Shows the relevance of Schiller’s thought for contemporary philosophy, particularly aesthetics, ethics, and politics. This book seeks to draw attention to Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) as a philosophical thinker in his own right. For too long, his philosophical contribution has been neglected in favor of his much-deserved reputation as a political playwright. The essays in this collection make two arguments. First, Schiller presents a robust philosophical program that can be favorably compared to those of his age, including Rousseau, Kant, Schelling, and (...) Hegel, and he proves to be their equal in his thinking on morality, aesthetics, and politics. Second, Schiller can also guide us in our more contemporary philosophical concerns and approaches, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and politics. Here, Schiller instructs us in our engagement with figures such as Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière, Roberto Esposito, and others. María del Rosario Acosta López is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. She has published several books, including La tragedia como conjuro: el problema de lo sublime en Friedrich Schiller. Jeffrey L. Powell is Professor of Philosophy at Marshall University and the editor of Heidegger and Language. (shrink)

Se propone rastrear la interpretación que Schiller lleva a cabo en las Cartas sobre la educación estética del hombre del análisis kantiano del juicio de gusto puro como asociado con una suspensión de toda determinación que hace posible la experiencia de la belleza. Para Schiller, esto resulta en una temporalidad de lo bello experimentada como suspensión, que se torna adicionalmente en una suspensión de la temporalidad. El artículo muestra cómo este concepto resulta esencial para el concepto de crítica estética en (...) Schiller, que se relaciona con una capacidad de la experiencia estética de desactivar formas de violencia que, según el diagnóstico que Schiller propone en las Cartas, saturan su presente histórico. Con ello, el artículo pretende mostrar la pertinencia de la obra de Schiller para la configuración de este aspecto de la crítica filosófica-histórica. (shrink)

In Communitas: The Origin and Destiny of Community, Roberto Esposito develops a destructionist reading of political philosophy, interested in tracing modernity's attempt to constitute the political as a radical negation of our exposure to others. If the task of contemporary political thinking is to interrupt the myth of the common, without falling back completely into the negative and self-destructive power of immunization, political philosophy must be confronted with itself, searching within itself for the traces and points of departure – hermeneutic (...) supports – for such a destructive gesture. Esposito finds and develops these traces in a genealogical line that, starting with Hobbes, goes through Rousseau and Kant and ends with Heidegger and Bataille. By way of this genealogy, Esposito intends to show how modern philosophy would already have started to interrupt the dialectics between the immunization paradigm and the myth of the common. In this paper I argue that Hegel is not only an interesting figure but also an obligatory step in this effort, and in doing so I will pay particular attention to a notion of being-in-common that arises in The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate from his criticism of the violence of law. Hence, Hegel is read here in the light of an unexplored relationship to Esposito's work in Communitas. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 108 - 123 The following paper addresses itself to the question of ontology in the work of Jean-Luc Nancy. In so doing it attempts to read Nancy’s ontological project as a project of the deconstruction of structural forms of political violence. To this end, Nancy’s notion of “inoperative community” is brought into dialogue with Benjamin in order to show how, in Nancy’s work, ontology operates not as the refusal of critique, but as its (...) very condition. (shrink)

Se mostrará cómo el pensamiento sobre lo trágico como género literario pero, más allá de ello, como metáfora de las dualidades características de la modernidad, jugó un papel fundamental en la configuración y el desarrollo del pensamiento de ambos autores. Tanto para Schiller, como para el joven Hegel, la tragedia se convirtió en el marco teórico y el espacio de referencia de una propuesta que, en el primer caso, intenta recuperar la posibilidad de la libertad del hombre en el mundo (...) y, en el segundo, interpretar el movimiento del pensamiento en la realidad. A lo largo del texto se destacarán tanto las similitudes como las diferencias entre ambos autores a partir de la manera como cada uno comprendió y asimiló lo trágico a su propia reflexión. (shrink)

