In “Tired of Science?! Notes on the Relationship between University and Society,” Michael Hüther insightfully updates a preoccupation of German intellectuals running back at least to Kant’s Conflict of the Faculties, the relationship between science and society, and so between “truth” and “politics,” and the extent to which an enlightened politics is even possible—but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves.
{"title":"From the Ivory Tower to the Football Stadium: A Rueful Response to Michael Hüther","authors":"David A. Westbrook","doi":"10.3817/0922200171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0922200171","url":null,"abstract":"In “Tired of Science?! Notes on the Relationship between University and Society,” Michael Hüther insightfully updates a preoccupation of German intellectuals running back at least to Kant’s Conflict of the Faculties, the relationship between science and society, and so between “truth” and “politics,” and the extent to which an enlightened politics is even possible—but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73208978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paul Kahn and Tim Luke base their claim that the United States is involved in a civil war on the implacability of the political differences between left and right that prevent any reconciliation. Arguing that the differences go beyond policy choices to questions of identity that are not subject to the compromises of party politics, they interpret recent examples of violence such as the January 6 Capitol riots as the rule rather than the exception. Yet in indicating that we are in an indefinite state of exception, they obscure the moment of decision that is part of the exception. Kahn notes that war is the opposite of the sovereign ability to decide. But a state of indecision is not in fact a state of war. It is just a lack of clear sovereignty that can last indefinitely until a sovereign emerges who is able to establish a decision. The state of war only results when two competing sovereigns emerge and both attempt to decide on a state of exception, that is to say, both are able to mobilize people to kill and die to establish their understanding of their identity.1 The United States is still very far away from this scenario. As Mark G. E. Kelly notes, the institutions of the United States are still functioning properly, and even if there is rhetoric on both sides that rejects election results, the outcomes of elections have been honored in practice and the mechanisms of government continue to function without problem. There is no immediate paralysis that would indicate a state of indecision, and there is not even the prospect of competing sovereigns who would both declare states of exception to begin a war.
保罗·卡恩(Paul Kahn)和蒂姆·卢克(Tim Luke)声称,美国卷入了一场内战,原因是左翼和右翼之间不可调和的政治分歧阻碍了任何和解。他们认为,这种差异超越了政策选择,而是身份问题,不受政党政治妥协的影响。他们将最近发生的暴力事件(如1月6日国会大厦骚乱)解释为普遍现象,而不是例外。然而,在表明我们处于一种不确定的例外状态时,它们模糊了作为例外的一部分的决定时刻。卡恩指出,战争是主权决策能力的对立面。但优柔寡断的状态实际上并不是战争状态。它只是缺乏明确的主权,这种主权可以无限期地持续下去,直到出现一个能够制定决策的主权。战争状态只有在两个相互竞争的主权国家出现时才会产生,并且都试图决定一种例外状态,也就是说,双方都能够动员人民杀戮和死亡,以建立他们对自己身份的理解美国离这种情况还很遥远。正如马克·g·e·凯利(Mark G. E. Kelly)所指出的那样,美国的制度仍在正常运转,即使双方都在口头上反对选举结果,但选举结果在实践中得到了尊重,政府机制继续正常运转。目前还没有出现表明优柔寡断的立即瘫痪状态,甚至不可能出现主权国家相互竞争,双方都宣布进入例外状态以发动战争的情况。
{"title":"The Underlying Unity of the American People","authors":"D. Pan","doi":"10.3817/0322198159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0322198159","url":null,"abstract":"Paul Kahn and Tim Luke base their claim that the United States is involved in a civil war on the implacability of the political differences between left and right that prevent any reconciliation. Arguing that the differences go beyond policy choices to questions of identity that are not subject to the compromises of party politics, they interpret recent examples of violence such as the January 6 Capitol riots as the rule rather than the exception. Yet in indicating that we are in an indefinite state of exception, they obscure the moment of decision that is part of the exception. Kahn notes that war is the opposite of the sovereign ability to decide. But a state of indecision is not in fact a state of war. It is just a lack of clear sovereignty that can last indefinitely until a sovereign emerges who is able to establish a decision. The state of war only results when two competing sovereigns emerge and both attempt to decide on a state of exception, that is to say, both are able to mobilize people to kill and die to establish their understanding of their identity.1 The United States is still very far away from this scenario. As Mark G. E. Kelly notes, the institutions of the United States are still functioning properly, and even if there is rhetoric on both sides that rejects election results, the outcomes of elections have been honored in practice and the mechanisms of government continue to function without problem. There is no immediate paralysis that would indicate a state of indecision, and there is not even the prospect of competing sovereigns who would both declare states of exception to begin a war.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80588984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
State sovereignty has a complicated relationship to individual rights. They are clearly in opposition, and both left-wing anarchist and right-wing libertarian critiques of the state have attempted to defend individual freedoms against the power of the state. Yet more traditional liberals and conservatives often see the state as the guarantor of individual rights, the left looking to the state as a provider of welfare services to the disadvantaged, and neoconservatives defending state power as the guarantor of individual rights against foreign aggressors as well as domestic enemies. These four different approaches map out a political landscape that is divided not just into left–right but also into pro- and anti-state tendencies.
