses the link between knowledge and interests, in which critical international theory’s engagement with the philosophical exercise of self-reflection is a fundamental process of Kantian Enlightenment. The chapter then elaborates the various ways critical international theorists have conceived emancipation and political transformation. The normative, sociological, and praxeological dimensions of critical international theory are considered in relation to the emancipatory rethinking and restructuring of international relations. As a form of reflexive social philosophy in which meta-theoretical imperatives to problematize the self are privileged, mastering dialectical philosophy was and remains essential to the formation of the critical persona in whom critique is both a theoretical attitude and a lived experience.

Critical International Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Devetak
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
International Theory ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Civil Government

Whether inspired by the Frankfurt School or Antonio Gramsci, the impact of critical theory on the study of international relations has grown considerably since its advent in the early 1980s. This book offers the first intellectual history of critical international theory. Richard Devetak approaches this history by locating its emergence in the rising prestige of theory and the theoretical persona. As theory’s prestige rose in the discipline of international relations it opened the way for normative and metatheoretical reconsiderations of the discipline and the world. The book traces the lines of intellectual inheritance through the Frankfurt School to the Enlightenment, German idealism, and historical materialism, to reveal the construction of a particular kind of intellectual persona: the critical international theorist who has mastered reflexive, dialectical forms of social philosophy. In addition to the extensive treatment of critical theory’s reception and development in international relations, the book recovers a rival form of theory that originates outside the usual inheritance of critical international theory in Renaissance humanism and the civil Enlightenment. This historical mode of theorising was intended to combat metaphysical encroachments on politics and international relations and to prioritise the mundane demands of civil government over the self-reflective demands of dialectical social philosophies. By proposing contextualist intellectual history as a form of critical theory, Critical International Theory: An Intellectual History defends a mode of historical critique that refuses the normative temptations to project present conceptions onto an alien past, and to abstract from the offices of civil government.

scholarly journals Self and other in critical international theory: assimilation, incommensurability and the paradox of critique

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
VASSILIOS PAIPAIS
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Critical Edge ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis article is principally concerned with the way some sophisticated critical approaches in International Relations (IR) tend to compromise their critical edge in their engagement with the self/other problematique. Critical approaches that understand critique as total non-violence towards, or unreflective affirmation of, alterity risk falling back into precritical paths. That is, either a particularistic, assimilative universalism with pretensions of true universality or a radical incommensurability and the impossibility of communication with the other. This is what this article understands as the paradox of the politics of critique. Instead, what is more important than seeking a final overcoming or dismissal of the self/other opposition is to gain the insight that it is the perpetual striving to preserve the tension and ambivalence between self and other that rescues both critique's authority and function.

International theory and international society: the viability of the middle way?

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Brown
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
International Theory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Hedley Bull

From the perspective of a particular kind of international theorizing, foundational questions about the nature of international society are a central concern. ‘Does the collectivity of sovereign states constitute a political society or system, or does it not? ’ is, according to Hedley Bull, the first of a series of questions that, taken together, constitute ‘Classical’ international relations theory and distinguish it from the ‘Scientific’ approach to the subject. Similar sentiments could be drawn readily from the work of the other authors whose writings collectively make up the International Theory, or International Society, or ‘English School’ approach to international relations theory. I have argued elsewhere that there are reasons why this emphasis on international society is mistaken. To cut a long story short, the burden of the argument is that an approach that places primary emphasis on the nature of international society is likely to isolate itself from the wider discourses of political and social philosophy in ways that cannot be defended in terms of any alleged sui generis features of international relations. Rather, international relations theory is best understood as an aspect of political theory and not as a discourse with its own rules and subject matter. However, this argument has been cast in ‘meta-theoretical’ terms and does not directly address the actual issue of the nature of international society; critics are entitled to point to the absence here of a clearly articulated, positive point of view. The purpose of this article is to begin to remedy this omission, by sketching the outlines of an examination of international society that would be less tied to traditional categories and in closer contact with broader movements in social thought.

International Relations Meets Critical Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Devetak
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter provides an account of the reception of critical theory in international relations in the early 1980s. It is structured around detailed studies of four pioneering international relations theorists: R. B. J. Walker, Richard K. Ashley, Andrew Linklater, and R. W. Cox. In their different ways these international relations scholars helped fashion the critical persona on the basis of a modified philosophical reflexivity inherited from German idealism and historical materialism, and their Frankfurt School heirs. The end result of this reception was to refigure the theorist as a critical intellectual, capable of achieving higher levels of ethical comportment on the basis of Enlightenment self-reflection, and deeper insight into the latent forces of political transformation on the basis of dialectical-philosophical history.

