The Political Conception of Human Rights and Its Rule(s) of Recognition

The political conception makes sense of human rights strictly in light of their role in international human rights practice, more specifically by describing how they justify interventions against states that engage in or fail to prevent human rights violations. This conception is, therefore, normative and fact-dependent. Beyond this, it does not seem to have much to say about the actual nature of international human rights practice. The argument sustained here reinterprets the political conception by resorting to a heuristic device that explains how normativity can be fact-dependent: the Hartian model. The characteristics of H.L.A. Hart’s rule of recognition are useful to determine the characteristics of human rights practice from the viewpoint of the political conception. Also, they help to overcome some of the problems typically faced by the political conception, such as whether there is only one practice or many, whether the notion of human rights becomes too contingent on the way the world is currently organised, how agents can violate content-changing practices, or how reliance on current states of affairs leaves room for criticism of those states of affairs.

Marx and Rosenzweig on Community and Redemption

The first and second parts of the paper will deal with the problem of assimilation and the genesis of a kind of cultural hibridity in the context of the German Jewry in the Modern Age. I will try to understand the figures of Karl Marx and Franz Rosenzweig as complementary visions of Jewish identity, the latter from within, and the former from without it. The third and the fourth parts will tackle the question of how that identity may be fully realized in a socio-institutional sense, not necessarily restricted to a narrow political conception of the State. My conclusion will be that both Marx and Rosenzweig affirmed human freedom as an essentialy social phenomenon enacted through redemption, which must take always in account the problem of alterity.

Marx and Rosenzweig on Community and Redemption

The first and second parts of the paper will deal with the problem of assimilation and the genesis of a kind of cultural hibridity in the context of the German Jewry in the Modern Age. I will try to understand the figures of Karl Marx and Franz Rosenzweig as complementary visions of Jewish identity, the latter from within, and the former from without it. The third and the fourth parts will tackle the question of how that identity may be fully realized in a socio-institutional sense, not necessarily restricted to a narrow political conception of the State. My conclusion will be that both Marx and Rosenzweig affirmed human freedom as an essentialy social phenomenon enacted through redemption, which must take always in account the problem of alterity.

Creative Emotion and Understanding of Democracy in the Philosophy of H. Bergson

In this paper, the concept of creative emotion (émotion créatrice) and the understanding of democracy, which arises out of it, in the philosophy of Bergson is analysed. This specific emotion does not depend on an object’s intellectual representation; therefore, Bergson refers to it as “supra-intellectual.” Contrary to the usual “infra-intellectual” emotions, it is primary in regard of the mind and the will, and it comprises the fundamental matrix of creative acts of the human being. Creative emotion is one of the forms of the intuition of duration that is rooted in élan vital. It not only determines the essential changes in the fields of art, religion or science, but also re-configures the political rationality by revealing a deeper form of sociality. Thus, the presumed anti-sociality of the philosophy of Bergson is denied. In his last work, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, Bergson shows how creative emotion transforms understanding of democracy and how it turns this political conception into a dynamic movement corresponding to the deep process of the human being and the whole reality.

‘The Antifascist Kick’: A Signifying Cultural Practice in the History of Transnational Antifascism?

This article is based on an empirical study of ‘the antifascist kick’ as a formative cultural practice in the history of transnational antifascism. It scopes from the 1930s and the era of opposition to classic fascism, through to the twenty-first century where antifascism encounters political processes of globalization, fragmentation, neoliberalism, and neofascism. The article discusses the ‘antifascist kick’ in different historical contexts, from 1930s Sweden to Germany and the United States today. The article reveals that ‘the antifascist kick’ works in various cultural directions: as a political conception of those who are only worth contempt, as a symbolic representation of the antifascist struggle, and as a practical instruction for how to treat fascists in the streets.

