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8. Radical democracy

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The History of Continental Philosophy
This chapter is in the book The History of Continental Philosophy
1698radical democracyLasse Th omassenTh e term “radical democracy” refers to new ways of thinking about demo-cratic politics beyond essentialist foundations. Radical democrats question not only existing liberal democratic institutions, but also the idea of essential universal foundations on which democracy could be based. Inspired by post-structuralist theories of language and identity, and by poststructuralists such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan, a number of thinkers have attempted to rethink democracy along radical lines from about 1980 onward. Th ese radical democrats include, among others, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouff e, William E. Connolly, and Slavoj Žižek. Inspired by poststructuralist theories of language and identity, these authors have sought to rethink what radical politics means aft er poststructuralism.1What, then, is radical democracy, and what is radical about it? We can think of the “radical” of radical democracy in two related ways. First, we may note the etymological root of the word, namely the Latin “radix,” root. Th e radical, then, pertains to the root, to what is fundamental. If we are to think of radical democracy as aiming at the roots and the foundations of democracy, the idea is not to provide a new foundation for democracy, for instance by showing that past and present foundations (natural rights, utility, species being, and so on) 1. For a good introduction to radical democracy, see Aletta J. Norval, “Radical Democracy,” in Encyclopedia of Democratic Th ought, P. Barry Clarke and Joe Foweraker (eds) (London: Routledge, 2001). See also the contributions to the following edited volumes: Chantal Mouff e (ed.), Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism and Citizenship (London: Verso, 1992); Lars Tønder and Lasse Th omassen (eds), Radical Democracy: Politics between Abundance and Lack (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005); and David Trend (ed.), Radical Democracy: Identity, Citizenship and the State (London: Routledge, 1996).Volume7
© 2019 University of Chicago Press

1698radical democracyLasse Th omassenTh e term “radical democracy” refers to new ways of thinking about demo-cratic politics beyond essentialist foundations. Radical democrats question not only existing liberal democratic institutions, but also the idea of essential universal foundations on which democracy could be based. Inspired by post-structuralist theories of language and identity, and by poststructuralists such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan, a number of thinkers have attempted to rethink democracy along radical lines from about 1980 onward. Th ese radical democrats include, among others, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouff e, William E. Connolly, and Slavoj Žižek. Inspired by poststructuralist theories of language and identity, these authors have sought to rethink what radical politics means aft er poststructuralism.1What, then, is radical democracy, and what is radical about it? We can think of the “radical” of radical democracy in two related ways. First, we may note the etymological root of the word, namely the Latin “radix,” root. Th e radical, then, pertains to the root, to what is fundamental. If we are to think of radical democracy as aiming at the roots and the foundations of democracy, the idea is not to provide a new foundation for democracy, for instance by showing that past and present foundations (natural rights, utility, species being, and so on) 1. For a good introduction to radical democracy, see Aletta J. Norval, “Radical Democracy,” in Encyclopedia of Democratic Th ought, P. Barry Clarke and Joe Foweraker (eds) (London: Routledge, 2001). See also the contributions to the following edited volumes: Chantal Mouff e (ed.), Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism and Citizenship (London: Verso, 1992); Lars Tønder and Lasse Th omassen (eds), Radical Democracy: Politics between Abundance and Lack (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005); and David Trend (ed.), Radical Democracy: Identity, Citizenship and the State (London: Routledge, 1996).Volume7
© 2019 University of Chicago Press

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter 1 i
  2. Contents 2339
  3. Series Preface vii
  4. Contributors xiii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1. Immanuel Kant’s turn to transcendental philosophy 15
