Category: Blog
Can we define “populism”? Perhaps, but what is gained by this?
What is populism? The most serious mistake in trying to answer this question lies in the (usually unspoken) assumption that where we have a single word or term there must be a single corresponding concept and that the word will therefore refer to a singular definite phenomenon.
The place of America — in political philosophy
For those living in the United States the conditions of American politics will, for obvious reasons, be of some interest. But given the economic, political, and military power of the US it is not surprising to discover that American politics is scrutinized all over the world. When one looks at the International media one notices how much attention they pay to American affairs.
Does this mean that American politics also has a particular interest for political philosophy?
A Bad Bargain: Donald Trump and Steve Bannon
Joshua Green, Devil’s Bargain. Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising, Penguin Books 2017, republished with a new preface 2018.
Joshua Green’s book has been somewhat overshadowed by the publication of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury but it adds significantly to Wolff’s account and corrects it at some important points. It tells in fascinating detail the story of bad bargain the American people accepted when they elected Trump.
Xi Jinping Rule
What’s happening in China? On Sunday, February 25, the Xinhua news agency reported: “The Communist Party of China Central Committee proposed to remove the expression that the President and Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms” from the country’s Constitution.” Some commentators called this a bombshell.
Forget Fire and Fury; It’s Confusion and Turmoil in Trump’s White House
February 11, 2018. After reading Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, Inside the Trump White House it becomes difficult to believe that the Trump presidency will have a happy outcome either for Trump himself or the United States as a whole. If this turns out to be the case, Wolff’s book will surely be read for a long time. Even if it comes otherwise, I hope the book will be remembered for its vivid depiction of a deeply disquieting moment in US history.
Politics as a field of imperfect cognitive states
Imperfect cognitive states are characteristic of social and political life. But these are not the cognitive states our epistemologists have in view. We need to consider, in particular, states of uncertainty and disorientation since those are now so prevalent in our politics.
Who is responsible for our decline? – The Frankfurt School, of course.
Poor Frankfurt School. Turn to the internet these days and you realize that the handful of German professors who go under that name are being held responsible for almost everything bad that has happened to society since … when? !990? 1970? 1945? Or even 1920? All these dates are being tossed around on those feverish websites. Neo-Marxism, cultural Marxism, feminism, multiculturalism, sexual excess, postmodernism, political correctness, and all in all the entire “Western decline” are due to their nefarious doings.
“This is the way the world ends”: Drowning in Plastics
There is much debate about climate change, but changes to our environment are nor limited to the weather.
Populism’s everywhere. But what, the hell, is it?
Populism is the political fashion word of the moment. But do we know what the word stands for?
Another headache
Donald Trump: Between populist rhetoric and plutocratic rule
Who is Donald Trump and what does he stand for? Do we know? Does he himself know? Or is he caught, like all of us, but perhaps even more deeply in that precarious state of disorientation that characterizes our current political situation? While Trump regularly uses populist rhetoric and symbols, his policies seem mostly aimed at benefitting the rich. We should think of him as a plutocrat rather than a populist. But what kind of plutocracy does he stand for?
Diagnosing Donald Trump
January 21, 2018 – Over the course of the last twelve months, both laymen and experts have sought to diagnose Donald Trump. They have been asking again and again after each one of his many bewildering tweets: What is wrong with the man psychologically? I am interested in another kind of diagnosis. My question is what Trump’s elections means politically…
Plutocracy Now
On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump, a most unlikely contender, was elected to the office of the presidency of the United States of America. In the course of that year he had beaten a slew of Republican rivals, major political stakeholders, for the right to run for this office. Disliked by the leadership of the party, he had won his candidacy with a campaign of vilification and an irresistible (though largely unfounded) self-confidence, declaring himself an opponent of the political establishment and an advocate of the common people. He had then turned with the same brutal energy on his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, denouncing her as another corrupt insider. With appeals to fear, prejudice, nationalism, and social resentment he had brought together an unlikely coalition of billionaires, right-wing conspirators, fundamentalist Christians, and working-class victims of globalization. Exorbitant promises of a national renewal had in the end secured him enough votes from a deeply divided electorate to win out over Clinton. And so, there he was on November 9 with no political experience, a spotty business record, limited verbal resources, and a simplified confrontational view of the world at the point of taking on the most demanding political office on Earth.
Zuriaake
January 23, 2018 – We must keep an eye on China, if we are to understand the future of global politics.
An article in the South China Morning Post drew my attention to Zuriaake, an intriguing and unsettling Chinese black metal band:
Why I am (still) a philosopher
Should we be pessimistic about the future of philosophy, as Raymond Geuss argus in Changing the Subject? I still hold some hope for the subject and believe it, in fact, to be needed today more than ever.
Von der normativen Theorie zur diagnostischen Praxis
„Die fortwährende Umwälzung der Produktion, die ununterbrochene Erschütterung aller gesellschaftlichen Zustände, die ewige Unsicherheit und Bewegung zeichnet die Bourgeoisie-epoche vor allen anderen aus“, schreibt Karl Marx 1848 in seinem Kommunistischen Manifest. Und er fährt fort: „Alle festen, eingerosteten Verhältnisse mit ihrem Gefolge von altehrwürdigen Vorstellungen und Anschauungen werden aufgelöst, alle neugebildeten veralten, ehe sie verknöchern können”. Um diese Entwicklungen zu verstehen brauchen wir eine neue Form von politischer Philosophie.
Zur Kritik der politischen Anthropologie
„Anthropos physei politikon zoon“. Wir übersetzen gemeinhin: „Der Mensch ist von Natur aus ein politisches Wesen“. Der Satz steht so im ersten Buch der Politik des Aristoteles und ist gewiss der bekannteste, der am häufigsten nachgesprochene, vielleicht auch der wichtigste, weil zugleich der grundlegendste in diesem Werk.[1] Der Satz ist grundlegend, insofern als er besagt, dass man die Politik von der Natur des Menschen her verstehen muss und nicht, wie Platon in seiner Politeia, von der Idee des Guten her. Aristoteles wird mit diesem Satz zum Begründer der politischen Anthropologie.
