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As a philosophical agenda, the West draws on the liberal tradition. However, as a political project, the West involves state power and the formation of an interstate alliance. Here, Pan gets at the question on whether there is tension between the liberalism of individual rights and its unavoidable corollary, the politics of state power, through a reading of two German political thinkers, Jurgen Habermas as the theorist of the liberal public sphere and communicative rationality, and Carl Schmitt with his focus on the originary violence of political order. Even liberal democratic states depend on force; even the rational West has to be able to recognize its opponents and decide to resist them. Advocates for democracy should be prepared to defend it, but the deployment of violence is not inherently democratic: engaged in battle, soldiers do not call for a vote with the enemy. Furthermore, a key point in his account involves a reading of Goethe's bildungsroman, Wilhelm Meister, and how it famously stages the conflict between bourgeois life, ie, liberal democratic culture, and the aesthetic representation of power. His account thereby highlights some of the immanent tensions within the West. Even democratic states require power and strategies of representation. Adapted from the source document.

Pan argues that the status of the NSA is changing profoundly due to the Internet and the corollary transformation of the public sphere. While Edward Snowden's revelations were indeed a turning point, this sudden forcing of the NSA into the limelight of American politics after its history of secrecy has ultimately been the result of a long-term process in which it has had to adapt to the blurring of the border between private and public in both its foreign intelligence and domestic security missions. Adapted from the source document.

Pan explores politics as representation--rather than as violence--by identifying the ethical context and popular support for decisions. The state of exception involves competing conceptions of culture, among which the sovereign must decide, and the validity of this decision depends upon the ability of the national community to act as a viable political entity. The decision establishes values by creating a unique and substantive form that translates the popular will--which preexists the decision and therefore constrains the sovereign--into an institutional framework. Therefore, a cultural and partially aesthetic representational aspect precedes the foundational moment of politics.

In this contribution to "The Genealogy of Terrorism," Pan addresses the work of Ernst Junger, noting that many earlier studies confirm Junger's assessment of the individual as a defense against nationalist repression, & thus that individualism & nationalism are mutually exclusive concepts. But were his books complicit with the rise of Nazism, as their eradication of the individual seem to indicate? Pan contends that Junger's recognition of the individual's limitations is a fundamental basis of European modernism, not merely an element of the right wing. In fact, a key issue in Junger's The Worker (1932) is the link between individualism & nationalism. His "worker type" represents a new type of subjectivity, in opposition to the bourgeois identity, which is suited to mobilization for a national project. In this light, to die while participating in a nationalist project represents not the individual's subordination to the project, but rather his apotheosis. Adapted from the source document.

Explores Carl Schmitt's theory of decisionism to argue that his work is permeated by a cultural & ethical conception of politics. Schmitt illustrates how culture & ethics guide human actions & shape political structures. The notion that cultural & ethical ideals are inseparable from the decisionist moment is explored, along with his idea of legitimacy; forces in the state of exception; the link between decision & the collective will; Schmitt's optimism about popular support; & decision as constitutive of law. Differences between external & internal aspects of decisionism are pointed out. In spite of certain problematic assumptions & his bias toward a nation-state perspective on the political, it is concluded that Schmitt's concept of the decision is a compelling way to understand how the "foundations of a political order begin as the manifestation in the world of a particular idea of the general good that must establish itself against competing ideas." Schmitt's decisionist framework "provides tools for approaching the contingent character of political identity in a world of conflicting cultures.". J. Lindroth

Compares art historian Carl Einstein's (1885-1940) critique of modernity with that of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) to explore the modern belief in human achievement, & a primitive awe of mythic fate, as two basic perspectives that defined the 20th-century development of German culture. Both men were interested in the relationship between art & religious forms, but Einstein's writings are relatively unknown, while Benjamin's work has enjoyed a recent revival. Benjamin's concept of modernity is rooted in a progressivist consciousness that accepts evolution from a traditional to a modern world, while Einstein's primitivist rejection of an evolutionary understanding of differences between tradition & modernity led him to see them as "opposite poles of a constant conflict within human society." Benjamin claims collective experience can no longer be transmitted by storytelling & turns to modern methods to relieve the resulting alienation. Einstein's position is conversely based on the assumption that the position of the modern to the outside world is no different than that of the primitive. These distinctions are demonstrated in the two men's readings of fascist cult rituals. J. Lindroth

Max Horkheimer & Theodor Adorno's presentation of an aesthetic understanding of truth is examined. Although Horkheimer & Adorno are deemed successful in offering a myth-based alternative to the alienation caused by modernity, it is contended that Adorno's later works fail to expand his critique of modernity. Adorno's theory of art, based on the contention that individuals must dominate nature, is compared to that offered by Friedrich Nietzsche. Moreover, Adorno's understanding of the sublime is contrasted to Immanuel Kant's notion of natural beauty. Although Adorno uses the concept of utopia, not religion, to achieve transcendence, it is stated that he fails to acknowledge the necessary role of the "divine" in creating the sublime. Adorno's differentiation of the structures of art & myth is questioned, since the authority of both concepts is dependent on mimesis. It is concluded that Adorno's notion of transcendence is ultimately flawed because of its tautological nature; nevertheless, his project of forging an aesthetic notion of truth is deemed a worthwhile pursuit for future scholars. J. W. Parker

Reports on a 1996 conference on the future of higher education sponsored by the Telos Instit at California State U, Chico. The cultural mission of the university proved to be a particularly contentious topic for Christian conservatives & multiculturalists. It is suggested that both sides risk attributing too much importance to higher education as a means of cultural socialization. Moreover, while scholars debate the merits of different cultural programs, the wider public has increasingly demanded that the university reorient itself to practical forms of knowledge. It is likely that higher education will become dominated by the concerns of the general public at the costs of the interests of university professors & administrators. If so, the current culture war between multiculturalists & their adversaries will be superseded by one pitting academics against the populace. D. Ryfe

Traces the emergence of modern colleges & universities & the conception of universal knowledge to which they have been wedded. The early US college system was modeled on the English system as a set of institutions connected to specific social groups & the dissemination of their worldview. This system was slowly eroded through the 19th century by a conception of universal knowledge inherited from the Enlightenment that viewed the world not thorugh a particular religious perspective, but as an integrated totality that might be subject to human conceptualization. This view created a knowledge-values distinction that still remains part of the modern university system. In this intellectual climate, the German model of the research university replaced the English college model, forming the basis for the professionalization of university teachers & a gradual turn to theoretical over practical research issues manifested in the culture wars being waged in & over disciplines such as the humanities. Max Weber's (1949) critique of the knowledge-values distinction is employed to indicate how & why the university has come under outside pressure. To resolve dilemmas associated with the trend toward greater fragmentation, it is concluded that university research ought to be separated from teaching, thus returning the college to its traditional role of teaching skills & imparting values. D. Ryfe