1,721,133 research outputs found
La città divisa. Esperienza del conflitto e novità politica in Niccolò Machiavelli
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Filosofia e passione politica: lo Spinoza di Matheron e lo spinozismo a venire
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Tanta stat prædita culpa. Aristotele, Lucrezio e l’antifinalismo in Guillaume Lamy
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The language of monsters: Fanon on power and violence
No full textIn this article I deal with various aspects of the relationship between politics and violence, with a specific emphasis on the mediation of language. More specifically, I want to show through a consideration of Frantz Fanon’s thought how power always employs violence in and through a language, a grammar, a syntax. Yet, I will also point out how the language itself is a fundamental theoretical kernel in which a vital resistance to power, both ontological and political, is expressed. The violence of power, even in its most extreme forms, is always employed through an action on language. Nevertheless, certain political philosophers have offered a different perspective concerning the relationship between language and power. Defining resistance as the basic characteristic of politics, they have pointed out that the conflict with power takes place also within language. Language becomes a real theoretical battlefield through which it is possible to think a different role and meaning for violence. It is Fanon’s theoretical and political writings that can help us define a different conception of violence. Through an analysis of these works, I will reveal what for power is the “monstrous” character of resistance as well as its relation to the language of violence
The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli
Full text linkAll students of Western political thought encounter Niccolò Machiavelli's work. Nevertheless, his writing continues to puzzle scholars and readers who are uncertain how to deal with the seeming paradoxes they encounter.
The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli is a clear account of Machiavelli’s thought, major theories and central ideas. It critically engages with his work in a new way, one not based on the problematic Cambridge-school approach. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Machiavelli’s ideas, it is the ideal companion to the study of this influential and challenging philosopher.
Key Features
•Introduces Machiavelli’s life and the historical and theoretical context within which he developed his ideas
•Detailed examinations Machiavelli's most commonly encountered texts, including The Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine Histories and The Art of War
•Critically analyses Machiavelli’s most important concepts and shows how they continue to reverberate within Western political philosophy Pays particular attention to Machiavelli's language and central themes such as Virtue, Fortune, Conflict, History and Religio
Freedom, equality and conflict: Rousseau on Machiavelli
Full text linkRousseau’s praise for Machiavelli in the Social Contract goes along with his condemnation of partial association and political conflicts. Yet Machiavelli builds his theory precisely around the idea of the constructive role of conflicts, seeing the irreducible multiplicity of the many as the source of a positive conflictuality. Is the ontological primacy of Rousseau’s singularity in the general will compatible with the political primacy of Machiavelli’s conflictual multiplicity? By exploring Rousseau’s strategy in his use of Machiavelli, I will argue that the key to interpreting the ambiguities of Rousseau’s reading lies in the evaluation of the differences in the relationship between multiplicity and singularity in both authors. While the people produces an immanent and conflictualistic ground for power in Machiavelli, in Rousseau it is subjected to a transcendent process of ontological submission to the general will
Democracy, ‘Multitudo’ and the Third Kind of Knowledge in Spinoza
No full textIn Spinoza, what I call (adapting a phrase from J.-L. Nancy) the ‘Being Individual Multiple’ is the multitudo. Its form of life is Democracy, understood as the autonomous and conflictual organization of collective dynamics and not one form of government among others. Combining an original mode of argumentation with a critical discussion of opposing interpretations, I maintain that democracy is the translation into politics of the third and highest kind of knowledge in Spinoza, intuitive science. I argue moreover that the multitudo self-organized in a democracy has the capacity to experiment and express a different rationality with respect to the singular individual. Wisdom and democracy thus converge to give life to something unknown and original in western political modernity
Spinoza and constituent power
Full text linkThis article considers Baruch Spinoza’s contribution to a theory of constituent power. Modern theories of constituent power generally agree on its paradoxical essence: a power that comes before the law and founds the law is at the same time a power that, once the juridical sphere is established, has to be obliterated by the law. Spinoza’s ontology has been recognised as one of the early modern sources of constituent power, yet he argues for a strict equivalence between law and power. This article argues that by reading Spinoza’s political theory through the lens of a radical immanence between ontology and history, we can understand him as a source for a theory of constituent power. It also argues that, through this immanence, Spinoza’s thought offers a solution to the paradox of constituent power and enriches contemporary discussions on the origin of juridical sphere and the relationship between politics and law
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