This paper explores Habermas's political philosophy of personal and collective identity and the role of constitution in building a post-national constellation in his political writings. Habermas's stances on European identity and the role that the European constitution-making process could have on the formation of aforementioned identity are reviewed, with responses to the no-demos thesis through his concept of constitutional patriotism. Author argues that constitutional patriotism and proceduralism in his political and legalistic observations seems to be the more realistic part of his discourse, while his search for European identity as pre-political viewpoint through the model of European political spheres still remains part of the idealistic vision. Adapted from the source document.
The author shows how Fichte's concept of the nation, although modern, originates in a long philosophical tradition that postulates the importance of the community above that of the individual. Fichte's original philosophy of humanity, inspired by enlightenment & especially Kant, he later transferred to the abstract ethical unit of nation. In it the concept of humanity (later 'nation') is the most general community toward which the individual aspires to become a member because of his longing for the absolute. The general understanding of nations transforms into Fichte's later philosophical hypostasis of the German nation. According to Fichte, only the German nation, as a community tied by a "living language" has general human importance & a world historical mission to be accomplished in the future. The German nation, however, must become a dynamic unit through elevating its people above political & social divisions. This occurs through the education of individuals for love of the nation, based on "true" philosophy (Fichte's philosophical teachings). The author concludes that the concept of a nation in Fichte's later works (in which the relationship between the individual & the state is an educational dictatorship & the complete destruction & individuality) creates a fertile ground for totalitarian, nationalistic ideology. 27 References. Adapted from the source document.
The author analyzes a late essay by Carl Schmitt, Hamlet or Hecuba, as Schmitt's attempt at an aesthetic recapitulation of his entire theoretical & political convictions. It is significant that Schmitt does not make any adjustments in his theoretical & political opinions, despite the historical failure of his ideas & despite the accumulated historical experience. The author highlights & interprets those aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy & Scheler's early phenomenology & anthropology that permanently influenced Schmitt &, consequently, his interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, ie, Nietzsche's & Scheler's definition of tragic & the fictional in human activity. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.
If it is true that a systematic understanding of modern society cannot be constituted without relying on the major works of the political thinking of modernity, the opposite is also true, ie., that none of those works cannot be properly understood unless from the viewpoint of a developed theory of modernity. In his General Theory of Modernity, Jacques Bidet points out that his metastructural theory of the modern epoch finally makes it possible to critically reexamine & reconstruct the entire "political metaphysics" of modernity. His intention is sufficiently (at the very least) outlined in his interpretations of Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau, Kant & Hegel. The author singles out Bidet's pregnant interpretation of Hobbes, & faces the question: what is to be done with the Leviathan? The first part of the article gives a detailed account of Bidet's basic hypotheses & insights into Hobbes' crucial role in finding an adequate conceptual definition of the logical starting point of exposition of the theory of modernity as a purely discursive relation in the formula of the social agreement. The second part puts forward a critical appraisal of Bidet's key reconstructional thesis that Hobbes' theory of authorization is perceived as the actual logical starting point of exposition of metastructural theory categories. In part three it is shown that Hobbes' theory of political representation & authorization could indeed be the starting point to a political theory of modernity (because it establishes man as the "author" of politics, & his representative or the sovereign as his "actor" or representative). In the author's judgment, Bidet's reconstructional thesis, which denies the epistemological status of the "natural state" as the first & most general concept in the sequence of exposition, is not valid. In the natural state, man's nature is not ahistorically postulated as that of a wolf; it is essentially dual. At issue here is primarily the modern man (and not merely man in general) in the epochal constellation wherein he, simultaneously & contradictorily, exists as a particular individual (bourgeois), which pursues his natural right, & as a moral subject (a Christian believer), which, as a being of conscience, fathoms & follows the imperatives of the natural or moral or divine laws. Precisely this duality, his inner cleavage of modern man, is also the starting supposition of Hobbes' theory of modernity encompassed in the key concept of the "natural state." In view of Bidet's argumentation, & relying above all on Zarka's fundamental interpretation of Hobbes' political philosophy as semiology of power, we are constantly faced with the Leviathan as an incomparable challenge to our cognitive faculty. Adapted from the source document.
