Genocide denialism is an understudied topic in the epistemic injustice scholarship; so are epistemic relations outside of the Euro-American context. This article proposes to bring the literature into contact with an underexplored topic in a ‘distant’ setting: Turkey. Here, I explore the ethical and epistemological implications of the Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide as a pervasive and systematic epistemic harm. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, I argue that a philosophical exploration of genocide denialism requires examining the role of institutions and (...) ideology in relation to the epistemic harm done by individual perpetrators. More specifically, I suggest that the individual, ideological, and institutional roots of genocide denialism constitute a regime of epistemic injustice in Turkey. (shrink)

In Nicomachean Ethics VII Aristotle describes akrasia as a disposition. Taking into account that it is a disposition, I argue that akrasia cannot be understood on an epistemological basis alone, i.e., it is not merely a problem of knowledge that the akratic person acts the ways he does, but rather one is akratic due to a certain kind of habituation, where the person is not able to activate the potential knowledge s/he possesses. To stress this point, I focus on the (...) gap between potential knowledge and its activation, whereby I argue that the distinction between potential and actual knowledge is at the center of the problem of akrasia. I suggest that to elaborate on this gap, we must go beyond the limits of Nicomachean Ethics to Metaphysics IX, where we find Aristotle’s discussion of the distinction between potentiality and actuality. I further analyze the gap between potential and actual knowledge by means of Aristotle’s discussion of practical syllogism, where I argue that akrasia is a result of a conflict in practical reasoning. I conclude my paper by stressing that for the akratic person the action is determined with respect to the conclusion of the practical syllogism, where the conclusion is produced by means of a ‘conflict’ between the universal opinion which is potential and the particular opinion which is appetitive. (shrink)

This essay suggests that Continental Studies of Evil need a more global approach in thinking about political evils of today. Highlighting the need for a more comparative and global perspective, I explore two proposals: first, the in-between space of the geographical binaries of East/West and Global South/Global North cultivates many political evils. Second, taking issue with the conviction in Continental philosophy that the Holocaust caused a rupture in the thinking of evil, I argue for the continuity of evils and characterize (...) the insistence on the unprecedented character of the Holocaust as an example of Eurocentrism. (shrink)

The scholarship on Frantz Fanon’s theorization of violence is crowded with interpretations that follow the Arendtian paradigm of violence. These interpretations often discuss whether violence is instrumental or non-instrumental in Fanon’s work. This reading, I believe, is the result of approaching Fanon through Hannah Arendt’s framing of violence, i.e. through a binary paradigm of instrumental versus non-instrumental violence. Even some Fanon scholars who question Arendt’s reading of Fanon, do so by employing a similar binary logic, hence repeating the same either/or (...) paradigm of instrumental versus non-instrumental violence. I aim to challenge such interpretations of Fanon by demonstrating that in the context of anticolonial armed struggle in which Fanon writes, the either/or framework of the instrumental/non-instrumental binary of violence cannot fully capture his perspective. Violence can indeed be conceived as having both constructive and instrumental aspects. My argument is supported by Fanon’s corpus, including his 1960 Accra speech, “Why We Use Violence” in Alienation and Freedom. This piece, I suggest, together with Fanon’s other writings, poses a direct challenge to the Arendtian binary of violence. My analysis resists positioning the difference between Arendt and Fanon through the instrumental/non-instrumental binary. By using Judith Butler’s notion of “frame” I complicate their difference and argue Arendt’s framing of violence prevents her from apprehending Fanon and – more importantly – interpretations of Fanon based on this Arendtian frame of violence inevitably lead to misinterpretations. (shrink)

The racist killing of Georg Floyd in the Summer of 2020 created waves of protests not only in the U.S. but all over the globe. In Turkey, my home country, there were also street demonstrations that demanded justice for Floyd, but “Twitter activism” was more popular. Turkish-speaking-twitter became a hotbed for condemnations. Amidst an array of tweets condemning Floyd’s racist killing, one stood out and made it to the headlines of alternative media outlets. A former official of the authoritarian Turkish (...) government, Yusuf Yerkel, wrote the following tweet in Turkish on June 5, 2020, in response to Floyd’s racist killing; here, I provide an English translation of his infamous tweet (the Turkish original of which is still available on Yerkel’s account on Twitter): “The reason that protests grew to this extent in the U.S. seems to be based on a phenomenon, in H. Arendt’s terms, ‘banality of evil,’ which has become evident in the face of Floyd’s murder. An ordinary White cop’s atrocity as an “everyday job” was the tipping point.”. (shrink)

