Abstract
This paper attempts to explore the effects of the political developments that followed the financial crisis of 2008, particularly after the uprisings of 2011, on the field of philosophy and more specifically on philosophical practice. Philosophical practice concerns not only methodology and forms of argumentation but also and mainly the dispositive of the philosopher him/herself, that is the place he/she occupies and from which h/she speaks. Drawing from Gramsci’s and Althusser’s reading of Machiavelli an argument is developed according to which certain conjunctures produce the possibility of a void both at the political and the philosophical level; a void which can disrupt the normal reproduction of political relations of power and of the dominant philosophical discourse. The task of materialist philosophy, which in those circumstances becomes even more urgent, is not to devote itself in securing the piece on the field of the philosophical and political battle but in contrast to point out the possibility of the emergence of the void and articulate philosophical positions aimed to intensify the rupture and thus to produce effects tending to realise the possibility of radical change.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The concept of paradigm is usually used in order to describe theoretical/scientific systems and not social modes of regulation. A possible change in the mode of regulation does not necessarily lead to a relevant change in the theoretical paradigm. The term is used here in search of a better one.
The new regulatory paradigm was captured by the concept of biolitics. On biopolitics see Foucault (2008).
The otherwise diverging works of intellectuals such as Judith Butler or Jan Luc Nancy are exemplary of this tendency towards the exploration of ethical themes. For an analysis of the theoretical tendencies which depart from the political in order to ascribe to an ethical critique inside the CLS movement see Douzinas (2005) pp. 47–69.
According to Louis Althusser the concept of history in the materialist perspective has to be constructed as a process without a subject and/or End(s). Althusser suggests that this is the concept of history that Marx ascribes to after his split from the humanist philosophy of Ludwig Feurbach. (See Althusser 1976).
In his later work, only posthumously published, Althusser invents the notion of aleatory materialism or materialism of the Encounter to describe an underground and repressed philosophical tradition undermining the dominant idealist tendencies of western philosophy. This was an anti-teleological materialism not only of the contingency of necessity but also of the necessity of contingency. See Althusser (2006).
References
Althusser, Louis. 1976. Essays in self-criticism. New York: Humanities Press.
Althusser, Louis. 1994. Philosophica (trans: Elefantis, Angelos). Athens: O Politis (in Greek).
Althusser, Louis. 2000. Machiavelli and US (trans: Elliot, Gregory). London, New York: Verso.
Althusser, Louis. 2006. Philosophy of the encounter (trans: Goshgarian, G.M.). London, New York: Verso.
Douzinas, Costas. 2005. Oubliez critique. Law and Critique 16(1): 47–69.
Douzinas, Costas. 2007. Human rights and empire: The political philosophy of cosmopolitanism. Oxford: Routledge-Cavendish.
Foucault, Michel. 2008. The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France (trans: Burchell, Graham). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gramsci, Antonio. 1957. The modern prince and other writings (trans: Marks, Louis). New York: International Publishers.
Loizidou, Elena. 2007. Judith Butler: Ethics, law, politics. Oxford: Routledge-Cavendish.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. 2004. The prince (trans: George Bull). London: Penguin Books.
Poulantzas, Nicos. 1978. Political power and social classes (trans: O’Hagan, T.). London, New York: Verso.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tzanakopoulos, D. From Choice to Necessity: Putting Politics in Command. Law Critique 23, 271–281 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-012-9106-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-012-9106-9