  7. 2. Kant’s early critics: Jacobi, Reinhold, Maimon 49
  8. 3. Johann Gottfried Herder 83
  9. 4. Play and irony: Schiller and Schlegel on the liberating prospects of aesthetics 107
  10. 5. Fichte and Husserl: life-world, the Other, and philosophical reflection 131
  11. 6. Schelling: philosopher of tragic dissonance 163
  12. 7. Schopenhauer on empirical and aesthetic perception and cognition 187
  13. 8. G. W. F. Hegel 211
  14. 9. From Hegelian reason to Marxian revolution, 1831–48 237
  15. 10. Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Proudhon: “Utopian” French socialism 265
  16. Chronology 305
  17. Bibliography 327
  18. Index 335
  19. Front Matter 2 347
  20. Contents 349
  21. Series Preface 351
  22. Contributors 357
  23. Introduction 361
  24. 1. Feuerbach and the Left and Right Hegelians 377
  25. 2. Marx and Marxism 395
  26. 4. Dostoevsky and Russian philosophy 445
  27. 5. Life aft er the death of God: thus spoke Nietzsche 463
  28. 6. Hermeneutics: Schleiermacher and Dilthey 499
  29. 7. French spiritualist philosophy 521
  30. 8. The emergence of sociology and its theories: from Comte to Weber 537
  31. 9. Developments in philosophy of science and mathematics 553
  32. 10. Peirce: pragmatism and nature aft er Hegel 577
  33. 11. Aesthetics and the philosophy of art, 1840–1900 599
  34. Chronology 621
  35. Bibliography 645
  36. Index 661
  37. Front Matter 3 679
  38. Contents 683
  39. Series Preface 685
  40. Contributors 691
  41. Introduction 697
  42. 1. Henri Bergson 715
  43. 2. Neo-Kantianism in Germany and France 743
  44. 3. The emergence of French sociology: Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss 783
  45. 4. Analytic and continental traditions: Frege, Husserl, Carnap, and Heidegger 807
  46. 5. Edmund Husserl 845
  47. 6. Max Scheler 867
  48. 7. The early Heidegger 883
  49. 8. Karl Jaspers 909
  50. 9. Phenomenology at home and abroad 935
  51. 10. Early continental philosophy of science 959
  52. 11. Ludwig Wittgenstein 983
  53. 12. Freud and continental philosophy 1015
  54. 13. Responses to evolution: Spencer’s evolutionism, Bergsonism, and contemporary biology 1043
  55. Chronology 1077
  56. Bibliography 1097
  57. Index 1121
  58. Front Matter 4 1135
  59. Contents 1139
  60. Series Preface 1141
  61. Contributors 1147
  62. Introduction 1151
  63. 1. Dialectic, difference, and the Other: the Hegelianizing of French phenomenology 1167
  64. 2. Existentialism 1193
  65. 3. Sartre and phenomenology 1217
  66. 4. Continental aesthetics: phenomenology and antiphenomenology 1237
  67. 5. Merleau-Ponty at the limits of phenomenology 1261
  68. 6. The hermeneutic transformation of phenomenology 1281
  69. 7. The later Heidegger 1307
  70. 8. Existential theology 1327
  71. 9. Religion and ethics 1345
  72. 10. The philosophy of the concept 1367
  73. 11. Analytic philosophy and continental philosophy: four confrontations 1385
  74. Chronology 1417
  75. Bibliography 1437
  76. Index 1455
  77. Front Matter 5 1471
  78. Contents 1475
  79. Series Preface 1477
  80. Contributors 1483
  81. Introduction 1487
  82. 1. Carl Schmitt and early Western Marxism 1505
  83. 2. The origins and development of the model of early critical theory in the work of Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse 1533
  84. 3. Theodor W. Adorno 1567
  85. 4. Walter Benjamin 1591
  86. 5. Hannah Arendt: rethinking the political 1619
  87. 6. Georges Bataille 1641
  88. 7. French Marxism in its heyday 1665
  89. 8. Black existentialism 1685
  90. 9. Ferdinand de Saussure and linguistic structuralism 1707
  91. 10. Claude Lévi-Strauss 1731
  92. 11. Jacques Lacan 1749
  93. 12. Late pragmatism, logical positivism, and their aft ermath 1767
  94. Chronology 1787
  95. Bibliography 1807
  96. Index 1821
  97. Front Matter 6 1831
  98. Contents 1835
  99. Series Preface 1837
  100. Contributors 1843
  101. Introduction 1847
  102. 1. French Nietzscheanism 1865
  103. 2. Louis Althusser 1893
  104. 3. Michel Foucault 1913
  105. 4. Gilles Deleuze 1937
  106. 5. Jacques Derrida 1957
  107. 6. Jean-François Lyotard 1979
  108. 7. Pierre Bourdieu and the practice of philosophy 1999
  109. 8. Michel Serres 2023
  110. 9. Jürgen Habermas 2043
  111. 10. Second generation critical theory 2073
  112. 11. Gadamer, Ricoeur, and the legacy of phenomenology 2099
  113. 12. The linguistic turn in continental philosophy 2125
  114. 13. Psychoanalysis and desire 2157
  115. 14. Luce Irigaray 2183
  116. 15. Cixous, Kristeva, and Le Doeuff : three “French feminists” 2205
