scholarly journals Democratic Intellect: Freeing Thought for the Democracy To-come

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jafar Mirzaee Porkoli
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Paradise Regained ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Critique Of Violence

<p><b>The core argument of this thesis is on the aporetic moment/space of decision and the poetics of the to-come in John Milton's works, with the fundamental importance of the individual. For Milton, this moment/space is radically critical and free, and individually problematic, which goes beyond the usual private/public space even though the public aspects and responsibilities of the person's decision demonstrate exceptional significance in the form of public enactment. In Milton's terms, the experience of such an aporetic moment/space of decision is indispensible for those who want to become a "fit reader" and develop the essential qualities and attributes. I will argue that Milton has always written with the desire to highlight and exemplify the absolute singularity of such a moment and experience throughout his life and works, both prose and poetry.</b></p> <p>The thesis will represent its arguments in two sections. The first section, through a consideration of Derrida's arguments in his works (in particular: "The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration," "The Future of the Profession or the Unconditional University," "Force of Law: 'The Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" and "This Strange Institution Called Literature") together with a selection of Milton's writings, mainly prose (including: Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and Paradise Lost), will examine and identify possible continuities and convergences between the two writers. Such an intimate juxtaposition and close reading of their works has promisingly offered recognition of continuities, convergences, and affinities in their thought in terms of the qualities and attributes of the "fit reader" and the "democratic intellect." In the opening five chapters, the interactive reading highlights fundamental questions and notions for both writers, including the question of exemplarity or singularity, the notion of public space without conditions, the question of justice beyond the law, the critique of violence, and the question of literature as a lawless institution, providing me with the essential terminology to formulate new interpretations of Milton's works, in particular, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.</p> <p>The second part of the thesis uses the conceptions and terms developed in the opening chapters to read the two late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, as singular examples of Milton's fit reader, the aporetic moment/space of decision, and the poetics of the to-come by setting out the general comparative points between them. The focus of my arguments in these chapters will be on the hypothesis that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes are both demonstrating the aporetic moment/space of decision - confusingly replete with uncertainties, complexities, and indeterminacies - and the dominant poetics of the to-come as well as arguing for the singularity of the moment, decision, and enactment of the decision in each poem. I will argue that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes provide outstanding exemplifications of Milton's notion of the "fit reader" developing similar qualities and attributes in common with Derrida's "democratic intellect."Milton's works represent the aporetic moment/space of decision as an ongoing process; it is a singular moment in which uncertainties and indeterminacies produce unresolvable choices, but where a decision must nonetheless be made; it is a moment of "trial" the result of which cannot be known to the individual "fit reader" in advance. Milton's late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, explore the critical significance of this moment and demonstrate that no certain, fixed, pre-programmed, or predetermined model or frame can be applied to the resolution of aporetic moments of decision in different times, places, and contexts. The "fit reader" is one who radically and critically reads and re-reads aporetic situations, full of inescapable indeterminacies and unresolved choices, and expresses his individual judgement in the singular form of a true decision (not calculation) to advance the possibilities of truth, justice, and humanity.</p>

scholarly journals Democratic Intellect: Freeing Thought for the Democracy To-come

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jafar Mirzaee Porkoli
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Paradise Regained ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Critique Of Violence