In order to illuminate the very complex relationship between ethics and politics in the thought of Jacques Derrida, this paper stages the (dis)encounter between Hegel's and Derrida's notion of forgiveness. It will be shown how for these two authors forgiveness is closely related both with certain ‘impossibility’, and with the disclosure of a condition for rethinking the ethico-political realm. Both Hegel and Derrida seem to suggest that forgiveness opens up a realm in which something must remain ‘absolute’, that is to (...) say, ‘intact, inaccessible to law, to politics, even to morals’. And, for both, it seems to be precisely there, where something arrives at the verge of politics, that a thinking (and a re-thinking) of the ‘political’ becomes possible. The paper explores what kind of impossibility is staged in each case, and how can each one bring into light the risks and limits, but also the scope and significance of the other. (shrink)

This paper traces and examines the different connotations given to the notion of “tragedy” in Paul Klee’s thought. From his early reflections on, Klee relates this notion to an intermediate and conflictive condition that characterizes human existence—an existence that takes place between heaven and earth, between the ethereal and the earthly. This essay focuses on how the connotations Klee gives to tragedy in different moments of his reflections transform the way he conceives the work of art. Hence, I will attempt (...) to show how Klee’s reflections relate the tragedy of human existence not only to the figure of the artist, understood as a tragic figure, but also to an idea of tragedy that the work produces and represents in its own particular way of coming into being. Thus, this paper poses a new approach to Klee’s suggestive proposal on modern art as well as to the meaning given to pictorial representation throughout his thought and artworks. (shrink)

This paper presents an overview of my work in philosophy from my first book on Friedrich Schiller and the political sublime to my most recent project on listening to traumatic forms of violence. Starting with a reflection on the autobiographical character of philosophy, I propose to take up the question of an aesthetic dimension of philosophical critique, where aesthetics is understood as an always already embodied perspective on the world, on truth, and on philosophical activity, as well as an always (...) already political realm, where the distribution of sense pre-determines our approach and articulation of experience. Departing from aesthetics understood and deployed as critique, the paper moves on to ask about the specific frameworks of sense or grammars that determine in advance the conditions of audibility in the realms of memory-building and history-making—particularly in those contexts where historical, political, and institutional forms of violence produce silencing and erasure. Putting in dialogue the latter with decolonial studies, I interpret “traumatic violence” as a colonizing form of violence, understanding that one of its central aspects is that it is not only an assault on life but on the conditions of production of sense that make life legible as such. In this context, my project on grammars of listening seeks to carefully unpack these complex intersections while also explaining why I believe that a radical form of listening is an essential subversive/imaginative strategy against traumatic/colonial violence. (shrink)

This paper explores the way in which Agamben takes part in the dialogue on “impolitical communities” that was inaugurated by J. L. Nancy and was soon followed by authors like M. Blanchot, J. Derrida and R. Esposito, among others. Although Agamben’s ontological exploration of ‘whatever being,’ followed later by the political idea of form-of-life, are still very close particularly to Nancy’s work, the article will show in which ways Agamben’s view of a political coming community explores different paths and moves (...) in unusual registers, that help to understand in new ways the kind of inoperativeness involved in a contemporary rethinking of community. The notion of experience of thought as potentiality and its relationship to that “tiny displacement” of the world which Agamben seems to connect with his idea of a coming community will play a central role in the analysis. (shrink)

This essay presents a possible interpretation of the concept of beauty in Kant’s Critique of Judgment, which was itself suggested by Kant in the two introductionsto the text and gained force among the Early German Romantics and Idealists, introducing an alternative point of view into the concept of beauty and the role it plays in the relationship between reason and sensibility, man and world. Through the analysis of the four moments of the Analytic of the Beautiful, beauty will manifest itself (...) as the realm in which a special encounter between human freedom and nature takes place. Therefore, and as an alternative to some traditional interpretations of Kant’s aesthetic investigation, which understand Kant’s judgment of taste exclusively on the basis of its subjective conditions, the judgment of beauty will present itself also in the relationship it establishes with the objects of nature. (shrink)

