scholarly journals “A Conviction about What is Moral or Lawful” Carl Schmitt on humanitarianism, the humanum, and the possibility of a “universal jus commune”

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. e40279
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hiromura
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Moral Conflict ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Definition Of

Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) spent much of his life arguing against human rights. While this may not come as a surprise, a closer examination of The Concept of the Political reveals that Schmitt’s critique of Liberal humanitarianism is itself rooted in a concept of the humanum as a sphere of substantive moral and political conflict. As an analysis of Schmitt’s concept of the enemy shows, this humanum serves as an argument for the necessity of a juristic distinction between enemy and foe. For, only by distinguishing between the relativized enemy and the absolute foe, Schmitt argues, will we be able to distinguish create a space for particularly political action. Having revealed the framework of mediated moral conflict, in which Schmitt conceives of political action, I then turn to consider Schmitt’s minimalist proposal for a positive definition of a “universal jus commune” and assess its significance for a discussion of human rights.

scholarly journals Redefining the political moment

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Arvanitakis
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
John Howard ◽  
Conservative Media ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
War Protest

On 16 February 2003, more than half a million people gathered in Sydney, Australia, as part of a global anti-war protest aimed at stopping the impending invasion of Iraq by the then US Administration. It is difficult to estimate how many millions marched on the coordinated protest, but it was by far the largest mobilization of a generation. Walking and chanting on the streets of Sydney that day, it seemed that a political moment was upon us. In a culture that rarely embraces large scale activism, millions around Australian demanded to be heard. The message was clear: if you do not hear us, we would be willing to bring down a government. The invasion went ahead, however, with the then Australian government, under the leadership of John Howard, being one of the loudest and staunchest supporters of the Bush Administrations drive to war. Within 18 months, anti-war activists struggled to have a few hundred participants take part in anti-Iraq war rallies, and the Howard Government was comfortably re-elected for another term. The political moment had come and gone, with both social commentators and many members of the public looking for a reason. While the conservative media was often the focus of analysis, this paper argues that in a time of late capitalism, the political moment is hollowed out by ‘Politics’ itself. That is to say, that formal political processes (or ‘Politics’) undermine the political practices that people participate in everyday (or ‘politics’). Drawing on an ongoing research project focusing on democracy and young people, I discuss how the concept of ’politics‘ has been destabilised and subsequently, the political moment has been displaced. This displacement has led to a re-definition of ‘political action’ and, I argue, the emergence of a different type of everyday politics.

Sigmund Freud and the Politics of Marginality

1974 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Rothman ◽  
Phillip Isenberg
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Scientific Success ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Liberal Position

Relying heavily upon Freud's greatest work, The Interpretation of Dreams, Professors Carl Schorske and William McGrath have attempted to increase our understanding of the origins of psychoanalysis. Both authors feel that the key to Freud's discoveries lies in his reaction to the sociopolitical realities of late nineteenth-century Vienna, and while the articles differ somewhat in emphasis their arguments are sufficiently similar so that they can be treated together. To Schorske and McGrath psychoanalysis had its origins in Freud's decision to give up his initial desire to mount a direct political (even revolutionary) attack on the inequities of the existing society for a “counter-political” psychology which enabled him to adjust to the existing political situation and even achieve a measure of scientific success. As a youth Freud had radical political aspirations and was even active in radical political organizations. However, the hopelessness of the liberal position in Vienna and the rise of anti-Semitic popular movements led Freud to believe that direct political action would not be successful. By reducing political conflict to father-son conflict Freud, like other liberals, would ignore the reality of the political and learn to live (albeit imperfectly) in a world which he could not influence. A career in science could bring recognition and at least partial acceptance, and thus a minimum of satisfaction at least.

Immanence, transindividuality and the free multitude

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 865-887
Author(s):  
Daniela Voss
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Real ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Since the late 1960s there has been a resurgence of interest in Spinozism in France: Gilles Deleuze was among the first who gave life to a ‘new Spinoza’ with his seminal book Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (1968). While Deleuze was primarily interested in Spinoza’s ontology and ethics, the contemporary French philosopher Étienne Balibar focuses on the political writings. Despite their common fascination for Spinoza’s relational definition of the individual, both thinkers have drawn very different consequences from the Spinozist inspiration regarding the relevance of his philosophy for a contemporary ethical and political thought. Deleuze draws from Spinoza an ethics of the encounter, an ‘ethology’ that is concerned with the composition of bodies on a plane of immanence. Balibar, on the contrary, deals with the modes of communication that we institute between one another and that are always effectuations on two levels at once: the real and the imaginary. Whereas Deleuze emphasizes the conception of a univocal plane of immanence, Balibar insists on a double expression of the real and the imaginary in any transindividual practice. The aim of this paper is to compare and finally assess their respective contributions to a conception of collective political action: the question of constitution of the ‘free multitude’.

