Bücher der Reihe Reframing the Boundaries: Thinking the Political

There are perpetual debates about the extent of freedom in politics. Are we free to choose? Are we overdetermined by our material conditions? Some hybrid between the two? In this text, Austin Hayden Smidt analyzes an oft-overlooked text by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to ground a logical framework for exploring this problem.

Situating Karl Mannheim in a tradition of critical social philosophy, Iaan Reynolds argues that Mannheim's early explorations in the sociology of knowledge offer a novel approach to this tradition since they emphasize the need for social research to cultivate the critical self-awareness of social researchers.

Europe is often discussed in the context of crisis, usually economic or political. Less prominent these days is Europe's spiritual crisis; an important topic throughout the previous century. Various catastrophes put in doubt the rationalist principles on which Europe had based itself. The current relativist intellectual and political climate can still be seen as an expression of this. Rather than following attempts to counter this via the restoration of a supposedly European essence (often in terms of Christianity or rationalism), this book attempts to think the crisis through to its end and to articulate the truth which manifests itself in it.The themes of this book - Europe, phenomenology and politics - share a concern with the crisis as the dissolution of the world, that is, the dissolution of a shared horizon of human existence. Among phenomenologists, Husserl and Patöka foremost have linked this problematic to reflections on the idea of Europe itself. They represent two distinct perspectives, corresponding to different historical situations. Nonetheless, what is presented here is not primarily the continuity between their thought and their historical circumstances, but rather the underexamined continuity between their phenomenology and their thought on Europe and politics.Applying phenomenology to politics, Husserl's and Patöka's thought are used to assess the justification for and limits of liberal and agonistic political philosophy respectively. By analysing the concrete ways in which our world is structured experientially, the limits of the ideal of rational reconciliation are shown. An alternative conception of politics is developed on the basis of the breakdown of Europe's rationalist ideal, that is, on the basis of the truth which manifests itself in Europe's crisis, without lapsing into a relativism where anything goes. This leads to an agonistic conception of liberal democracy based on Patöka's phenomenological concept of problematicity.

Using empirical research, this book critically analyses the dynamics, culture and forms of subjectivity of neo-liberalism. It draws upon existing historical, sociological and cultural studies to excavate the geneaology of the capitalist subject with specific emphasis on the neo-liberal govern-mental context of the last four decades. Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality, which he developed in his Collège de France lectures of 1978 and 1979, is employed as an hermeneutic key to historically situate and critically analyse the regimes of subject-formation characteristic of neo-liberal capitalism. The current crisis in capitalism is surveyed, along with earlier forms of capitalism, and the transition in power from discipline to control is explored. The study concludes by tracing the changing face of Homo Economicus in relation to resistance levelled against neo-liberal capitalism and the resultant metamorphises it has undergone. Drawing upon political philosophy and political economy, Benda Hofmeyr presents a comprehensive Foucaultian analysis and historical contextualisation of the rise of neo-liberal governmentality.

An examination of the moral and political aspects of the philosophical work of Jan Patöka, one of the most influential Central European philosophers of the twentieth century.

Grounded in the thought of two radical continental thinkers, Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida, this book presents a world-centric 'caring' conceptualisation of cosmopolitanism and forgiveness. It develops political theory of repairing and cultivating the relationships which constitute our human community.

There are perpetual debates about the extent of freedom in politics. Are we free to choose? Are we overdetermined by our material conditions? Some hybrid between the two? In this text, Austin Hayden Smidt analyzes an oft-overlooked text by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to ground a logical framework for exploring this problem.

This book offers productive new readings of Merleau-Ponty's political philosophy and of other facets of his thought.

By bringing Hannah Arendt's politics into dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas' ethics, this book develops an approach to the political that is relational, inclusive, and empowering.

Derrida and Foucault offers a major contribution to the interpretation of these two highly influentialthinkers. By tracing the moments where Derrida and Foucault's arguments converge but also where theydeviate, this book fundamentally recasts our understanding not only of these two philosophers, but of the political more broadly.

With a preface by Gianni Vattimo, this book offers both an overview of contemporary Italian philosophy and a new interpretation of Nietzsche's 'God is Dead' in connection with the notion of freedom as the original dynamic of the will to power.

This book offers a critical assessment of Axel Honneth's complex and growing opus in social and political philosophy. It examines this in the context of the history and future of the Frankfurt School and in its relation to contemporary analytic approaches to social and political philosophy as well as postmodernist critics.

Sren Kierkegaard is often cast as the forefather of existentialism and an anti-Hegelian proponent of the single individual. Yet this book calls these traditional characterizations into question by arguing that Kierkegaard offers not only a systematic critique of idealist philosophy, but more surprisingly, a political ontology that is paradoxically at home in the context of twenty-first-century philosophical and political thought.Through a close consideration of his authorship in the context of nineteenth-century German idealism, Michael ONeill Burns argues that Kierkegaard develops an ontology, anthropology and theory of the political that are outcomes of his critical appropriation of the philosophical projects of Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte. While starting out in the philosophical concerns of the nineteenth century, the book offers an interpretation of Kierkegaard that shows his relevance to philosophers and political theorists in the twenty-first century.

The Risk of Freedom presents an in-depth analysis of the philosophy of Jan Patocka, one of the most influential Central European thinkers of the twentieth century, examining both the phenomenological and ethical-political aspects of his work. In particular, Francesco Tava takes an original approach to the problem of freedom, which represents a recurring theme in Patocka's work, both in his early and later writings.Freedom is conceived of as a difficult and dangerous experience. In his deep analysis of this particular problem, Tava identifies the authentic ethical content of Patocka's work and clarifies its connections with phenomenology, history of philosophy, politics and dissidence. The Risk of Freedom retraces Patocka's philosophical journey and elucidates its more problematic and less evident traits, such as his original ethical conception, his political ideals and his direct commitment as a dissident.

This book aims to inscribe the prominent Soviet semiologist Yuri Lotman into the analysis of political forms and components of power as seen from the context of various Russian-European encounters.

Grounded in the thought of two radical continental thinkers, Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida, this book presents a world-centric 'caring' conceptualisation of cosmopolitanism and forgiveness. It develops political theory of repairing and cultivating the relationships which constitute our human community.