  117. 16. Deconstruction and the Yale School of literary theory 2233
  118. 17. Rorty among the continentals 2247
  119. Chronology 2269
  120. Bibliography 2289
  121. Index 2313
  122. Front Matter 7 2335
  123. Series Preface 2341
  124. Contributors 2347
  125. Introduction 2353
  126. 1. Postmodernism 2365
  127. 2. German philosophy aft er 1980: themes out of school 2385
  128. 3. The structuralist legacy 2407
  129. 4. Italian philosophy between 1980 and 1995 2435
  130. 5. Continental philosophy in the Czech Republic 2463
  131. 6. Third generation critical theory: Benhabib, Fraser, and Honneth 2481
  132. 7. French and Italian Spinozism 2501
  133. 8. Radical democracy 2521
  134. 9. Cultural and postcolonial studies 2539
  135. 10. The “ethical turn” in continental philosophy in the 1980s 2555
  136. 11. Feminist philosophy: coming of age 2573
  137. 12. Continental philosophy of religion 2599
  138. 13. The performative turn and the emergence of post-analytic philosophy 2627
  139. 14. Out of bounds: philosophy in an age of transition 2659
  140. Chronology 2689
  141. Bibliography 2705
  142. Index 2735
  143. Front Matter 8 2751
  144. Contents 2755
  145. Series Preface 2757
  146. Contributors 2763
  147. Introduction 2767
  148. 1. Rethinking gender: Judith Butler and feminist philosophy 2779
  149. 2. Recent developments in aesthetics: Badiou, Rancière, and their interlocutors 2797
  150. 3. Rethinking Marxism 2815
  151. 4. Thinking the event: Alain Badiou’s philosophy and the task of critical theory 2835
  152. 5. Rethinking Anglo- American philosophy: the neo- Kantianism of Davidson, McDowell, and Brandom 2855
  153. 6. Rethinking science as science studies: Latour, Stengers, Prigogine 2875
  154. 7. European citizenship: a post nationalist perspective 2893
  155. 8. Postcolonialism, postorientalism, postoccidentalism: the past that never went away and the future that never arrived 2915
  156. 9. Continental philosophy and the environment 2939
  157. 10. Rethinking the new world order: responses to globalization/American hegemony 2959
  158. Chronology 2975
  159. Bibliography 2995
  160. Index 3009
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https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226740492-131

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter 1 i
  2. Contents 2339
  3. Series Preface vii
  4. Contributors xiii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1. Immanuel Kant’s turn to transcendental philosophy 15
  7. 2. Kant’s early critics: Jacobi, Reinhold, Maimon 49
  8. 3. Johann Gottfried Herder 83
  9. 4. Play and irony: Schiller and Schlegel on the liberating prospects of aesthetics 107
  10. 5. Fichte and Husserl: life-world, the Other, and philosophical reflection 131
  11. 6. Schelling: philosopher of tragic dissonance 163
  12. 7. Schopenhauer on empirical and aesthetic perception and cognition 187
  13. 8. G. W. F. Hegel 211
  14. 9. From Hegelian reason to Marxian revolution, 1831–48 237
  15. 10. Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Proudhon: “Utopian” French socialism 265
  16. Chronology 305
  17. Bibliography 327
  18. Index 335
  19. Front Matter 2 347
  20. Contents 349
  21. Series Preface 351
  22. Contributors 357
  23. Introduction 361
  24. 1. Feuerbach and the Left and Right Hegelians 377
  25. 2. Marx and Marxism 395
  26. 4. Dostoevsky and Russian philosophy 445
  27. 5. Life aft er the death of God: thus spoke Nietzsche 463
  28. 6. Hermeneutics: Schleiermacher and Dilthey 499
  29. 7. French spiritualist philosophy 521
  30. 8. The emergence of sociology and its theories: from Comte to Weber 537
  31. 9. Developments in philosophy of science and mathematics 553
  32. 10. Peirce: pragmatism and nature aft er Hegel 577
  33. 11. Aesthetics and the philosophy of art, 1840–1900 599
  34. Chronology 621
  35. Bibliography 645
  36. Index 661
  37. Front Matter 3 679
  38. Contents 683
  39. Series Preface 685
  40. Contributors 691
  41. Introduction 697
  42. 1. Henri Bergson 715
  43. 2. Neo-Kantianism in Germany and France 743
  44. 3. The emergence of French sociology: Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss 783
  45. 4. Analytic and continental traditions: Frege, Husserl, Carnap, and Heidegger 807
  46. 5. Edmund Husserl 845
  47. 6. Max Scheler 867
  48. 7. The early Heidegger 883
  49. 8. Karl Jaspers 909
  50. 9. Phenomenology at home and abroad 935
  51. 10. Early continental philosophy of science 959
  52. 11. Ludwig Wittgenstein 983
  53. 12. Freud and continental philosophy 1015
  54. 13. Responses to evolution: Spencer’s evolutionism, Bergsonism, and contemporary biology 1043
