Issue 4: The Balibar Edition


Contre- : Bernard E. Harcourt

Is it possible to imagine a concept that is so productive that it leads us beyond the ordinary play of “countermoves in the same game”? Is it conceivable that the particle “contre-” or, in English, “counter-,” could overcome the opposition from which it is born and generate a fully autonomous conceptual form? Not in the Kantian or Hegelian sense of a synthesis that resolves an antinomic opposition.’ …


Contre- : Bernard E. Harcourt

Is it possible to imagine a concept that is so productive that it leads us beyond the ordinary play of “countermoves in the same game”? Is it conceivable that the particle “contre-” or, in English, “counter-,” could overcome the opposition from which it is born and generate a fully autonomous conceptual form? Not in the Kantian or Hegelian sense of a synthesis that resolves an antinomic opposition.’ …


Civil Religion : Judith Butler

In Balibar’s 1985 Spinoza and Politics, he follows a complex and compelling trajectory through Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and the Ethics, to show how a political structure of democracy is articulated through the reflections on religion, specifically on God, law, nature, and love. Spinoza is said to lament the degeneration of religion into superstition on the . . .


Civil Religion : Judith Butler

In Balibar’s 1985 Spinoza and Politics, he follows a complex and compelling trajectory through Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and the Ethics, to show how a political structure of democracy is articulated through the reflections on religion, specifically on God, law, nature, and love. Spinoza is said to lament the degeneration of religion into superstition on the . . .


Concept : Étienne Balibar

It is an extremely perilous task to offer a paper among a collection such as this, and especially to have to do it with a tentative definition of the concept of “concept. But it is also a challenge that I take gladly, because it provides me with a unique occasion to return to some philosophical questions that have occupied me throughout my life for reasons many of which have . . .


Concept : Étienne Balibar

It is an extremely perilous task to offer a paper among a collection such as this, and especially to have to do it with a tentative definition of the concept of “concept. But it is also a challenge that I take gladly, because it provides me with a unique occasion to return to some philosophical questions that have occupied me throughout my life for reasons many of which have . . .


Cosmopolitcs : Emily Apter

In 2015 the news network Al-Jazeera removed the term “migrant” from its coverage and proposed in its place “refugee,” to refer to persons in transit, specifically, those fleeing from regions of war, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, economic and environmental catastrophe. Al-Jazeera’s action recognizes that the lexicology of migration is fraught . . .


Cosmopolitcs : Emily Apter

In 2015 the news network Al-Jazeera removed the term “migrant” from its coverage and proposed in its place “refugee,” to refer to persons in transit, specifically, those fleeing from regions of war, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, economic and environmental catastrophe. Al-Jazeera’s action recognizes that the lexicology of migration is fraught . . .


Interior Frontiers : Ann Laura Stoler

This moment in which I write is one for which we should have been prepared: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and Geert Wilders are no longer on distant dark horizons: they are dead center in forging the political cleavages of our times. They are singular crusaders but they are not alone. They operate through racialized distinctions and fears to which we might have . . .


Interior Frontiers : Ann Laura Stoler

This moment in which I write is one for which we should have been prepared: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and Geert Wilders are no longer on distant dark horizons: they are dead center in forging the political cleavages of our times. They are singular crusaders but they are not alone. They operate through racialized distinctions and fears to which we might have . . .


Materialism : Patrice Maniglier

The concept I have chosen is not just one political concept among others; it is the concept of the politicality of concepts in general. This concept is materialism. Some might object that it is not a political but rather a metaphysical concept, and even that it is not a concept at all, but rather a doctrine, that is a system of concepts, or maybe just an Idea or an . . .


Materialism : Patrice Maniglier

The concept I have chosen is not just one political concept among others; it is the concept of the politicality of concepts in general. This concept is materialism. Some might object that it is not a political but rather a metaphysical concept, and even that it is not a concept at all, but rather a doctrine, that is a system of concepts, or maybe just an Idea or an . . .


The Political : Adi Ophir

Half way through his argument in “The Proposition of Equaliberty,” precisely in the middle of the text, Balibar writes: “There will be a permanent tension between the conditions that historically determine the construction of institutions that conform to the proposition of equaliberty and the excessive, hyperbolic universality of the statement. Nevertheless, . . .


The Political : Adi Ophir

Half way through his argument in “The Proposition of Equaliberty,” precisely in the middle of the text, Balibar writes: “There will be a permanent tension between the conditions that historically determine the construction of institutions that conform to the proposition of equaliberty and the excessive, hyperbolic universality of the statement. Nevertheless, . . .


Punishment : Didier Fassin

Is punishment a political concept? Indeed, as a concept, it has been mostly discussed by moral philosophers and legal theorists, who have defended the importance of distinguishing between definition (supposedly value-neutral) and justification (definitely value-laden), between the institution in general (viewed as justified) and the act . . .


Punishment : Didier Fassin

Is punishment a political concept? Indeed, as a concept, it has been mostly discussed by moral philosophers and legal theorists, who have defended the importance of distinguishing between definition (supposedly value-neutral) and justification (definitely value-laden), between the institution in general (viewed as justified) and the act . . .


Rights : J.M. Bernstein

Étienne Balibar’s political philosophy innovates a complex constellation of concepts aimed at reviving and renewing the great tradition of radical democracy. Equaliberty, citizenship, intensive universality, civility, constituent power, structural violence, insurrection and transformation, and the democratizing of democracy are all plausible candidates for concepts . . .


Rights : J.M. Bernstein

Étienne Balibar’s political philosophy innovates a complex constellation of concepts aimed at reviving and renewing the great tradition of radical democracy. Equaliberty, citizenship, intensive universality, civility, constituent power, structural violence, insurrection and transformation, and the democratizing of democracy are all plausible candidates for concepts . . .