Populism, Liberalism and the Eclipse of Emotion

I argue that the way philosophy conceives of the political subject fails to understand the populist subject. In Section I, I shall sketch an ambiguity in how Hobbes conceives of the political subject as both driven by the passions and yet capable of rationally subduing them. In Section II, I argue that these two different conceptions of the will lead to different models of political representation. In Section III, I offer an sketch of some of the ways the Hobbesian picture of the mind as fueled by the passions has been eschewed by modern liberal philosophy. Finally, in Section IV, I offer an account of two features of populism which seem to me to suggest that the Humean model of the will is appropriate to understand certain essential features of populist politics.

HOW DEMOCRACY AFFECTS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN MUSLIM MAJORITY COUNTRIES

For understanding how democracy affects religious freedom in Muslim majority countries, Indonesia and Pakistan are the best case studies because they are top two countries in terms of the Muslim population and the both have experienced democratic and dictatorial regimes. In liberal philosophy ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’, which includes the religious liberty and equality are considered fundamental political values that define the core principles of liberal democracy. Therefore, it could be hypothesized that the religious minorities in Indonesia and Pakistan should have experienced more religious freedom during the democratic phases. This paper explains how a regime type (democracy) affects the religious freedom of minorities in Muslim majority countries. Does the personality of the ruler and his political vision matter as well? How the religious groups and religious parties exploit majoritarian principles of democracy to put hurdles in religious freedom?

An Archaic Layer of the Russian Revolution in the Ideological Field of Russian Religious Philosophy

This paper attempts to find out how the entire preceding course of Russian history predetermined the October Revolution’s outcome. With this aim, the structures and character of the Russian Revolution were analyzed by comparing the basic tenets of the theory of modified inversion cycles of historical development, introduced by the Russian sociologist A.S. Akhiezer, with the philosophical ideas of the representatives of Russian religious philosophy. It was suggested that the dominant Universalist view of revolution, with its idealization, should be replaced by M. Foucault’s singular “intermittent” method. As a result, the ideological affinity between the views of the modern liberal historical project on the Russian Revolution and the basic ideas of the philosophers of the Silver Age of Russian culture was revealed. Particular attention was paid to the “underdeveloped and undisclosed” character of personality in Russia (as understood by N.A. Berdyaev), which manifested itself most clearly in the phenomenon of the Revolution of 1917 and led to the triumph of pre-state and pre-political ideals of a traditional society. The legacy of Russian religious philosophy was reinterpreted by comparing it with the ideas of modern liberal philosophy of history.

The Antinomies of Academic Freedom

This article challenges the dominant conception of academic freedom by critiquing the liberal philosophy that underpins it. The article uses recent issues around trans rights in both public and academic librarianship to show how the dominant liberal conception of academic freedom supports transphobia. It then uses Antonio Negri's theory of consituent power to offer an alternative perspective on academic freedom and how this alternative conception might better support trans rights in universities and libraries.

Islam, Rawls, and the Disciplinary Limits of Late Twentieth-Century Liberal Philosophy

This article tells the archival story of how Rawls invented a hypothetical Muslim state that he called “Kazanistan.” It examines drafts of The Law of Peoples from 1992 to 1998, Rawls's notes, his personal correspondence, and the sources preserved in his archives. I track Rawls's gradual interest in Islam, which resulted in his invention of Kazanistan during the final revisions, in March 1998. Contrary to the aesthetics of rigor and simplicity in ideal theory's methods, Rawls's actual method in his incursion into “comparative philosophy” and Islam was circuitous and contingent. And contrary to ideal theory's self-presentation as emerging from an ahistorical conceptual realm, the idealized abstraction of Islam emerges from Rawls's own history, or from an ideologically limited set of texts, conversations, and political debates about Islam. The genealogy of Kazanistan illustrates how liberal philosophy extracts data from other disciplines to construct other peoples, without regard for the surrounding disciplinary politics.