This paper explores the way in which Agamben takes part in the dialogue on “impolitical communities” that was inaugurated by J. L. Nancy and was soon followed by authors like M. Blanchot, J. Derrida and R. Esposito, among others. Although Agamben’s ontological exploration of ‘whatever being,’ followed later by the political idea of form-of-life, are still very close particularly to Nancy’s work, the article will show in which ways Agamben’s view of a political coming community explores different paths and moves (...) in unusual registers, that help to understand in new ways the kind of inoperativeness involved in a contemporary rethinking of community. The notion of experience of thought as potentiality and its relationship to that “tiny displacement” of the world which Agamben seems to connect with his idea of a coming community will play a central role in the analysis. (shrink)

What would it mean to do justice to testimonies of traumatic experience? That is, how can experiences which do not fit the customary scripts of sense-making be heard? Whereas processes of official memorialization or legal redress often demand that victims and survivors convey their experiences through familiar modes of narration, in my project on ‘grammars of listening’ or ‘gramáticas de lo inaudito’ I want to ask how it might be possible to hear these experiences on their own terms and what (...) the challenges are that we encounter when trying to do so. What I ultimately want to argue is that doing justice to trauma requires a profound philosophical questioning of the conditions that allow us to listen to testimony, and a true reckoning of the responsibility that we bear as listeners. (shrink)

This paper presents an overview of my work in philosophy from my first book on Friedrich Schiller and the political sublime to my most recent project on listening to traumatic forms of violence. Starting with a reflection on the autobiographical character of philosophy, I propose to take up the question of an aesthetic dimension of philosophical critique, where aesthetics is understood as an always already embodied perspective on the world, on truth, and on philosophical activity, as well as an always (...) already political realm, where the distribution of sense pre-determines our approach and articulation of experience. Departing from aesthetics understood and deployed as critique, the paper moves on to ask about the specific frameworks of sense or grammars that determine in advance the conditions of audibility in the realms of memory-building and history-making—particularly in those contexts where historical, political, and institutional forms of violence produce silencing and erasure. Putting in dialogue the latter with decolonial studies, I (re)interpret “traumatic violence” as a colonizing form of violence, understanding that one of its central aspects is that it is not only an assault on life but on the conditions of production of sense that make life legible as such. In this context, my project on grammars of listening seeks to carefully unpack these complex intersections while also explaining why I believe that a radical form of listening is an essential subversive/imaginative strategy against traumatic/colonial violence. (shrink)

El artículo se propone abordar el pensamiento de Aby Warburg acerca de la relación entre imagen, historia e historiografía del arte, a través del trabajo que realiza el autor en su texto “Profecía pagana en palabras e imágenes en la época de Lutero” ). Se trata de mostrar cómo en este texto los distintos niveles y las “polaridades” que se ponen en movimiento para el análisis de la imagen como “símbolo”, coinciden con aquellos niveles y polaridades que para Warburg describen, (...) a la vez, tanto el movimiento de la historia como el de cierta “condición” humana atemporal. De este modo, el artículo busca desentrañar la complejidad de las relaciones involucradas en aquella “ciencia” de la historia de las imágenes que Warburg habría querido inaugurar y poner en práctica, tanto en sus ensayos sobre el paganismo, como, en general, en sus reflexiones y trabajos empíricos posteriores, tales como El ritual de la serpiente y el proyecto Mnemosyne. (shrink)

