Eumenides and the Invention of Politics

Recent scholarship has shown that the Eumenides of Aeschylus, far from presenting a complete and coherent picture of the well-ordered polis, in fact offers something quite different, namely, a complex set of questions, concerns and conundrums regarding the very nature of political society. But I suggest that the literature has not yet provided a fully satisfying account of the ways in which those questions are underwritten by the specifically literary practice of Aeschylus as it develops the play’s larger theoretical – especially moral – implications. I argue that the Eumenides can fruitfully be read as a sustained exercise in the subversion of expectations that unsettles its audience and thereby opens up a discursive and aesthetic space for the development of a distinctive political problematic; and further, that this problematic involves a challenging series of meditations on what today would be called political ethics, broadly conceived.

At War in Swaddling Clothes: Stirner’s Unique One as a Conative Existence

In its simplest and primary sense, conatus is about self-preservation. It further involves the obligation, the duty, the imperative even, deriving from the Law of Nature for man to do whatever within his power to maintain his life. Even though this idea has been an old one, it was reintroduced in a more sophisticated form by modern philosophy as no longer a cruel necessity of life but ontologically tied to Reason and Natural law. It was with Hobbes that the idea of self-preservation was put at the core of his anthropological narration (with well known political connotations) and with Spinoza that conatus was delved into within his ontological universe. Regardless of their ontological starting points, both philosophers ended up eventually in a resolution with regard to that primary anthropological tension between individuals, whether this was a common legislator, the political society or the state. Somewhat radical at the beginning, Hobbes and Spinoza had to make some mitigations in order to arrive at a resolution. Yet, that was not Stirner’s case. On the contrary, Stirner’s opening ontological statement was rather too extreme and inconceivable even: it is also the newborn child that gets to war with the world and not only the other way around. It is the purpose of this paper to argue that this extreme trailhead leads the Stirnerian egoist to his fulfillment as the Unique One through ownership and that this agonistic tremendous striving constitutes the Stirnerian notion of conatus. That notion offers no resolution to the ontological animosity between individuals; on the contrary, that animosity is required as ontological precondition and prefiguration of conatus' conclusion as well.

Praktik Kewargaan dalam Arena Institusi Informal Era Demokratisasi

Most studies on citizenship have only focus on the practice of citizenship in the context of formal state institutions. On the other hand, there are relatively few studies discussing citizenship practices in informal institutions. Therefore, this study examines the practice of citizenship in Islamic boarding schools/pesantren in the form of bonds as jamaah. This article intends to map the operation of pesantren as a binder of social ties between its citizens, as well as the pattern of relations between kiai and santri. This research shows that pesantren acts as lebenschraum habitus which installs the perceptions and expressions of its citizens. Pesantren is also a locus of power that has a significant influence on political and civic practices. As a locus of power, there is symbolic capital which is represented and reproduced continuously so that the symbolic capital produces economic, social, and cultural capital. The surplus of capital owned by the lora enables them to transform from the habitus of pesantren, to the habitus of political society and the state through the mechanism of electoral democracy. Even though the pesantren with all their supporting elements have a clientelistic relationship pattern, there is a public morality that can be transformed to strengthen the democratization agenda in the future.

The Hegemony of Western Pop Music in Indonesia 2010-2020 Period

One of the strong and real cultural dominations in Indonesia is the dominance of Western pop music. In this case, there is a voluntary acceptance by the Indonesian people of Western pop music which leads to the concept of Gramsci's hegemony. The continuity of the hegemony of western pop music in the country has been going on for a very long time, for that of course there is a need for deeper advocacy of the hegemony of western pop music so that the Indonesian people are aware of the ‘colonialism’ of western pop music in the country. This critical paradigm research is supported by a qualitative approach based on the theory of hegemony and supported by the concept of cultural imperialism. The findings of this study are the hegemony of western pop music that is widespread and civil society, namely, the Indonesian people tend to accept it with joy so that it seems that it even perpetuates the hegemony itself. Meanwhile, in the aspect of political society (government), various efforts have been made in advancing the national music industry; but are still considered less than optimal.

