Suchergebnisse

Argues that Michel Foucault's genealogical method intends to reconfigure the relation between intellectual & political life &, thus, to displace four conventional approaches to these issues: (1) historical approaches that conceive of history in terms of progress or a panoply of alternatives to the present; (2) philosophical approaches bound to metaphysics; (3) policy advocacy that offers specific reforms or legislative proposals; & (4) political position taking on various conflicts, events, & policies. These approaches are described as modernist in that they seek to examine systems & point out their contradictions. Foucault's genealogical method pursues another avenue by asking how logics of power have produced the present, which opens a new political space in which it is possible to call the present into question. This space is to be distinguished from Foucault's particular political dispositions in that it has no necessary political entailments, but rather, simply affords a particular kind of discursive space for political thought & judgment. D. Ryfe

Considers the Marxist project in terms of a set of foundational myths similar to those propounded by its major nemesis, Christianity. In G. W. F. Hegel, the original Christian metaphysics undergoes a historicist revision such that the divine will evolve not in heaven, but in human history. Karl Marx turned this mythology on its head by translating it into social terms. In Marxism, social being came to replace being, absolute freedom was theorized as a process of social revolution, & heaven was replaced by a scheme of political organization -- communism. This mythology appealed to the European working classes because it offered them a radical & final release from their situation. It was disseminated through Leninist philosophy, which constructed a new set of social hierarchies on the basis of values that referred to a mythical future. The transition from an eschatology-oriented society in Eastern Europe toward a one-dimension liberal reality has consisted precisely in replacing the Marxist mythology with the institutions of the market & law. 10 References. D. Ryfe

Considers how the modern bureaucratic Canadian state assimilates the grievances of minority groups into its dominant legal discourse, drawing on several examples illustrating the conflict between the language of the aggrieved as Other & legal language. Included in these examples are discrimination suits filed against Seneca Coll & government treatment of aboriginal peoples. It is shown that the legal discourse of the state involved special cognate doctrines that render invisible the complaints of minority groups as they are experienced. Minority groups must therefore rely on lawyers to represent their interests, in the process transforming themselves into recognized, juridical persons. This juridical person is far removed from the embodied experienced of the aggrieved & is disconnected from the language that minority groups might employ to express their grievances. The objective & neutral positioning of the lawyer in legal discourse is achieved at the cost of perpetuating a metaphysics that leaves no room for the experiences or languages of minority groups. 21 References. D. M. Smith

Considers three current interpretations of Karl Marx's theory of social justice, labeled young Hegelian cryptonormativism; scientific antinormativism; & life-liberal cryptonormativism, respectively. In the first interpretation, Marx explicitly repudiates distributive notions of justice, yet appears to retain a belief in some notion of justice. This paradox is explained as a consequence of Marx's faith in a young Hegelian metaphysical philosophy in which justice is defined as the recovery of an unalienated species-being. In the second interpretation, it is argued that Marx rejects notions of distributive justice, not because he is a young Hegelian metaphysic, but because of his scientific analysis of capitalist exploitation. The third interpretation sees in Marx's paradoxical views on justice an ethical vision representative of a liberal-humanist quest for substantive freedom & individual self-realization. It is concluded that, while there is much to recommend in these three interpretations, several issues remain unresolved in their debates: the value of Marx's Hegel, the usefulness of Marx's theory of human nature; & Marx's conception of the relation between labor & freedom. 110 References. D. Ryfe

Am Beispiel der Arbeiten von Georg Simmel wird die systematische Verknüpfung von soziologischer Kulturtheorie und Geschlechtermetaphysik exemplarisch aufgezeigt. Ausgangspunkt von Simmels Theorie der soziokulturellen Evolution und der geschlechtlichen Differenzierung ist seine Auffassung, daß die ganze, moderne, auf dem okzidentalen Rationalismus und Intellektualismus beruhende Kulturentwicklung völlig einseitig durch ein "männliches Prinzip" geprägt sei. Darlegegt wird, daß Simmel selbst einen so einseitig auf das männlich-menschliche Geschlecht bezogenen Kulturbegriff vertritt, daß die Frage nach der Möglichkeit einer genuin weiblichen Kultur im objektiven Sinne im Grunde genommen bereits von den kategorialen Voraussetzungen her eindeutig nur negativ beantwortet werden kann. Abschließend wird angedeutet, welche eigentliche Funktion die metaphysische Überhöhung des Tatbestandes der geschlechtlichen Differenzierung innerhalb Simmels Kulturtheorie einnimmt. Das Interesse, welches Simmel dabei verfolgt, wird als post-moderner Impetus bezeichnet. (GF)