<p><b>The core argument of this thesis is on the aporetic moment/space of decision and the poetics of the to-come in John Milton's works, with the fundamental importance of the individual. For Milton, this moment/space is radically critical and free, and individually problematic, which goes beyond the usual private/public space even though the public aspects and responsibilities of the person's decision demonstrate exceptional significance in the form of public enactment. In Milton's terms, the experience of such an aporetic moment/space of decision is indispensible for those who want to become a "fit reader" and develop the essential qualities and attributes. I will argue that Milton has always written with the desire to highlight and exemplify the absolute singularity of such a moment and experience throughout his life and works, both prose and poetry.</b></p> <p>The thesis will represent its arguments in two sections. The first section, through a consideration of Derrida's arguments in his works (in particular: "The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration," "The Future of the Profession or the Unconditional University," "Force of Law: 'The Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" and "This Strange Institution Called Literature") together with a selection of Milton's writings, mainly prose (including: Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and Paradise Lost), will examine and identify possible continuities and convergences between the two writers. Such an intimate juxtaposition and close reading of their works has promisingly offered recognition of continuities, convergences, and affinities in their thought in terms of the qualities and attributes of the "fit reader" and the "democratic intellect." In the opening five chapters, the interactive reading highlights fundamental questions and notions for both writers, including the question of exemplarity or singularity, the notion of public space without conditions, the question of justice beyond the law, the critique of violence, and the question of literature as a lawless institution, providing me with the essential terminology to formulate new interpretations of Milton's works, in particular, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.</p> <p>The second part of the thesis uses the conceptions and terms developed in the opening chapters to read the two late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, as singular examples of Milton's fit reader, the aporetic moment/space of decision, and the poetics of the to-come by setting out the general comparative points between them. The focus of my arguments in these chapters will be on the hypothesis that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes are both demonstrating the aporetic moment/space of decision - confusingly replete with uncertainties, complexities, and indeterminacies - and the dominant poetics of the to-come as well as arguing for the singularity of the moment, decision, and enactment of the decision in each poem. I will argue that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes provide outstanding exemplifications of Milton's notion of the "fit reader" developing similar qualities and attributes in common with Derrida's "democratic intellect."Milton's works represent the aporetic moment/space of decision as an ongoing process; it is a singular moment in which uncertainties and indeterminacies produce unresolvable choices, but where a decision must nonetheless be made; it is a moment of "trial" the result of which cannot be known to the individual "fit reader" in advance. Milton's late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, explore the critical significance of this moment and demonstrate that no certain, fixed, pre-programmed, or predetermined model or frame can be applied to the resolution of aporetic moments of decision in different times, places, and contexts. The "fit reader" is one who radically and critically reads and re-reads aporetic situations, full of inescapable indeterminacies and unresolved choices, and expresses his individual judgement in the singular form of a true decision (not calculation) to advance the possibilities of truth, justice, and humanity.</p>

Związek publicznej obecności Kościoła w Polsce z preferencjami wyborczymi elektoratu w 2011 roku

1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (301) ◽  
pp. 72-92
Author(s):  
Karolina Dłuska
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Television ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Military ◽  
Religious Nature ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Catholic Church

The author of the article tries to indicate the relationship between the perceived presence of the Catholic Church in public life and the election preferences of Poles. The subject of the research here is the parliamentary elections in Poland in 2011 in the context of the perception by the electorate of the individual parties of the public presence of the Catholic Church in the selected aspects. Among them, the author points to: the issue of crosses and other religious symbols in public space, including the issue of a cross in the Sejm meeting room. She also recalls such matters as: religion lessons in schools, the religious nature of the military oath, priests appearing on public television, the Church taking a stand on laws passed by the Sejm and priests telling people how to vote in elections. The presented analysis is based on the results of the Polish General Election Study 2011.

scholarly journals Red Corpses: A Microhistory of Mass Graves, Dead Bodies, and Their Public Uses

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Xavier Nérard
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Cost

What happens to corpses produced by armed conflicts? This question may seem simple: most bodies are buried, more or less quickly, in mass graves. However, the time between death and the moment when the human remains are inhumed deserves to be studied. This article focuses on the situation in the Urals at the end of the Civil War (1918–1919). The fights between the Bolsheviks and their opponents resulted in many casualties. The Bolsheviks gave a fundamental, and rather unusual, importance to the bodies of ‘their’ dead and attached a specific political significance to them. They developed a politics of corpses, using them in public space to assert their power. The bodies of dead Red fighters were brought back to symbolic places, resulting in impressive public funerals across the city of Yekaterinburg in 1918. Their burial sites became contested territories, protected by the authorities but derided by their opponents. After their final victory in 1919, Bolsheviks displayed their dead as proof of the cost of their struggle. Mutilated bodies were shown to carry the stigmata of sacrifice. The inventory and identification of victims became a central and immediate requirement. Inquiry commissions questioned witnesses and looked for mass burials and abandoned corpses. Mass graves were searched, cadavers exhumed and made visible. The public use of corpses was, however, not limited to identification purposes. The display of dead bodies, which is not unusual in Orthodox culture, took on a special political dimension. There was mass dissemination of the sight of death through these public monuments and the use of photography. We must especially stress the topographical importance of the displayed death: the exhumed bodies were used to tell of victory, to make control of the territory explicit. The memorialisation of some mass graves completed the process. In Yekaterinburg, but also in more distant localities, monuments were erected. They were meant to materialise the sacrifice of so-called ‘communards’ and the peculiar place of the Civil War in the narrative of the new Bolshevik regime, honouring the memory of the dead and mobilising the living.

scholarly journals Political theology and religious pluralism: Rethinking liberalism in times of post-secular emancipation

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843102096867
Author(s):  
Saul Newman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
The Public ◽  
To Come ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

Recent debates in liberal political theory have sought to come to terms with the post-secular condition, characterised by deep religious pluralism, the resurgence of right-wing populism, as well as new social movements for economic, ecological and racial justice. These forces represent competing claims on the public space and create challenges for the liberal model of state neutrality. To better grasp this problem, I argue for a more comprehensive engagement between liberalism and political theology, by which I understand a mode of theorising that reveals the theological basis of modern secular political concepts. In considering two contrasting approaches to political or public theology – Carl Schmitt’s and Jürgen Moltmann’s – I argue that liberal political theory can and should open itself to a diversity of social movements and ecological struggles that pluralise the political space in ways that unsettle the boundary between the secular and religious.