Since 2001, Continental philosophical studies of evil suggest that we are forced to rethink the category of evil as we face acts of terrorism on a global scale. In light of this suggestion, this article traces the idea of the “inscrutability of evil” as a common lens through which we associate the category of evil with the phenomena we identify as evil. This idea finds its first modern formulation in Kant’s theory of radical evil. I argue that Hannah Arendt and (...) Emmanuel Levinas follow Kant in identifying evil as an inscrutable phenomenon. While they all agree that evil cannot be rationalized, integrated into reason, or understood within the framework of theodicy, for Kant, evil is inscrutable because it is grounded in freedom; for Arendt, evil is inscrutable because it is “banal;” and for Levinas, evil is inscrutable because it is “excessive” and “useless.” My analysis demonstrates that inscrutability is an essential marker of the concept of evil since it is found in all three accounts as a feature of evil, even though in each account a different type of evil is at stake (moral, political, and existential). (shrink)

The racist killing of Georg Floyd in the Summer of 2020 created waves of protests not only in the U.S. but all over the globe. In Turkey, my home country, there were also street demonstrations that demanded justice for Floyd, but “Twitter activism” was more popular. Turkish-speaking-twitter became a hotbed for condemnations. Amidst an array of tweets condemning Floyd’s racist killing, one stood out and made it to the headlines of alternative media outlets. A former official of the authoritarian Turkish (...) government, Yusuf Yerkel, wrote the following tweet in Turkish on June 5, 2020, in response to Floyd’s racist killing; here, I provide an English translation of his infamous tweet (the Turkish original of which is still available on Yerkel’s account on Twitter): “The reason that protests grew to this extent in the U.S. seems to be based on a phenomenon, in H. Arendt’s terms, ‘banality of evil,’ which has become evident in the face of Floyd’s murder. An ordinary White cop’s atrocity as an “everyday job” was the tipping point.” Yerkel herein uses Arendt’s notion of the banality of evil (see esp. p. 287 of the book) to describe Derek Chauvin’s atrocious act, where the evil of racist police violence has become ordinary, banal, and “every day.”. (shrink)

Au cours des dernières années, plusieurs maternités parisiennes ont vu croître le nombre de refus d'interruption médicale de grossesse (IMG) dans des cas de pronostic vital néonatal péjoratif ou induisant un handicap très sévère. Ces refus d'IMG sont à la source de tensions entre les parents et les membres des équipes médicales concernées. Nous proposons dans ce qui suit plusieurs arguments éthiques et une analyse de ces dilemmes moraux justifiant que soient pleinement pris en compte les préférences morales des parents (...) qui refusent ces interruptions de grossesse. (shrink)

Temelini Harvard Üniversitesi’nde savunulan bir doktora tezinin oluşturduğu bu çalışma, Bizans hakkındaki Arap-İslam görüşünün yüzyıllar boyunca süren savaş, temas ve karşılıklı alışveriş ile geçirdiği evrim sürecinin bölgesel-tarihsel gelişmeler bağlamında izini sürmektedir. Kitap Giriş, Bizans’la karşılaşma, Bizans’ın karşısında durmak, İslam savunmada ve Yeni bir gerçeklik: Bizans’ı yeniden ziyaret başlıkları altında dört ana bölüm ve Sonuç kısmından oluşmaktadır. Başlıklardan da anlaşılacağı üzere, dört ana bölümün her biri nitelikleri belirgin dönemleri ele almaktadır. Bu yazıda da kitabın mevcut sistematiğine uyularak her bir kısım ayrı (...) ayrı ele alınmış, yazarın temel iddiaları özetlenmiş, seçme örnekler verilmiş ve tüm bunlar değerlendirilmiştir. (shrink)