El presente artículo tiene como tarea principal señalar algunos aspectos que hacen pertinente a la hermenéutica dentro del marco de la discusión política, defendiéndola de los ataques que se le han propugnado sobre todo desde una fi losofía de la conciencia crítica como la de Habermas, Adorno y algunos de sus seguidores. Se mostrará, a partir de Gadamer, cómo la hermenéutica responde a dichas críticas en el marco de su propuesta de la comprensión como tarea fundamental y como espacio político (...) primordial. Frente a una fi losofía que apela a la necesidad de una “toma de distancia” como punto de partida de la crítica, único lugar de una verdadera fi losofía y acción políticas, la hermenéutica de Gadamer presenta una alternativa que vale la pena ser rescatada: es en el diá-logo, en el espacio compartido de la comprensión, más que en la crítica, donde el hombre des-encubre las posibilidades de lo que es, donde se da la apertura de su libertad, y, por consiguiente, donde se desenvuelve, en la acción, antes que en la refl exión, el espacio de lo político. (shrink)

This essay presents a possible interpretation of the concept of beauty in Kant’s Critique of Judgment, which was itself suggested by Kant in the two introductionsto the text and gained force among the Early German Romantics and Idealists, introducing an alternative point of view into the concept of beauty and the role it plays in the relationship between reason and sensibility, man and world. Through the analysis of the four moments of the Analytic of the Beautiful, beauty will manifest itself (...) as the realm in which a special encounter between human freedom and nature takes place. Therefore, and as an alternative to some traditional interpretations of Kant’s aesthetic investigation, which understand Kant’s judgment of taste exclusively on the basis of its subjective conditions, the judgment of beauty will present itself also in the relationship it establishes with the objects of nature. (shrink)

Schiller a été fasciné par la résistance que la beauté oppose à la conceptualisation dans l’esthétique de Kant et l’a associée à une forme de temporalité particulière : l’« arrêt » sur le beau. La thèse que je soutiens est la suivante : le fait que nous nous arrêtions à contempler le beau ouvre pour Schiller une dimension critique au sein de l’esthétique, où l’expérience de la beauté résiste à la violence qui caractérise la modernité et en même temps cet (...) arrêt favorise l’apparition d’une perspective esthétique au sein de la critique en inaugurant une temporalité d’un autre type, en dehors de l’ordre causal des événements, dans laquelle il devient possible de « jouer » librement, et donc de manière critique, avec les déterminations historiques du présent. (shrink)

This document gathers together and translates Heidegger’s notes on Paul Klee that have been published up to now.

This article gives an account of the material on the art of Paul Klee found in the Nachlass of Martin Heidegger and indicates ideas central to Heidegger’s encounter with Klee.

This article is a translation of the third chapter of Part Four of Günter Seubold’s Kunst als Enteignis, 2nd ed.. It discusses Martin Heidegger’s notes on Paul Klee.

This article gives an account of the material on the art of Paul Klee found in the Nachlass of Martin Heidegger and indicates ideas central to Heidegger’s encounter with Klee.

Este texto se propone responder a la pregunta acerca de la relación entre estética y filosofía de la historia a partir del examen de las teorías estéticas de Winckelmann (mediados del s. XVIII) frente a las reflexiones acerca de la historia de Burckhardt (finales del s. XIX), atravesadas ambas por el significado que adquiere en cada una de ellas el concepto de lo clásico. La idea es mostrar cómo una historia del arte como la de Winckelmann, cuyo criterio es el (...) arte griego como canon, trae necesariamente consigo una filosofía de la historia que la sustenta y la hace posible; a la vez que una reflexión sobre la historia como La de Burckhardt, que se presenta a sí misma como una respuesta a la tradición neoclásica y romántica que la precede, refleja tras de sí un pensamiento estético propio. (shrink)

Este texto se propone responder a la pregunta acerca de la relación entre estética y filosofía de la historia a partir del examen de las teorías estéticas de Winckelmann (mediados del s. XVIII) frente a las reflexiones acerca de la historia de Burckhardt (finales del s. XIX), atravesadas ambas por el significado que adquiere en cada una de ellas el concepto de lo clásico. La idea es mostrar cómo una historia del arte como la de Winckelmann, cuyo criterio es el (...) arte griego como canon, trae necesariamente consigo una filosofía de la historia que la sustenta y la hace posible; a la vez que una reflexión sobre la historia como La de Burckhardt, que se presenta a sí misma como una respuesta a la tradición neoclásica y romántica que la precede, refleja tras de sí un pensamiento estético propio. (shrink)