What Does the Comparative Do for Cosmopolitanism?

PMLA ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-635
Author(s):  
César Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Public Space ◽  
French Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Northern European ◽  
Cultural Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

A conventional definition of cosmopolitanism stressesrelationships to a plurality of cultures understood as distinctive entities. (And the more the better; cosmopolitans should ideally be foxes rather than hedgehogs.) But furthermore cosmopolitanism in a stricter sense includes a stance toward diversity itself, toward the coexistence of cultures in the individual experience…. It is an intellectual and aesthetic stance of openness toward divergent cultural experiences. (Hannerz 239)In the foundation of comparative literature as a distinctive discipline, cosmopolitanism was valued for its “exoticism”—namely, the feeling of being “a citizen ‘of every nation,’ not to belong to one's ‘native country’” (Texte 79), which in (French) literature translated as the openness toward other (northern European) literatures (xi).Defining cosmopolitanism in relation to national loyalties, multilingualism, and mobility overlooks the fact that the cosmopolitan is much older than the nation and that not all multilingual abilities and mobilities are accepted as cosmopolitan, especially when they lack “sophistication.” Since I have partially discussed these issues elsewhere, I will not pursue them here but will restrict myself to Hannah Arendt's future-oriented concept of cosmopolitanism as global citizenship. My aim is to stress the elitism in many theories of cosmopolitanism and to show how comparative literature can challenge this elitism by looking at “hidden traditions.” To do so, I will draw on two essays by Arendt—“The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition” and “Karl Jaspers: Citizen of the World?” As for the first essay, I will introduce Gypsy next to Jew, the latter being Arendt's exclusive interest despite the implications of her use of the concept of the pariah. In the second essay, Arendt discusses acting qua human, the rights granted by membership in a (cosmo)polis, and what “citizen of the world” (cosmopolitan?) means in relation to the public space, and she stresses the value of communication, with the living and the dead. Furthermore, Arendt differentiates between cosmopolitan and European. I argue that postwar European integration challenges in unexpected ways Arendt's view both on rights as linked to nationality and on citizenship in a cosmopolitan polity.

scholarly journals The Individual and the Nation in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s Early Writing

Ars Aeterna ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Simona Hevešiová
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Postcolonial Writers

Abstract In its essence, postcolonial literature evolved as an opposition to colonial discourse and ideological representation of the colonized subject inherent in colonial narratives. Springing out of the need to reconceptualize and reconstitute their communities, postcolonial writers often addressed the pressing historical and political issues of that time in their writing. In its early stages, postcolonial literature was therefore often marked by a strong sense of nationalism, interweaving fictional stories with the public narrative of pre-independence ideology. The paper seeks to explore the border between the public and the private in the early novels of the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Just as his contemporaries in other colonized countries, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o tends to utilize literature as a powerful tool for raising national awareness. The pre-independence period, in which Ngũgĩ’s novels are set, is marked by a certain degree of romanticism and idealism, yet there is also an underlying sense of doom. Drawing on the cultural roots and mythology of his community, the writer steers his narrative in the direction of a larger, public discourse, suggesting that “the individual finds the fullest development of his personality when he is working in and for the community as a whole”. Therefore, the public/private dichotomy stands at the very centre of his writing, proving the rootedness of the individual in the public space.

scholarly journals POSSÍVEIS CONTRIBUIÇÕES DE CHARLES TAYLOR PARA O ORÇAMENTO PÚBLICO: desafios para as políticas públicas

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Luciana Costa Poli ◽  
Bruno Ferraz Hazan
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Public Budget ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Budget Planning ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The Individual

