Eric Voegelin e i simboli del politico

The article deals with Eric Voegelin’s analysis of the symbolic dimension of politics and history. It focuses at first on the analysis of the relationship between religion, politics and totalitarianism in the essay on “political religions” and outlines some aspects of the context in which this essay was written. Some characteristics of Voegelin's methodological reflections on the idea of a “new science” of politics are then presented and it is then shown how the attempt to understand the relationship between ideas and symbols opens a new horizon of research, in which the relationship between symbol and representation, and that between symbol, history and being, around which the monumental, and unfinished work Order and History moves, are the main axes.

As dificuldades de compreender o sistema totalitário: A celeuma provocada por "Origens do totalitarismo" de Hannah Arendt

O objetivo do presente texto é apresentar algumas das críticas que Origens do Totalitarismo de Hannah Arendt recebeu e as discussões que suscitaram, demonstrando as dificuldades de compreender o sistema totalitário e a novidade que a interpretação de Arendt gerou. Entre os principais críticos estão Raymond Aron, Waldemar Gurian, Kurt Blumenfeld, Eric Voegelin e Karl Jaspers. Serão apresentadas algumas das críticas para, em seguida, estabelecer a discussão a partir da argumentação contida nos textos de Arendt. Serão utilizadas como principais referências as obras de Arendt Origens do Totalitarismo e A condição humana, os textos “Compreensão e política”, “Sobre a natureza do totalitarismo: uma tentativa de compreensão”, “A tradição e a época moderna”, “O conceito de história: antigo e moderno”, “Que é autoridade” e “Uma réplica a Eric Voegelin”. Também serão utilizadas as cartas de Arendt com Karl Jaspers e Kurt Blumenfeld e alguns dos textos dos críticos. As biografias sobre Arendt de Elizabeth Young-Bruehl, Sylvie Courtine-Dénamy e Laure Adler e textos de Odílio Alves Aguiar e Daiane Eccel serão utilizadas como fontes importantes. Concluiu-se que Arendt desafiava a compreensão ao não simplesmente descrever os acontecimentos, mas ao realizar aquilo que acreditava ser a própria filosofia, um exercício de pensamento.

Empire, nationalism and christianity

This paper studies in parallel the history of empire and the development of universals. It uses as its preliminary orientation the work of Eric Voegelin who argued that universals develop in history alongside and through universalising empires. We find this basic contention highly credible as it is empires that force us to develop cognitive approaches that encompass both colonised and coloniser in any subsequent social structure. So conceived, the paper then argues that empires are synonymous with human history as such and that even those entities (such a Greek city states) which are eulogised for escaping this logic are on examination no less imperial than the empires they oppose. The paper then argues that the development of universals is not a byproduct of empire but rather that it drives imperial expansion in the first place. It seeks to argue that ideation is the casual factor in human history, social structures and behaviour. It argues contra thinkers like Francis Fukuyama, there is no biological foundation for the qualitative distinctions of civilisation, rather the paper contends that the origin of civilisation lies in human conceptuality not human biology, locality or indeed any other material force impinging on life. So configured, the paper then concludes that the primary political question lies in bringing together the question of the good with empire – a process most advanced in human history by Christianity.

Totalitarianisms as political religions in the 20th century

Despite all contents of secularisation, a certain kind of religious element is important in every modern totalitarian system, like Communism or National Socialism. Therefore, totalitarian systems can be regarded as political religions. The following historical and philosophical reflections on the history of ideas of political religions will contain three major parts: First, early uses of the concept ‘political religion’ by Campanella and Clasen in the 16th and 17th centuries will be considered, then the interpretation of totalitarianism as political religion will be analysed, with regards to Eric Voegelin, Raymond Aron and several ramifications, and finally, the perspective of political messianism in Jacob Leib Talmon’s work will be discussed.

Sosyolojik Kontekstte Moderniteye Dair İki Tez: Kopuş Mu Süreklilik Mi?

In this study, some theses about modernity, which is the main research object of sociology, will be discussed. Not all theses on modernity will be discussed. Because within the bounds of such an article, it is not possible to express all the discussions about modernity in the literature. In this paper we will try to sum up two theses on modernity in sociological context. After evaluating the historical and etymologic origin of the concept of modernity, the first of the discussions we will approach is about the fact that modernity symbolizes a break from the past and that it is unique. For the first discussion in this study, the views of two thinkers, Jürgen Habermas and Hans Blumenberg, will be expressed. The second thesis on modernity argues modernity’s continuity with the past and its historicity. The views of some of the thinkers who defended the latter will also be discussed. These thinkers are Karl Löwith, Jacob Taubes, Carl Schmitt, Eric Voegelin and Michael Gillespie, respectively. As sociologist Giddens has said, “sociology is the science of modernity”. In this context, theses on modernity, and essence of modernity set a theoretical and intellectual framework for today's sociologist's research on society. Therefore, at the end of the study, the contribution of philosophical debates on modernity to sociology will be evaluated additionally.