The aim of this article, through an analysis of Veljko Vujacic's text & other pamphlets & manifestos by the Serbian political elite, was to show that the Serbian elite & the Serbian society have not got rid of their nationalist bias in explaining the events that led to the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. They claim that the main culprit for this failure was the communist national policy & the failure to use adequate means (meaning Rankovie's technology of violence) in order to preserve the unity of the state. The second part of the article serves to demonstrate how Weber's view on the politics of power does not suffice to explain away the bolshevist & the communist form of the populist Serbian nationalism. The moment when the former Yugoslav political elite split into the anticommunist & anticentralist on the one hand, & the bolshevist & the centralist on the other, there was no possibility for a compromise. The third part suggests that Vujacic (& not only he) thinks that a way of overcoming the Serbian "dominant" nationalism is the catharsis of Serbian intellectuals & the Serbian society. However, as the latest events & proclamations of the Serbian elite show, his is a solitary case. Adapted from the source document.
Husserl's concept & definition of the "living world" represents a sort of the pinnacle of his later philosophical works. In the form of a new universal science -- transcendental phenomenology -- & by defining the living world as -- for us -- an immediate & contiguous world, the known & acknowledged intersubjectivity, Husserl provides a critique of the modern age, ie, the domination of the paradigm of the objectivist sciences. Husserl's phenomenology also delves into the equally central political & social problems of the contemporary age; Husserl calls for the establishment of a new rationality in judging social & political issues. Particular attention is given to Husserl's vehement critique of antiliberalism as well as his novel relation I-we ie, the individual & the community or the state. Adapted from the source document.
In autumn 1795, Kant published his essay Treatise on Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Outline. In it he shows how reason is related to the historical nature of man. Can human knowledge become practical or does it only occur in the pure region of divinity, mathematics, & nature? Can human reason be operative in the sphere of public activity? In other words, the way reason relates to politics is analyzed. Kant's thesis is that peace is the foundation & the norm of the political, an opinion that makes him part of the long tradition of European humanistic thought. We examine The First & The Second Definitive Article on perpetual peace as well as The Second Appendix (The Secret Article of Perpetual Peace) & consider them as a sign of great respect & admiration for the Konigsberg philosopher. Kant's integral text will be published as a part of the Minerva series by the publishing firm Politicka kultura. Adapted from the source document.
In autumn 1795, Kant published his essay Treatise on Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Outline. In it he shows how reason is related to the historical nature of man. Can human knowledge become practical or does it only occur in the pure region of divinity, mathematics, & nature? Can human reason be operative in the sphere of public activity? In other words, the way reason relates to politics is analyzed. Kant's thesis is that peace is the foundation & the norm of the political, an opinion that makes him part of the long tradition of European humanistic thought. We examine The First & The Second Definitive Article on perpetual peace as well as The Second Appendix (The Secret Article of Perpetual Peace) & consider them as a sign of great respect & admiration for the Konigsberg philosopher. Kant's integral text will be published as a part of the Minerva series by the publishing firm Politicka kultura. Adapted from the source document.
The author claims that the concept of the separation of powers was known to writers of antiquity such as Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, & Cicero, who dealt with the question of the balance of power or the balance of different forms of government. In the modern age, liberal thinkers such as Montesquieu, Locke, Madison, & Hamilton postulated the principle of the tension between the opposing functions of the state as the foundation of a liberal & democratic constitutional system. The principle of separation or division of power has maintained its significance in the 20th-century democracies, despite the relativization of the role of the national state through the interdependence of the global society as well as the development of other principles & mechanisms of curtailing the power of the state (political parties, human rights, the autonomy of the mass media & of various social sectors). The author asserts that the principle of the separation of power is functioning today primarily as a form of labor division among various government institutions; this division gives rise to a miscellany of the participants' opinions & preferences. Adapted from the source document.
