Contents
From the dawn of our consciousness of the world, we become aware of our dwelling within the world as a condition of our existence as unique beings discernible according to our own shared properties, that is, as human beings. In contemporary politics, the valuation is further drawn that the political essence of the human being is that of a free being. Within the "social-contract" tradition of political theory, this claim situates the natural predisposition of human beings to be "free" in both their undertakings towards each other, and their undertakings towards the world, without a limit defined by an established social or political order. By the institution of this social order, a fundamental transformation accrues to the nature of "freedom" and "action" in the sphere of human intercourse. To this point, political theory, including that beyond social-contract theory, is practically unanimous. Yet in spite of this, a precise outline of the mechanisms concerning "freedom" and "action" and its relation to the political have yet to be clearly defined. Read more ...
Conceptualising the role of 'crisis' in the development of Nietzsche's political thought necessitates first situating the relationship of his thinking to political philosophy as a whole. A "cultural physician" and "psychologist" of modernity, what he termed the "age of the masses", Nietzsche's works are situated in the period of 19th century transformations in industrialisation, imperialism and the rise of the nation-state. Despite this, and since his works perceived recovery from appropriation by the Nazi's by Walter Kaufmann, great debate within the historiographical tradition has concerned Nietzsche's situation within the history of political thought; namely, disputes concerning Nietzsche's actual role as a political thinker. This essay will situate Nietzsche not only as a thinker of the political par excellence, but in so doing will seek to recontextualise his works in the political and discursive debates of their occurrence. Read more ...
On the 14th October 2022, alarm bells of national outcry were jointly launched across the UK by most mainstream news outlets. The BBC, Guardian, Evening Standard, Telegraph, Daily Mail, all reported on a perceived threat to culture. As if an individual of prominence had been assaulted or killed, all reports spoke of the desecration of art, an unnecessary act of barbarism which had resulted in nothing but the condemnation and alienation of the public audience. Even the venerable left-wing journalist, Andrew Marr decried the act, stating on Twitter 'Right. They've absolutely lost me forever'. No doubt, the left, and indeed the wider radical climate movement, will take years to recover from the loss of one of their most visible acolytes. Read more ...
"What had the face of politics and imagined itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement." Soren Kierkegaard
The Acephale journal was a literary and religious venture undertaken by the archivist Georges Bataille (September 1897 - 1962) in April 1936, months before the onset of the Spanish Civil War and the confrontation of the international left and right in a preliminary battle for ideological hegemony in Europe. Situated outwards at a wider scale, this was the period of an ascending imperialism, with Fascist Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (October 1935 - February 1937), as well as the Second Sino-Japanese War (7th July 1937 - 2nd September 1945). Increasingly factitious relations were also accruing in Western Europe, with the de-facto exposure of the weakness of the League of Nations by Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, as well as the effective obsolescence of the Washington Naval treaty established in 1922 to prevent an arms race between the major naval powers in its 1936 expiration, and the undermining of its successor Second London Naval Treaty of 25th March 1936 by the withdraw of the Empire of Japan, a major naval power, from the treaty in January of the same year of the treaties signing, as well as the Italian decline to sign the treaty owing to the controversy and sanctions resulting from its invasion of Ethiopia. In effect, this appeared to be a period of resurgent political struggle and opportunity, channelled through the rise of the Soviet Union and the Third International for the partisan left, as well as a perceived immediate necessity to combat the rise of Fascism and imperialism across the globe. Read more ...
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