The Power of Producing Effects

This chapter establishes a new interpretation of Spinoza’s political conception of potentia, from within his broader metaphysical framework. Centrally, the chapter distinguishes between, on the one hand, potentia operandi (power of producing effects, for better or for worse, with no particular connection to virtue), which is similar to Hobbes’s notion of power; and, on the other hand, potentia agendi (power of acting), associated with a thing’s essence and virtue. An entity may be extremely powerful in the first sense without being powerful in the second sense. Politically, this manifests as a distinction between merely having right and power, versus being in control of one’s own right (being sui juris). Sui juris status is normatively desirable, but in this chapter the relation (and possible divergence) between the sui juris status of a political collectivity and the sui juris status of the members making up that collectivity is not yet established.

A Feminist Liberal Response to the Dependency Critique

A society satisfying Rawls’s principles would satisfy its dependency needs better than our society does today, but justice as fairness fails to appreciate the full array of issues of justice dependency raises. It does not recognize failure of noncooperating members of society to receive caregiving as an injustice; it does not recognize systematic disadvantage to caregivers as unjust; and it does not recognize as unjust when society’s basic arrangements render some unable to provide or procure the caregiving their dependents require. A just society is compliant with principles of justice in caregiving. Such principles can be presented in a Rawlsian way—as those chosen in a suitably designed initial situation, and as part of a political conception of justice in Rawls’s terms. This feminist political constructivism concedes as much to the dependency critique as it defends in Rawls, and is responsive to antiracist criticism of Rawlsian ideal theory.

DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATION AND RECONFIGURATION: A MATERIALIST READING OF WALT WHITMAN’S 1855 LEAVES OF GRASS

<p>The following article discusses the material conditions of production surrounding Walt Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass. As a self-published poetry collection, I argue that Whitman uses paratextual features to mirror the text’s thematic rubric. By employing a materialist framework, this article claims that Whitman’s interpretation of America’s retroactive relationship to its democratic founding drives his collection. In depicting the nation as a work in progress, Whitman forces the American reader to revisit, reform and evolve the limited state of democratic power evidenced in his present-day nation. As self-reflexive focalization of the national condition, Leaves of Grass, through its unpretentious material composition, reconstructs the image of the poet as the necessary mediator of America’s unique political conception. Drawing upon Derrida’s synchronic assessment of the Declaration of Independence’s constative and performative structure, as well as Raymond Williams’ championing of the significance of a text’s cultural material context, this article claims that Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is a political project that provides intervention for the democratic failures of America’s founding principles.</p>

POLITIK MODERAT: Studi Pemikiran Muhammad Sa’id Ramadhan al-Buthi

This paper discusses the thoughts of Muhammad Sa'id Ramadhan Al-Buthi in the political field. Al-Buthi is a figure that is considered by some to be controversial because it is close to the Al-Assad regime, which in fact the majority of scholars hate the Al-Assad regime which is considered wrong. This paper is the result of a study of several literary literature relating to Al-Buthi's political conception. In this case Al-Buthi places more emphasis on moderation which leads to the unity of a country. His socio-political experience in the struggle over political issues in Suriah led him to very moderate thinking. His rejection of the revolution and more agree with reform because of the comparative advantage of the two. Al-Buthi emphasizes more on how moderate politics he prioritizes the creation of unity in the state of the nation so that its benefits for citizens are met. In addition to his rejection of extreme ways of politics he also placed women's representation as part of a government

Ecological Virtue: Articulating Tolerance as a Mutual-Respect Between Human Being and Environment

This paper elaborates the meaning of eco-tolerance in the context of ecological community between human and environment. Tolerance is often discussed as theological conception related to the relationship between religion (religious virtue) or socio-political conception related to the relationship between community or identity (political virtue). But how to build a tolerant relationship between human and their environment? What kind of wisdom that we need? I discuss about tolerance as an ecological wisdom or, “ecological virtue”, and a need for human to become a moral subject who has an ecological insight. I will elaborate ethical arguments from the perspective of virtue ethics, one of important disciplines in normative ethics, and environmental ethics, the most important branch in applied ethics, which describe that humans really need to have a mindset of ecocentric oriented, be wise and respectful toward the nature and the environment, build a mutual respect relationship, tolerance is not only a main value in political community, but also a main value in ecological community in a mutual respect ecosystem atmosphere and the existence of mutual recognition between human and nature.