{"title":"Introduction: The Modern City in World Cinema","authors":"D. Pan","doi":"10.3817/0322198003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0322198003","url":null,"abstract":"State sovereignty has a complicated relationship to individual rights. They are clearly in opposition, and both left-wing anarchist and right-wing libertarian critiques of the state have attempted to defend individual freedoms against the power of the state. Yet more traditional liberals and conservatives often see the state as the guarantor of individual rights, the left looking to the state as a provider of welfare services to the disadvantaged, and neoconservatives defending state power as the guarantor of individual rights against foreign aggressors as well as domestic enemies. These four different approaches map out a political landscape that is divided not just into left–right but also into pro- and anti-state tendencies.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75825792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
China and the West. I have accepted this assignment, to write something about “China and the West.”1 It calls for a deep breath. How to construe it? Of course the topic is a construct. Who calls for there to be such a topic, who needs it, who wishes it into being, in order to make what happen?
{"title":"“China and the West” as Lore and Lure","authors":"Haun Saussy","doi":"10.3817/0622199057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0622199057","url":null,"abstract":"China and the West. I have accepted this assignment, to write something about “China and the West.”1 It calls for a deep breath. How to construe it? Of course the topic is a construct. Who calls for there to be such a topic, who needs it, who wishes it into being, in order to make what happen?","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75532307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Preamble My choice of “antinomy” with regard to the predicament of the refugees is a reference to Kant’s philosophy. For Kant, “reason’s natural illusions are not merely revealed by subtle philosophical analysis but unavoidably manifest themselves in the form of actual contradictions each side of which seems . . . plausible.” In a similar vein, the antinomies of refugee reason are not merely the results of a theoretical exercise but forms of “actual contradictions.” To overcome the impasse of the antinomies, Kant recommended adapting the key distinction of transcendental idealism between appearances and things in themselves. This solution might be tempting, for instance, when brought to bear on refugee subalternity, which could be resolved by conceding that the sociopolitical construction of their existence “for us” does not get at their being in and for themselves. (As a matter of fact, the backdrop for Spivak’s notion of subalternity is thoroughly Kantian, in that no representation is able to express the being of the represented, which endures as a kind of oppressed and mute thing in itself.) Here, however, we exhaust the usefulness of Kant and must turn to Hegel and Marx. That is to say, we must dialectically affirm the nonillusory nature and necessity of self-contradiction (Hegel), as well as insist on tackling actual contradictions in actuality, in and through political practice (Marx). Needless to say, the ambit of this practice ought to be significantly wider than the refugee question: it would need to occupy itself with
{"title":"The Antinomies of Refugee Reason","authors":"M. Marder","doi":"10.3817/0322198113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0322198113","url":null,"abstract":"Preamble My choice of “antinomy” with regard to the predicament of the refugees is a reference to Kant’s philosophy. For Kant, “reason’s natural illusions are not merely revealed by subtle philosophical analysis but unavoidably manifest themselves in the form of actual contradictions each side of which seems . . . plausible.” In a similar vein, the antinomies of refugee reason are not merely the results of a theoretical exercise but forms of “actual contradictions.” To overcome the impasse of the antinomies, Kant recommended adapting the key distinction of transcendental idealism between appearances and things in themselves. This solution might be tempting, for instance, when brought to bear on refugee subalternity, which could be resolved by conceding that the sociopolitical construction of their existence “for us” does not get at their being in and for themselves. (As a matter of fact, the backdrop for Spivak’s notion of subalternity is thoroughly Kantian, in that no representation is able to express the being of the represented, which endures as a kind of oppressed and mute thing in itself.) Here, however, we exhaust the usefulness of Kant and must turn to Hegel and Marx. That is to say, we must dialectically affirm the nonillusory nature and necessity of self-contradiction (Hegel), as well as insist on tackling actual contradictions in actuality, in and through political practice (Marx). Needless to say, the ambit of this practice ought to be significantly wider than the refugee question: it would need to occupy itself with","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87457504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contemplation in a Restless Age: Byung-Chul Han on Ritual","authors":"S. Knepper","doi":"10.3817/0622199189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0622199189","url":null,"abstract":"Byung-Chul Han, The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present. Translated by Daniel Steuer. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020. Pp. vi + 104.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82366521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thank you for inviting me to the Telos Conference. Unlike most of you, I am not a philosopher. I was trained as a historian. Some of you though may consider that to be, by definition, a failed philosopher.