O estudo aborda o orçamento público como instrumento que evidencia uma série de escolhas pautadas por políticas públicas, revelando que sua elaboração deveria ao menos espelhar um espac¸o de luta poli ´tica, a propiciar que asdivergentes forc¸as sociais se movimentem para buscar concretizar seus interesses. O artigo menciona, ainda, a experiência portuguesa da desorçamentação como processo de descentralizac¸a~o administrativa e os estudos de Charles Taylor sobre a desejada estruturac¸a~o de novos significados para as aço~es humanas que possam trafegar entre as questões individuais e o espac¸o pu´blico em busca de um processo de reconhecimento. Propõe construir um modelo democrático de planejamento orçamentário associado a ` uma visão capaz de propiciar a participação de todos os destinatários de forma a se perseguir uma e´tica que permita aos indivi ´duos recuperar aquilo que lhes confere a possibilidade de projetar existencialmente formas significativas de vida e de engajamento na sociedade.Palavras-chave: Orçamento público; políticas públicas; reconhecimentoPOSSIBLE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHARLES TAYLOR FOR PUBLIC BUDGET: challenges to public policies Abstract: The study addresses the public budget as an instrument that evidences a series of choices guided by publicpolicies, revealing that its development should at least mirror an arena of political struggle, to provide that the divergent social forces move to achieve their interests. The article also mentions the Portuguese experience of off-budget as an administrative decentralization process and the studies of Charles Taylor concerning the desired structuring of new meanings for human actions that can travel between the individual issues and public space in search of a recognitionprocess. It is proposed to build a democratic model of budget planning associated with a vision to provide the participation ofall recipients in order to pursue an ethic that allows individuals to recover what gives them the possibility of designing existentially meaningful ways of life and engagement in society.Keywords: Public budget, public policies, recognition.

scholarly journals Wawasan Kebersihan Lingkungan & Keberagamaan; Praktik Kebersihan Lingkungan pada Civitas Akademika UIN Imam Bonjol Padang

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-92
Author(s):  
Rulan Permata Sari
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Environmental Hygiene ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Depth Interviews

The basic identity of academic community of UIN Imam Bonjol Padang is Muslim, with sufficient religious knowledge. This study aims to see the correlation of knowledge with behavior in maintaining environmental cleanliness. The research data collection was carried out by survey and in-depth interviews with the academic community of UIN Imam Bonjol. This study found that, first the understanding of the academic community of UIN Imam Bonjol Padang about cleanliness was quite good at the individual level originating from the hadith about cleanliness, both in text and in substance. Second, in maintaining cleanliness, UIN academics are influenced by the lack of available hygiene facilities and infrastructure and the absence of regulation. Third, there is an asymmetrical relationship between the knowledge of the UIN academic community about environmental hygiene and practice because the understanding of environmental hygiene is still in the domestic area and is private in nature, not yet entering the public space.

scholarly journals Private/Public Space of New Media

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alla Drozdova ◽  
◽  
Natalia Stepanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Multiple Network ◽  
The Individual

Today, we have a situation that the new media environment has reshaped our conception of reality while changing social spaces, modes of existence, and the functional mechanisms of the private sphere. In the space of new media, the boundary between privacy and publicity is redefined with the emergence of multiple network communities having become a subject of observation and evaluation, collective discussions, and even third party interventions. In the current situation, the privacy/publicity boundary can be defined both through the societal/the individual, and through such concepts as visible/invisible. The new media era sees the personification of online publicness, therefore the very sphere of private life gets consumed by the public sphere open both for being discussed and for being controlled by the government, market, and advertisement. The public sphere has fallen under the power of certain private/vested interests, which only transiently become common, coinciding with the interests of other groups, but not the public sphere. The ambivalent nature of new media, while based on personalisation and filtration, obviously determines the ambiguous and controversial relationship of the public and the private. Thus, the private not only reflects, but also represents the public, whereas the public implements privacy up to its inherent special intimate atmosphere and intonation. This fast-changing virtual reality requires the development of conceptual tools for analysing new content and forms of social and personal life, one of which is the relationship between publicity and privacy.

scholarly journals Memorial Ambivalences in Postcommunist Romania: Generational Attitudes towards the Symbolic Legacy of Communism

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Mihai Stelian Rusu ◽  
Alin Croitoru
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The Public ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
To Come

After the demise of state socialism, public space became an issue of contention that occupied an important place within societies’ efforts to come to terms with the recent past. Extant scholarship documented extensively how postcommunist societies in Central and Eastern Europe have reconfigured the public space by removing the symbolic presence of the former regime (e.g., monuments and statues, but also place- and street names). However, there is a scarcity of research done on exploring the reception of these broad changes brought to the public statuary and urban nomenclature. In this study, we aim to contribute to this nascent strand of literature by investigating the generational differences in social attitudes towards the symbolic transformation of public space in postcommunist Romania. Data collected through a national web-survey conducted in February 2021 (n = 1156) revealed significant intergenerational differences regarding the removal of monuments and the renaming of streets. In particular, higher approval of such memory work was found among the generations born during communism in comparison to the postcommunist generation. Taking stock of these generational differences, as well as the factors underpinning them, contributes to a better understanding of how ordinary people relate to the politics of memory enacted in transforming societies.

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