A ‘LESS THAN ENTHUSIASTIC’ FRIENDSHIP: JOHN MORLEY, GEORGE ELIOT, AND GEORGE HENRY LEWES

For roughly a decade, John Morley enjoyed a warm and deferential sociality with George Henry Lewes and George Eliot. The basis for their friendship was the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte, which initially held great appeal to Morley, who had lost his religious faith while studying as an undergraduate at Balliol, Oxford. While Lewes and Eliot’s views on Comte were largely fixed by middle age, Morley, still in his twenties, was searching for a substitute belief system. As Morley began to embrace the liberal philosophy of (and form a friendship with) John Stuart Mill, who had declared himself to be an antagonist of Comte’s, Morley, Lewes, and Eliot increasingly held less in common. This lack of commonality gave Morley the critical distance to reassess the couple both personally and intellectually. Embracing a new philosophy and divergent aesthetic preferences, Morley developed an equivocal view of his friends, roughly two decades his senior. Utilizing letters, diary entries, published writings, and a previously untranslated document in French, this essay provides a complex portrait of an intergenerational friendship among three nineteenth-century intellectuals.

INTEGRATING THE IDEAS OF THE LIBERAL PHILOSOPHY OF TOLERANCE INTO THE DIMENSIONS OF MODERN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

The article presents the results of theoretical and scientific research of the ways of application of basic theoretical and methodological concepts formed in the field of tolerance research by developers and followers of liberal philosophical direction through integration of these ideas into the dimensions of modern inclusive education. Describes and analyses the problems of formation and development of the phenomenon of tolerance in the paradigm of the liberal philosophical direction. The range of these studies is focused on current trends in tolerance in the context of development of the collective consciousness of a civil society. The attempt is made to make distinctions between the definitions of "tolerance" and "indulgence". The current tendencies of tolerance in the context of formation of the state system on democratic principles, based on the need for peaceful and legal resolution of conflicts, understanding and realization of civil liberties of individuals and various social groups, avoidance of discrimination and civil society development are studied and updated. The internal contradictory nature of tolerance is argued, through the following provisions: unlimited indulgence leads to the disappearance of indulgence; tolerant do not tolerate the intolerable, tolerance combines ideas and interests that contradict each other. Particular attention is paid to revealing of prospects for development of inclusion in the modern educational environment as one of the main components of formation of an active tolerant position in a society. The list of necessary competences which provide comfortable interaction of norm-typical children with children with possible educational needs is resulted. Some criteria for manifestation of an active tolerant attitude to inclusion in the general educational environment are proposed. Given the complexity and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of tolerance, the main purpose of the study was to clarify the main ideas of the liberal philosophy of the concept of tolerance, as well as to identify the prospects for inclusion as a separate manifestation of tolerance in education. To achieve this goal the following tasks were implemented: specifying the essential parameters of the definition of "tolerance"; outlining the problem field of tolerance research in liberal philosophical discourse; study of vectors of integration of the philosophical continuum of tolerance to the measurement of the modern space of inclusive education. The objectivity of the theoretical analysis of the obtained results is taken into account and observed through the use of general scientific research methods, which are represented by the following system: historical and logical method - to study the formation of the concept of tolerance in liberal philosophical thought; system approach - to identify contradictions in the internal mechanisms of the phenomenon of tolerance and approach to understanding their interaction; comparison and systematization to make distinctions between the definitions of "tolerance" and "indulgence"; abstraction and generalization - to highlight the phenomenon of tolerance as an active position of the subjects of the pedagogical process in the terms of inclusion; analysis and synthesis - to study the specifics of tolerance in the context of an inclusive educational environment and the integration of indicators of "tolerance in action" in the framework of the worldview dimension of a modern society.

Conservative Anarchism. French Critics of the “Anthropological Mistake”

G. Orwell once called himself “anarchist tory”, the collocation “anthropological mistake” belongs to British theologian J. Milbank, characterizing so liberal thought. These expressions are used today by two French philosophers, Jean-Claude Michea and Alain de Benoist. Though they came from oppos­ing political camps, both are ready to define themselves “populists” and “conservative anarchists”. Their common enemy is contemporary liberalism. This article is a description of this polemics, espe­cially with liberal anthropology. Their difference with many critics of political or economic liberal­ism lies in their belief that liberalism is a totality, and the core of all the aspects of this doctrine (economy, law, politics) is represented by the vision of man in liberal philosophy, which have a long history. This genealogy of liberalism, proposed by French thinkers, is the main theme of the article.