Postdoctoral Working Collective
Theory and Practice: Political Philosophy, Radical Politics and Social Resistance
Fall 2012
Theory and Practice explores critical debates in the history of the interaction between political philosophy and grassroots militancy. Our discussions address:
Fall Schedule and Reading Program
Sept. 12 Introduction
Sept. 26 Individual Liberties and Political Militancy
Hannah Arendt, “On Freedom”, “The Revolutionary Tradition and its Lost Heritage”
Cornelius Castoriadis, “Recommencing the Revolution” (1963)
Claude Lefort, “The Contradiction of Trotsky” (1948-1949)
Oct. 10 American Radicalism
Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1871)
Georges Sorel, On Violence (1908)
John Dewey, History of Liberalism (1933-1934)
Oct. 17 Savage Enlightenment and True Democracy
Pierre Clastres, "Freedom, Misfortune, the Unnameable", "The Return to Enlightenment", Archeology of Violence (1977)
Miguel Abensour, "True Democracy and Modernity", "Savage Democracy" and "The Principle of Anarchy" from Democracy against the State. Marx and the Machiavellian Moment (2004)
Étienne de la Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)
Optional: Miguel Abensour, "Le Contre-Hobbes de Pierre Clastres", L'esprit de lois sauvages (1987)
Oct. 24 Anti-Totalitarianism and the Reinvention of Democracy
Claude Lefort, The Question of Democracy (1983)
Andrew Jainchill and Samuel Moyn, "French Democracy between Totalitarianism and Solidarity" (2004)
Pierre Rosanvallon, "Intellectual History and Democracy: An Interview with Pierre Rosanvallon" (2007)
Nov. 7 Special Session with Professor Andrew Arato (New School)
Andrew Arato, “Political Theology and Populism” (2012)
Claude Lefort, “The Permanence of the Theologico-Political?” (1981)
Carl Schmitt, “Political Theology” (1922)
Dec. 5 Special Session with Professor David Harvey (CUNY Graduate Center)
David Harvey, Rebel Cities (2012)
For further information contact Alhelí Alvarado-Díaz ([email protected]), organizer of Theory and Practice.