scholarly journals Cosmos and Republic: A Hidden Dialogue between Hannah Arendt and Alexander von Humboldt

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-298
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Heuer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Alexander Von Humboldt ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
Definition Of

This text brings together two ideas, those of Hannah Arendt’s republicanism and Alexander von Humboldt’s cosmopolitanism. Both ways of thinking are seen as alternatives to a republican-biocentric perspective to the current problematic areas of the political and ecological crises. Arendt’s critique of the modern natural sciences and the associated alienation from the earth, which still characterizes the current relationship to nature today, will be presented first. This critique is closely related to Arendt’s thesis of world loss, i.e., the loss of the interpersonal pluralistic sphere. As an alternative to both forms of loss, Arendt develops the concept of an independent sphere of the political based on inter-personality, harmony with nature, and dialogical and consensual politics. While Arendt approaches nature from Kant’s definition of self- and world-relationship and from her own definition of sustainable politics, Humboldt goes the opposite way, that is, from respecting nature as an independent organism to a republican understanding of politics that, like Arendt, rejects the exploitation of humans as well as nature. Arendt and Humboldt both belong to the tradition of the Enlightenment that (in addition to phenomenology, self-reflection, the values of human dignity and human rights, and the unity of understanding and feeling) also includes a cosmopolitanism and freedom of movement for acting and judging citizens.

scholarly journals UTILIDADES DE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA JURÍDICA EN EL CAMPO DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS: EXPERIENCIAS RECIENTES

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Iturralde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
American Institute ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
New Research

Este artículo aplica un enfoque de antropología jurídica a la exploración y desarrollo de nuevas prácticas de investigación en el campo de los derechos humanos, a partir de la experiencia acumulada en los últimos años en el Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos. El proceso ha implicado revisar y reorientar las tendencias de investigación en este tema para favorecer, de una parte, un camino de salida al privilegio que han tenido los análisis sobre violación de los derechos e incorporar otros senderos de exploración que atienden las variaciones en su promoción y protección; y, de otra parte, un balance adecuado entre la perspectiva jurídica y las perspectivas políticas y sociales de los fenómenos relativos a los derechos humanos y la democracia. Se muestran encuadres sobre el desarrollo de la antropología jurídica y de los enfoques de investigación en derechos humanos, ejemplos de algunas aplicaciones que han implicado adecuaciones en la definición del objeto, en las aplicaciones metodológicas y en el tipo de resultados, además de una reflexión sobre el punto de encuentro entre estas dos tradiciones. ABSTRACT This article applies a legal anthropology approach to exploration and development of new research practices in the human rights field, based on the experience accumulated in recent years by the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights. The process has included the review and reorientation of research trends in this theme, with the purpose, on one hand, of steering toward departure from the privileged role held by analyses of rights violations, in favor of the incorporation of other paths of exploration that address variations in their promotion and protection. And, on the other hand, to favor an adequate balance between the legal perspective and the political and social perspectives of phenomena related to human rights and democracy. The article presents frameworks on the development of legal anthropology and approaches to human rights research, as well as examples of some applications that have implied adaptations in the definition of the object, in methodological applications, and in types of results, as well as a reflection on the meeting point between these two traditions.

Decisionism and Humanitarian Intervention: Reinterpreting Carl Schmitt and the Global Political Order

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Roach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Level ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions

International legal scholars and political scientists have devised many alternative proposals to legalize politically legitimized humanitarian interventions. While many of these alternative legal mechanisms have addressed the limits to the UN Charter and the political and economic consequences of intervention, they also have exposed the need for more theoretical analysis of the shift in political responsibilities and decision making from the state to international level. In this article, I draw on Carl Schmitt's theory of decisionism in order to understand the legitimacy and political dynamics of global decisionism. I argue that more theoretical analysis of the political substance of global authority is needed in order to understand the revolutionary content of a human rights enforcement regime.