This paper mainly proposes to point out some aspects that render hermeneutics pertinent within the context of political discussion, defending it from attacks mostly stemming from a philosophy of critical consciousness such as Habermas’s, Adorno’s, and some of their followers. It will be shown, from Gadamer’s perspective, how hermeneutics responds to those critiques within its conception of understanding as a fundamental task and a primordial political space. Contrary to a philosophy that appeals to the need of “taking its distance” as (...) a starting point of critique, only place of a true political philosophy and political action, Gadamer’s hermeneutics proposes an alternative that deserves to be considered: it is in dialogue, in the shared space of understanding, rather than in critique, that humans un-veil the possibilities of what is, where the openness of their freedom is given and, consequently, where the space of politics develops –thus in action rather that in reflection. (shrink)

This document gathers together and translates Heidegger’s notes on Paul Klee that have been published up to now.

This article is a translation of the third chapter of Part Four of Günter Seubold’s Kunst als Enteignis, 2nd ed.. It discusses Martin Heidegger’s notes on Paul Klee.

Critique has been a central theme in the German philosophical tradition since the eighteenth century. The main goal of this book is to provide a history of this concept from its Kantian inception to contemporary critical theory. Focusing on both canonical and previously overlooked texts and thinkers, the contributors bring to light alternative conceptions of critique within nineteenth- and twentieth-century German philosophy, which have profound implications for contemporary philosophy. By offering a critical revision of the history of modern European philosophy, (...) this book raises new questions about what it means for philosophy to be “critical” today. (shrink)

En sobre el arte moderno vemos a Klee en la difícil posición de un artista que quiere insistir en la capacidad de sus obras para hablar por sí mismas; pero que sabe, a la vez, de las dificultades que el público puede encontrar para aproximarse por primera vez a composiciones que desafías supuestos ya arraigados acerca de la obra de arte. Este texto es, por tanto, junto con todos esos gestos artísticos que son las obras de Klee, una invitación a (...) mirar de otra manera, a dejar que las obras nos interpelen y a participar del diálogo que ella inauguran. (shrink)

Resumen En esta conversación, María del Rosario Acosta y Jean-Luc Nancy reflexionan sobre los distintos registros de la palabra "murmullo" y la relación que puede establecerse entre cada uno de ellos y la pregunta por la crítica política y de lo político en el pensamiento de Nancy. El aspecto sonoro del murmullo permite acercarse, por un lado, a una reflexión sobre la circulación del sentido en términos de resonancia. Conduce también a la pregunta por la singularidad de la (...) experiencia de la escucha en la constitución de ser-en-común, y por el papel del testimonio -y la desaparición de espacios para su escucha- en medio de las múltiples violencias que afectan nuestro presente histórico. Nancy revisa algunas de sus posturas anteriores frente a estas preguntas, profundiza en otras, y trae a colación temas nuevos que no se encuentran desarrollados en otros de sus escritos. Como texto inédito, esta conversación es un homenaje a su voz en el contexto de su muerte reciente. Nos recuerda que el murmullo de su pensamiento seguirá circulando entre nosotres.In this conversation, María del Rosario Acosta and Jean-Luc Nancy reflect on the different registers of the word "murmur" and the relationship that can be established between each of them and the question of the political and political criticism in the thought of Nancy. The sound aspect of the murmur allows us to approach, on the one hand, a reflection on the circulation of meaning in terms of resonance. It also leads to the question of the uniqueness of the experience of listening in the constitution of being-in-common, and of the role of testimony -and the disappearance of spaces for listening to it- during the multiple violence that affects our historical present. Nancy reviews some of his previous positions on these questions, delves into others, and brings up new themes that are not developed in other of his writings. As a previously unpublished text, this conversation is a tribute to his voice in the context of his recent death. He reminds us that the murmur of his thoughts will continue to circulate. (shrink)