{"title":"Escape from Civilization’s Predicaments","authors":"Miles Yu","doi":"10.3817/1222201051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/1222201051","url":null,"abstract":"Thank you for inviting me to the Telos Conference. Unlike most of you, I am not a philosopher. I was trained as a historian. Some of you though may consider that to be, by definition, a failed philosopher.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82608793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Dialogue between Kukai and John Scotus Eriugena The Japanese philosopher and calligrapher Kukai (774–835), founder of esoteric Shingon Buddhism, talks to John Scotus Eriugena (800–877), an Irish philosopher and the author of The Division of Nature, who held that nature includes the things that are and the things that are not.
{"title":"Dialogues","authors":"Wayne Hudson","doi":"10.3817/0922200195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0922200195","url":null,"abstract":"A Dialogue between Kukai and John Scotus Eriugena The Japanese philosopher and calligrapher Kukai (774–835), founder of esoteric Shingon Buddhism, talks to John Scotus Eriugena (800–877), an Irish philosopher and the author of The Division of Nature, who held that nature includes the things that are and the things that are not.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87897381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has signaled the emergence of nationstate politics as the new basis of global order. Gone is the hope that globalization would establish a world of interlocking trade relationships to mediate between regions and cultures in order to establish a liberal order of peace and prosperity. On the one hand, the benefits of trade have created opportunities to use trade as a means of coercion that is being used on both sides of the conflict. On the other hand, economic globalization is now being rolled back in such a way that the global economy will be structured more along the lines of political antagonisms. But as opposed to the Cold War, in which the ideological conflict was defined as capitalism vs. communism, or to the post–Cold War era, in which liberal democracy set itself against authoritarianism, the conflict is now between competing nationalisms. Russia has relied on the notion of the civilizational state to support its claims on Ukrainian territory, but in fact the appeal is to Russian nationalism as the basis for a nation-based imperialism in the tradition of Napoleon and Hitler. But as with Napoleon in Spain or indeed in Russia, the Russian nationalist expansion into Ukraine is itself engendering the development of a Ukrainian nationalism that is seeking to ally itself with Europe in order to make its nationalist claims.
{"title":"The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Rise of the Nation-State","authors":"D. Pan","doi":"10.3817/0622199171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/0622199171","url":null,"abstract":"The Russian invasion of Ukraine has signaled the emergence of nationstate politics as the new basis of global order. Gone is the hope that globalization would establish a world of interlocking trade relationships to mediate between regions and cultures in order to establish a liberal order of peace and prosperity. On the one hand, the benefits of trade have created opportunities to use trade as a means of coercion that is being used on both sides of the conflict. On the other hand, economic globalization is now being rolled back in such a way that the global economy will be structured more along the lines of political antagonisms. But as opposed to the Cold War, in which the ideological conflict was defined as capitalism vs. communism, or to the post–Cold War era, in which liberal democracy set itself against authoritarianism, the conflict is now between competing nationalisms. Russia has relied on the notion of the civilizational state to support its claims on Ukrainian territory, but in fact the appeal is to Russian nationalism as the basis for a nation-based imperialism in the tradition of Napoleon and Hitler. But as with Napoleon in Spain or indeed in Russia, the Russian nationalist expansion into Ukraine is itself engendering the development of a Ukrainian nationalism that is seeking to ally itself with Europe in order to make its nationalist claims.","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87213488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"China Shakes the World: A Revolutionary Remaking of the International Order","authors":"Gordon G. Chang","doi":"10.3817/1222201038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3817/1222201038","url":null,"abstract":"“We are now living in a totally new era,” Henry Kissinger said in May 2022 in an interview with the Financial Times)1","PeriodicalId":43573,"journal":{"name":"Telos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77956513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}