La committenza delle comunità e la costruzione degli spazi politici locali: Dronero e la valle Maira (CN) nel Quattrocento

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-30
Author(s):  
Luigi Provero
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Community History ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Levels

Through an analysis of the territory of Dronero and the Maira valley, the essay aims to interpret local political action through a partly unusual key, namely the building commission of the communities. The aim is to highlight the variety of building interventions by communities and to show how these actions are effective keys to interpreting the political dynamics on many different levels: the community economics, the development of collective identity, the manipulation of community and territorial structures, the definition of a ceremonial space, the relations with the lordship. In the Maira valley a community history is outlined, full of tensions and divergent thrusts, between the convergence around the political and ceremonial center of Dronero and the alternative polarities constituted by the numerous settlements scattered in the surrounding basin.

The citizen as mere human: Litigating denationalization in post-9/11 UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 146349962093135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caylee Hong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Spatial Control ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

Since the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, Hannah Arendt’s phrase the ‘right to have rights’ and her claim that having rights depends on belonging to and being recognized by ‘some kind of organized community’ have become key provocations on citizenship, statelessness and human rights. Arendt, however, has been criticized as perpetuating a state-centric framework that scholars and activists alike have sought to reimagine. In particular, the French political theorist Jacques Rancière argues that Arendt’s ‘right to have rights’ formula is based on an artificial distinction between the social and the political, which creates an overly narrow definition of the political subject. This article contends that in the post-9/11 era, the distinction, often attributed to Arendt, between ‘Man’ and ‘Citizen’ is increasingly blurred; yet it suggests that this blurring does not necessarily offer any emancipatory potential. It argues that while national citizenship is still meaningful, being a citizen may not be so different from being a mere human in certain contexts. The article examines three sets of cases shaping the United Kingdom’s ‘regime of nationality deprivation’ in which people are stripped of their UK citizenship for terrorism-related offences: Al-Jedda (2013), Pham (2015, 2018) and K2 (2015). First, it explores the tensions in the regime’s attempt to reconcile a fundamental inconsistency between the recognition of the human right to nationality and the sovereignty of the state to define the citizen; and second, it considers the regime’s spatial control of the denationalization process whereby denationalization orders are commonly issued and thus also contested when the targeted citizen is outside the UK’s jurisdiction.

scholarly journals The Impact of Uncertainty Money Growth on the Economic Growth of South Asian Countries during 2004-2016

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-42
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Political culture, as a part of public culture and a group of beliefs, virtues, norms and approaches with views to the political area, is one of the basic issues which has been paid attention and the subject of many researches, especially since the second half of the 20th century. The topic of this article is studying Afghanistan political culture as well as answering the question of which impacts it has had on Afghanistan political participation during the after-2001 years. Also, in this research, by using an analytic-descriptive method, at first, the definition of political culture and its features in Afghanistan are presented and then, the occurred changes in the indexes of Afghanistan political coopetation in the recent decades are studied too. Political culture, as the system of empirical beliefs, symbols, virtues and the norms, which are regarded as the foundation of political action and the political behaviours of the public people, parties and the government officials is one of the basic issues which has been considered and studied by many experts of politucal area for the recent era. The continuity and strength of any any kinds of cooperations depends on the society political culture origin as it is a very important factor for defining the political social identity of the public members and determining their views, virtues and norms toward politics and authority. Moreover, in this study, at first,the level of changes in the last-two-decade political culture of Afghanistan society is discussed and then its impact on political participation is analysed through explaining the tie between beliefs and behaviours as well as a case study over the political cooperarion increase.

scholarly journals Securitization and the Political: contributions from Hannah Arendt

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Motta ◽  
Cauê Pimentel
Keyword(s):  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Political Contributions ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Definition Of

In the past few years, many scholars keen to the Copenhagen School (CS) turned to the works of the German political scientist Carl Schmitt in order to strengthen the philosophical foundations of the theory, especially the disputed concept of exception. Schmitt is a singular and important contribution to the debate, however his definition of the political makes securitization concept more conservative and a more unilateral event as politics would only be explicit in the exception spectrum. Our idea in this brief paper is to present a contribution to this discussion coming from a less considered perspective: the works and writings of Hannah Arendt. We will examine how her ideas towards politics and the exception can shed a light on the same issues that Schmitt seems to blur even further. We believe that bringing Hannah Arendt to the debate offers a different understanding of the foundational problems of the securitization concept and enhances the normative appeal of the theory towards a broader and more sophisticated base, opening new paths for research and discussion under the framework of the Copenhagen School.

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