Saving National IR from Exceptionalism: The Dialogic Spirit and Self-Reflection in Chinese IR Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoting Li
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Rising Power ◽  
Common Understanding

Abstract This study proposes an analytical framework for explaining how national IR (international relations) can keep exceptionalism at bay and join global IR in promoting common understanding. Building on the premise that dialogue is key to bridging the self–other divide, it stresses that self-reflection lies at the heart of a true “dialogic spirit,” which urges the self to recognize its own shortcomings by learning from the other's point of view. By embracing the dialogic spirit and self-reflection, therefore, national IR can distance itself from exceptionalist claims that the “national self” is intrinsically superior to others and so its preferences and interests must outweigh those of the latter. Applying this framework to the nascent Chinese IR theory, this study finds that its leading exponents do try to avoid identifying with such exceptionalist claims, though the complications of their work further illustrate the promise and difficulty of self-reflection in the shadow of rising power.

Disequilibrium and Divinity Salience as Invariant Structures in The Halal Executives’ Experience of Eudaimonia

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Jalilah Ahmad ◽  
Rosmimah Mohd. Roslin ◽  
Mohd Ali Bahari Abdul Kadir
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
Phenomenological Method ◽  
Sustainable Practices ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Living Well ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Invariant Structures

The global Halal industry is large and continues to grow as the global Muslim population increases in size and dispersion. There are 1.84 billion Muslims today spread over 200 countries and is expected to increase to 2.2 billion by 2030. The industry will be worth USD6.4 trillion by the end of 2018 with more non-traditional players and emergent markets. The stakes are high with pressures to generate novel and sustainable practices. This goes beyond systems and hard skills as it needs to cut into the self – the person of virtues in virtuous acts, not because they “have to” but because it is the purpose of humankind or his telos - to be “living well” and “acting well” or eudaimonia. This study seek to explore Halal executives’ lived experience of “eudaimonia.”. Using Giorgi’s descriptive psychological phenomenological method for data analysis, the study elicits two distinct invariant structures – ‘disequilibrium in status quo’ and ‘divinity salience’.

Makna Alif dalam Puisi Zikir D. Zawawi Imron dan Sajak Alif Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Sholeha Rosalia ◽  
Yosi Wulandari
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
The Self ◽  
Sociology Of Literature ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Creation

Alif means the first, saying the Supreme Life and is Sturdy and has the element of fire and Alif is formed from Ulfah (closeness) ta'lif (formation). With this letter Allah mementa'lif (unite) His creation with the foundation of monotheism and ma'rifah belief in appreciation of faith and monotheism. Therefore, Alif opens certain meanings and definitions of shapes and colors that are in other letters. Then be Alif as "Kiswah" (clothes) for different messages. That is a will. "IQRO" is a revelation that was first passed down to the Prophet Muhammad. Saw. Read it, which starts with the letter Alif and ends with the letter Alif. The creation of a poem is influenced by the environment and the self-reflection of a poet where according to the poet's origin, in comparing in particular Alif's poetry from the two poets. The object of this research is the poetry of Zikir by D. Zawawi Imron and Sajak Alif by Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda. This study uses a comparative method and sociology of literature. Through a comparative study of literature between the poetry of Zikir D. Zawawi Imron and Sajak Alif Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda, it is hoped that the public can know the meaning of Alif according to the poet's view. With this research, the Indonesian people can accept different views on the meaning of Alif in accordance with their respective understanding without having to look for what is right and wrong. The purpose in Alif is like a life, in the form of letters like a body, a tree that is cut to the root, from the heart is split to the seeds, then from the seeds are split so that nothing is the essence of life. So, it is clear that Alif is the most important and Supreme letter. Talking about the meaning of Alif as the first letter revealed on earth. After the letter Alif was revealed, 28 other Hijaiyah letters were born. The letter Alif is made the beginning of His book and the opening letter. Other letters are from Alif and appear on him.

History and Personal Autonomy

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Mele
Keyword(s):  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Personal History ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
List Type ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
New Model ◽  
Self Reflection

John Christman, in ‘Autonomy and Personal History,’ advances a novel genetic or historical account of individual autonomy. He formulates ‘the conditions of the [i.e., his] new model of autonomy’ as follows:(i) A person P is autonomous relative to some desire D if it is the case that P did not resist the development of D when attending to this process of development, or P would not have resisted that development had P attended to the process;(ii) The lack of resistance to the development of D did not take place (or would not have) under the influence of factors that inhibit self-reflection;and(iii) The self-reflection involved in condition (i) [sic] is (minimally) rational and involves no self-deception. (11)

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