The author writes about Jefferson's political philosophy. There is no text by Jefferson that would set out a certain political issue. There are numerous texts of his, written in the course of fifty years, but a collage of them would not amount to a political theory or a doctrine. Jefferson was not interested in theoretical but solely in technical & practical issues. This makes him a typical 18th-century lawyer of the common law vein. Common law of that time was an amateur area, devoid of any technical or professional expertise & part of general moral principles. Jefferson was deft at formulating the widely held ideas of his time, embracing some century-old well-known political truths by Grotius, Milton, Locke, & Burlamaqui. The author suggests that Jefferson was first & foremost a statesman, & his judgments were politically tainted. Nevertheless, he was the most educated statesman ever among American presidents. Adapted from the source document.
To what extent is Marx's thought conceptually and analytically relevant for a systematic understanding of modern society -- this was the subject of the theoretical dialogue which engaged many researchers, including some of the most prominent ones. This text focuses on the theoretical critical confrontation of Dag Strpic (in the article "Market or Commodity Formation/Production of Society?", which is the third, partly reworked chapter of his book Karl Marx and the Political Economy of Modernity) with the philosophical project of reconstruction of Marx's science of history in Jacques Bidet's work What is To Be Done with "Capital"?. The discussion focused on two basic issues: the logical starting point and the character of exposition of Marx's theory of capital. Bidet advocates the thesis that commodity as Marx's starting point (Section I of Book I) is inadequate, and he demonstrates the non-dialectical ("genetic") character of the categorial exposition of the capitalist-way-of-production theory as a whole. In contrast therewith, Strpic demonstrates that the logical starting point of Marx's system is adequately apprehended as "commodity in general", if one perceives it from the viewpoint of the logic of the entire system and of the subject of his analysis as "capital in general". Bidet seeks to show that Marx, in defining the capital system logic, gradually abandoned, albeit inconsistently and only in part, the dialectical figures as epistemological obstacles. Strpic, on the other hand, shows what makes the Marxian modality of materialistic dialectics constitutive not only with regard to Marx's "critique", but also to the very reality of capitalist society and the possibility of surpassing it. Notwithstanding his agreement with Bidet and Strpic that a (truly indispensable) general theory of modernity can be constituted only through creative and interpretative relying on the great works of political thought of modernity, and his sincere commendation to both for their outstanding reading of Marx's work in this context, the author concludes in his final remarks that both are open to the following objection: their projects of a contemporary general theory of modernity, regardless of all aspects in which they differ, rely too much on further development of Marx's intention, and thereby lose from sight the fundamental "theological-political" problem, which Marx dissolves in the immanentism of the process of production/reproduction of the modern civil community. Adapted from the source document.
The aim of this article, through an analysis of Veljko Vujacic's text & other pamphlets & manifestos by the Serbian political elite, was to show that the Serbian elite & the Serbian society have not got rid of their nationalist bias in explaining the events that led to the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. They claim that the main culprit for this failure was the communist national policy & the failure to use adequate means (meaning Rankovie's technology of violence) in order to preserve the unity of the state. The second part of the article serves to demonstrate how Weber's view on the politics of power does not suffice to explain away the bolshevist & the communist form of the populist Serbian nationalism. The moment when the former Yugoslav political elite split into the anticommunist & anticentralist on the one hand, & the bolshevist & the centralist on the other, there was no possibility for a compromise. The third part suggests that Vujacic (& not only he) thinks that a way of overcoming the Serbian "dominant" nationalism is the catharsis of Serbian intellectuals & the Serbian society. However, as the latest events & proclamations of the Serbian elite show, his is a solitary case. Adapted from the source document.