Health worker shortages in many countries are reaching crisis levels, exacerbated by factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In New Zealand, the medical specialists union has called for a health workforce emergency to be declared, yet at the same time, many foreign-trained healthcare workers are unable to stay in the country or unable to work. While their health systems differ, countries such as New Zealand, the USA and the UK at least partially rely on international medical graduates (IMGs) to ensure (...) access to health services, particularly in underserved communities. This paper focuses on the challenges faced by many IMGs, particularly those that constrain their capacity to live and work in the countries that rely on their skills. These challenges give rise to two ethical problems. First, they represent a failure of reciprocity towards IMGs; second, they represent a source of harm, both to IMGs themselves and to communities whose healthcare service depends on contributions made by IMGs. We argue that brain waste and disvaluing the contributions of IMGs and other foreign-trained health professionals have significant costs for maintaining a functional healthcare system, costs which must be adequately recognised and counted. (shrink)

Her felsefi kongre zorunlu olarak politik bir öneme sahiptir. Bu, yalnızca felsefenin özünü her zaman politik olanın özüne bağlayan bir şey yüzünden değildir. Temel ve genel olarak, bu politik ima ona [felsefe ve politika arasındaki a priori ilişkiye] ağırlık katıyor, onu daha ciddi kılıyor ve özellikle felsefi kongre aynı zamanda uluslararası bir kongre olduğunda onun ayırıcı özelliğini de belirliyor. Uluslararası bir felsefe konferansı olasılığı sınırsız bir biçimde, farklı çizgilerle birlikte ve genelliğin birçok düzeyinde araştırılabilir. En genel anlamında böyle bir olasılık, (...) felsefenin özüne aykırı olarak, ulusal felsefelerin oluşturulduğu anlamına gelir. Belirli bir anda, belirli tarihsel, politik ve ekonomik bağlamda, bu ulusal gruplar, uluslararası toplantılar düzenlemeyi, ulusal kimlikleriyle temsil edilmeyi ve burada kendi farklılıklarını belirlemeyi ya da ilişkilendirmeyi zorunlu görmüştür. Bu tür bir farklılıklar toplantısı, bir dereceye kadar sadece öğretisel bağlam veya belli bir felsefi “üslup” tarafından tanımlanan ulusal felsefi kimliklerin öngörülmüş olduğu durumlarda gerçekleşebilir. Ancak, farklılıkların ilişkilendirilmesi de ortak bir unsuru öngörür: bir toplantı ancak tüm katılımcıların paylaştığı, bu durumda felsefi söylemin evrenselliği denilen ortak bir imge ile gerçekleşebilir. Bu kelimelerle, özüyle belirli bir dil grubu ve “kültürler” ile özdeşleştirilen bir projeden daha az bir olgu belirledim. Zira açıktır ki, bu unsurun şeffaflığının başına bir şey gelmiştir. (shrink)

Cet exposé a été présenté lors du colloque « Autant de bébés – Au temps du bébé – Rythmes et développement du nourrisson » à Issy-les-Moulineaux le 6 décembre 2013 IMG/mp3/pascal_michon_colloque_06_12_2013_autant_de_bebes_au_temps_du_bebe.mp3 - Psychanalyse et psychothérapie – Nouvel article.

This presentation was made in the Seminar “Rhythmanalysis : Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask” convened by Dr Paola Crespi and Dr Sunil Manghani at Goldsmiths College on april 25, 2017 Part 1 : On Lefebvre, Foucault, Barthes, Serres, Morin, Deleuze & Guattari IMG/mp3/-3.mp3 Part 2 : On Meschonnic IMG/mp3/-4.mp3 - Vers un nouveau paradigme scientifique? – Nouvel article.

Cities have consistently served as fertile grounds for the emergence and growth of radical ideas, political transformations, and social movements, with urban landscapes nurturing visionary concepts, idealism, and revolutionary ideologies. This research delves into the captivating world of radical cities, exploring the power of image and visual narratives to communicate and comprehend urban activism within diverse contexts. By analyzing various case studies and student works, we aim to create, study, and reimagine vivid portrayals of urban activism, radical urbanism, and future (...) socio-spatial developments. The focus lies on developing innovative visual modalities and collaborative critical pedagogical approaches that engage with the complexities of radical cities across North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and beyond. In this study, we explore the potential of image and visual narratives to decode and understand pivotal societal transitions in radical cities. By employing imaginative and critical pedagogy, we aspire to foster a more profound comprehension of urban activism and its impact on shaping the cities of the future. (shrink)