Education as Cultural Frame

Education, both mass and elite, has spread everywhere over recent centuries, generally taking globally standardized forms. The studies in this book address its distinctively compulsory form. It is originally organized for the collective good of religious and later political society, and more recently formulated as a citizen—and later human—right. Educational expansion is global, and greatly affected by worldwide organizations. But regional variations matter too, as education spreads out from the Western core. A key to understanding the diffusion of education is to see it as reflecting cultural and political forces, not principally economic ones that obviously vary greatly around the world. Education reflects a cultural model of a secularized modern society, much more than economic interests and structures, and its commonalities are visible everywhere.

The Science of Politics

In 1576 Louis Le Roy published a new and expanded edition of his translation of Aristotle’s Politics. In the late-sixteenth century, the starting point for academic political reflection remained the Politics, a text which underlined the importance of participation in the constitution. Although Bodin’s alternative concept of sovereignty was widely admired, many readers were troubled by Bodin’s political and religious ideas and wanted to preserve a role for the Aristotelian idea of political justice and for the Church. The effect was a revitalization of politics as an academic disciple or science, in which the civil community was examined alongside the Church. Leading figures in this process include John Case and Richard Hooker in England and Pierre Grégoire in France. In Emden, Johannes Althusius developed a political theory which he described as a reworking of Aristotle; he emphasized the concept of ‘consociation’ and used it to defend the sovereignty of the people. Henning Arnisaeus challenged Althusius’s claims, preferring to see sovereignty as divisible, shared in the Holy Roman Empire between the Emperor and the Princes, and requiring the use of arcana imperii or secrets of state. This chapter shows that the Aristotelian tradition remained important as a way of portraying a hierarchically organized political society as natural to human beings, but that in the wake of Bodin’s writing there was a shift in emphasis away from questions of virtue and distributive justice and towards a discussion of the nature of sovereign power.

Direito e Sociedade: as Estruturas e Funções da Lei no Direito Inglês

The article “Law and Society: the structures and functions of the Law in English Law”, is the result of teaching aimed at students of the Master’s Degree in Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, in the first semester of 2020 – Discipline General Theory of Law I – “Law, Power and Justice: the Hyper-cycle and the Legal Order”. Its primary objective is to understand how legal rules are made and used in Common Law in its similarities and distinctions from Civil Law. Civil society (societas civilis) is opposed to “natural society” (societas naturalis), being synonymous with “Political society” (in correspondence, respectively with the derivation of civitas and polis). The study of society as a social system, its structures and macro and micro functions in the legal subsystem (according to Niklas Luhmann) is current, predominant, and will be the object of this study in Chapter I. Chapter II, aims to investigate the sources and models Common Law. Chapter III, analyzes the Hypercycle of Law and makes conjectures about Common Law. Since law is a multifaceted phenomenon and difficult to define rigorously, due to its ambiguity and syntactic imprecision in its current use in different cultures, the methodology used was Aristotelian Topic, in the focus of zetetic investigation, with constant opening for constant questioning. The Conclusions and Bibliography follow.

Politics and Eschatology in Iran

The article studies the Iranian political society, starting from the analysis of the Iranian Constitution, the only one in the world characterized by “eschatological” components. The authors retrace the history of the birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is fundamental to ensure an interpretation of the politics of that country that takes into account religious and cultural factors and clarifies possible future developments. Furthermore, they address the problem relative to the symbolic system on which the configuration of the Iranian Republic theoretically rests, which must necessarily come to terms with pragmatic reality. In fact, to have a following in his revolutionary project, Khomeini used the “symbolic spring”, in which the politics of Iran in these years have demonstrated the necessity of realism with a parallel with the concept of agnosticism, which thus becomes natural, in opposition to theories that are often more subjective than objective. Finally, the authors go so far as to say that today is the time for a change, even if in a country like Iran, everything proceeds slowly. Young Iranians will have to obtain a role, reorganize and rekindle from below. The involvement of the young people themselves can increase hope in a process that promises to be complex and articulated, which sees the theocratic model as opposed to the model of Muslim politics in a purely eschatological context, which to most, especially in the West, appears anachronistic, but this is not always the case.