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Continental Political Philosophy

Continental Political Philosophy. What is continental political philosophy?. continental philosophy? • the concept will be treated ‘lightly’ in this course: - neither as a separate tradition or orientation, nor as anything exact (definable) at all - “that other philosophical discourse”.

malcolm-gonzales
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Continental Political Philosophy

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  1. Continental Political Philosophy What is continental political philosophy? continental philosophy? • the concept will be treated ‘lightly’ in this course: - neither as a separate tradition or orientation, nor as anything exact (definable) at all - “that other philosophical discourse” • (neg) discourses and themes not generally acknowledged and discussed within mainstream liberal political philosophy - for example: Rawlsian type theory of justice • (pos) the legacies of Marx and Heidegger (among others), their impact and relevance for contemporary political philosophy - those political philosophical discourses that start off and have developed from out of the 20th century French and German discourses - partly separately from the Anglo-American • Today: Anglo-American and continental more and more intertwined, especially in political philosophy

  2. What is continental political philosophy? phenomenology - Husserl, Heidegger - almost nothing of political philosophy as such (justice, equality, problem of political order, political institutions etc.) - implications for conceptions of the social (social ontology) Marx and Marxism hermeneutics - modern hermeneutics: Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur - important implications for conceptions of the social (social ontology) - some political philosophical discourse, esp. Ricoeur (French) phenomenological existentialism - Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, de Beauvoir - existential phenomenology still not a political philosophy - deeply politically involved thinkers - Merleau-Ponty: separate writings on politics and political philosophy (not phenomenology?, instead the question of Marxism) - Sartre: committed writing, philosophical engagement in contemporary politically relevant issues - de Beauvoir: The Second Sex (1949), (not political philosophy?), other writings on politics - in France especially after the Second World War - existentialism and Marxism? - Merleau-Ponty continues to discuss Marxism, few references to phenomenology - especially Sartre: Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960)

  3. What is continental political philosophy? Marx and Marxism phenomenology hermeneutics (French) phenomenological existentialism Arendt (German) critical social theory - Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse - social theory with a strong philosophical content - political philosophy as critique of society and of the present - no normative political philosophy in the classical sense • Habermas - incorporation of philosophy, critical social theory and sociology - engages with more classical political philosophical themes - debate with Rawls, mid 1990:ies - political philosophy of deliberative democracy - Honneth, Forst

  4. What is continental political philosophy? Marx and Marxism phenomenology hermeneutics (French) phenomenological existentialism Nietzsche (German) critical social theory Arendt Anglo-American critical theory: - Walzer, Young, Fraser, Benhabib from structuralism to post-structuralism • Althusser: structural Marxism • Derrida: deconstruction as critique of phenomenology - from sporadic engagement in ethics and political themes, to deep engagement (esp. 1990:ies onwards) => deconstruction and the political • Foucault: power and a critical ontology of the present - Lefort, Rancière, Badiou, Balibar - Butler - Laclau & Mouffe - Zizek - Hardt & Negri - a return to more classical political philosophical themes? • Deleuze&Guattari: “a prologue to anti-fascist thought” • Lyotard: The Postmodern Condition (1979) - strongly and explicitly political themes, not much of classical political philosophy!

  5. Some main areas of questions: • ontology/social ontology - how to understand social and political reality - ontology of human being and of life in ‘society’ • diagnosis of the times and social critique - a central theme of continental political philosophy - White: malignancy • the problem of normativity - how to justify normative conceptions - common to all of political philosophy - often left vague and unclear in continental political philosophy • the self-understanding of philosophical reflection - what can philosophy actually achieve and what should political philosophy do - critical reflection on this common in continental political philosophy => philosophical depth or ‘high-brow vagueness’? • history and the question of possibilities - the problem of social transformation - often a central theme in continental political philosophy - importance of the Marxist tradition

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