  55. Chronology 1077
  56. Bibliography 1097
  57. Index 1121
  58. Front Matter 4 1135
  59. Contents 1139
  60. Series Preface 1141
  61. Contributors 1147
  62. Introduction 1151
  63. 1. Dialectic, difference, and the Other: the Hegelianizing of French phenomenology 1167
  64. 2. Existentialism 1193
  65. 3. Sartre and phenomenology 1217
  66. 4. Continental aesthetics: phenomenology and antiphenomenology 1237
  67. 5. Merleau-Ponty at the limits of phenomenology 1261
  68. 6. The hermeneutic transformation of phenomenology 1281
  69. 7. The later Heidegger 1307
  70. 8. Existential theology 1327
  71. 9. Religion and ethics 1345
  72. 10. The philosophy of the concept 1367
  73. 11. Analytic philosophy and continental philosophy: four confrontations 1385
  74. Chronology 1417
  75. Bibliography 1437
  76. Index 1455
  77. Front Matter 5 1471
  78. Contents 1475
  79. Series Preface 1477
  80. Contributors 1483
  81. Introduction 1487
  82. 1. Carl Schmitt and early Western Marxism 1505
  83. 2. The origins and development of the model of early critical theory in the work of Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse 1533
  84. 3. Theodor W. Adorno 1567
  85. 4. Walter Benjamin 1591
  86. 5. Hannah Arendt: rethinking the political 1619
  87. 6. Georges Bataille 1641
  88. 7. French Marxism in its heyday 1665
  89. 8. Black existentialism 1685
  90. 9. Ferdinand de Saussure and linguistic structuralism 1707
  91. 10. Claude Lévi-Strauss 1731
  92. 11. Jacques Lacan 1749
  93. 12. Late pragmatism, logical positivism, and their aft ermath 1767
  94. Chronology 1787
  95. Bibliography 1807
  96. Index 1821
  97. Front Matter 6 1831
  98. Contents 1835
  99. Series Preface 1837
  100. Contributors 1843
  101. Introduction 1847
  102. 1. French Nietzscheanism 1865
  103. 2. Louis Althusser 1893
  104. 3. Michel Foucault 1913
  105. 4. Gilles Deleuze 1937
  106. 5. Jacques Derrida 1957
  107. 6. Jean-François Lyotard 1979
  108. 7. Pierre Bourdieu and the practice of philosophy 1999
  109. 8. Michel Serres 2023
  110. 9. Jürgen Habermas 2043
  111. 10. Second generation critical theory 2073
  112. 11. Gadamer, Ricoeur, and the legacy of phenomenology 2099
  113. 12. The linguistic turn in continental philosophy 2125
  114. 13. Psychoanalysis and desire 2157
  115. 14. Luce Irigaray 2183
  116. 15. Cixous, Kristeva, and Le Doeuff : three “French feminists” 2205
  117. 16. Deconstruction and the Yale School of literary theory 2233
  118. 17. Rorty among the continentals 2247
  119. Chronology 2269
  120. Bibliography 2289
  121. Index 2313
  122. Front Matter 7 2335
  123. Series Preface 2341
  124. Contributors 2347
  125. Introduction 2353
  126. 1. Postmodernism 2365
  127. 2. German philosophy aft er 1980: themes out of school 2385
  128. 3. The structuralist legacy 2407
  129. 4. Italian philosophy between 1980 and 1995 2435
  130. 5. Continental philosophy in the Czech Republic 2463
  131. 6. Third generation critical theory: Benhabib, Fraser, and Honneth 2481
  132. 7. French and Italian Spinozism 2501
  133. 8. Radical democracy 2521
  134. 9. Cultural and postcolonial studies 2539
  135. 10. The “ethical turn” in continental philosophy in the 1980s 2555
  136. 11. Feminist philosophy: coming of age 2573
  137. 12. Continental philosophy of religion 2599
  138. 13. The performative turn and the emergence of post-analytic philosophy 2627
  139. 14. Out of bounds: philosophy in an age of transition 2659
  140. Chronology 2689
  141. Bibliography 2705
  142. Index 2735
  143. Front Matter 8 2751
  144. Contents 2755
  145. Series Preface 2757
  146. Contributors 2763
  147. Introduction 2767
  148. 1. Rethinking gender: Judith Butler and feminist philosophy 2779
  149. 2. Recent developments in aesthetics: Badiou, Rancière, and their interlocutors 2797
  150. 3. Rethinking Marxism 2815
  151. 4. Thinking the event: Alain Badiou’s philosophy and the task of critical theory 2835
  152. 5. Rethinking Anglo- American philosophy: the neo- Kantianism of Davidson, McDowell, and Brandom 2855
  153. 6. Rethinking science as science studies: Latour, Stengers, Prigogine 2875
  154. 7. European citizenship: a post nationalist perspective 2893
  155. 8. Postcolonialism, postorientalism, postoccidentalism: the past that never went away and the future that never arrived 2915
  156. 9. Continental philosophy and the environment 2939
  157. 10. Rethinking the new world order: responses to globalization/American hegemony 2959
  158. Chronology 2975
  159. Bibliography 2995
  160. Index 3009
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