Development : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

A gradual unfolding, a bringing into fuller view; a fuller disclosure or working out of the details of anything, as a plan, a scheme, the plot of a novel. Also quasi-concr. that in which the fuller unfolding is embodied or realized. The economic advancement of a region or people, esp. one currently under-developed. This consideration leads us to what is. . .

Development : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

A gradual unfolding, a bringing into fuller view; a fuller disclosure or working out of the details of anything, as a plan, a scheme, the plot of a novel. Also quasi-concr. that in which the fuller unfolding is embodied or realized. The economic advancement of a region or people, esp. one currently under-developed. This consideration leads us to what is. . .

Disappearance : Joan Cocks

Niccolò Machiavelli once quipped that “men are much more interested in present things than in those that are past,” a remark matched in its insouciance towards the “once was” by Leon Trotsky’s declaration that “the first secret of the dialectic . . . [is] that there is nothing unchanging on this earth, and that society is made out of plastic materials.” Both men are partly right. . .

Disappearance : Joan Cocks

Niccolò Machiavelli once quipped that “men are much more interested in present things than in those that are past,” a remark matched in its insouciance towards the “once was” by Leon Trotsky’s declaration that “the first secret of the dialectic . . . [is] that there is nothing unchanging on this earth, and that society is made out of plastic materials.” Both men are partly right. . .

Ecstasy : Stephen Bush

Ecstasy is disruptive, unusual, episodic: the term typically denotes the momentary puncture of our ordinary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. But it might very well also be an ongoing condition. Some philosophers and social theorists have characterized subjectivity as permanently ecstatic. They say we are in some sense always outside ourselves. Neither our skin. . .

Ecstasy : Stephen Bush

Ecstasy is disruptive, unusual, episodic: the term typically denotes the momentary puncture of our ordinary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. But it might very well also be an ongoing condition. Some philosophers and social theorists have characterized subjectivity as permanently ecstatic. They say we are in some sense always outside ourselves. Neither our skin. . .

Enough : Jacques Lezra

Politics is concerned with what is or is not enough; it takes shape when I judge something to be insufficient for something to obtain; and when I make a claim based on this judgment. The rules for obtaining whatever it is that I desire (a state of affairs or a matter of fact; something abstract, like the “truth,” “freedom,” or “security”; or being-with someone; or something. . .

Enough : Jacques Lezra

Politics is concerned with what is or is not enough; it takes shape when I judge something to be insufficient for something to obtain; and when I make a claim based on this judgment. The rules for obtaining whatever it is that I desire (a state of affairs or a matter of fact; something abstract, like the “truth,” “freedom,” or “security”; or being-with someone; or something. . .

Equality : Collaboration

Being a lexical enterprise, Political Concepts revolves around what is probably the quintessential philosophical question at least since Socrates: “What is X?” Socrates’ basic idea, much like that of the current lexicon, is that the everyday use of concepts is often problematic. The attempt to define what some X is, even when it does not reach a definite. . .

Equality : Collaboration

Being a lexical enterprise, Political Concepts revolves around what is probably the quintessential philosophical question at least since Socrates: “What is X?” Socrates’ basic idea, much like that of the current lexicon, is that the everyday use of concepts is often problematic. The attempt to define what some X is, even when it does not reach a definite. . .

Exploitation: Étienne Balibar

When I proposed “exploitation” as a contribution for this conference, I thought I would vindicate the political character of Marxism in the framework of an Encyclopedia of “political concepts” in the making, since everybody knows that this is one of Marxism’s central notions and that it characterizes Marxism’s way of overcoming separations between. . .

Exploitation: Étienne Balibar

When I proposed “exploitation” as a contribution for this conference, I thought I would vindicate the political character of Marxism in the framework of an Encyclopedia of “political concepts” in the making, since everybody knows that this is one of Marxism’s central notions and that it characterizes Marxism’s way of overcoming separations between. . .

Free Indirect: Timothy Bewes

“Free indirect discourse” and “free indirect style” are familiar terms in narrative theory, where they designate a mode of representing the speech or thoughts of a fictional character in the third person—directly, but without using quotation. Contrary to what is sometimes supposed, free indirect discourse is not in itself a technique of ambiguity. When Virginia Woolf. . .

Free Indirect: Timothy Bewes

“Free indirect discourse” and “free indirect style” are familiar terms in narrative theory, where they designate a mode of representing the speech or thoughts of a fictional character in the third person—directly, but without using quotation. Contrary to what is sometimes supposed, free indirect discourse is not in itself a technique of ambiguity. When Virginia Woolf. . .

Hope : Bruce Robbins

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. One rarely hears this famous formula mentioned except with approval, and that is remarkable for a formula that is mentioned so often. When we pronounce these by now almost ritualized words, we feel that we are being properly tough-minded but that we are simultaneously managing as we feel is our paradoxical duty . . .

Hope : Bruce Robbins

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. One rarely hears this famous formula mentioned except with approval, and that is remarkable for a formula that is mentioned so often. When we pronounce these by now almost ritualized words, we feel that we are being properly tough-minded but that we are simultaneously managing as we feel is our paradoxical duty . . .

Horror : Kiarina Kordela

Other differences notwithstanding, theoreticians tend to concur in that horror is not a cognitive but a physiological or affective extra-discursive state of being. Not unlike the state of having fever or feeling nausea, horror is a state of being, whose manifestation, based on the etymologies of the Greek φρικη [frike] and the Latin horror, may be . . .

Horror : Kiarina Kordela

Other differences notwithstanding, theoreticians tend to concur in that horror is not a cognitive but a physiological or affective extra-discursive state of being. Not unlike the state of having fever or feeling nausea, horror is a state of being, whose manifestation, based on the etymologies of the Greek φρικη [frike] and the Latin horror, may be . . .

Human/Animal : Stathis Gourgouris

My interest on this occasion is not to test the traditional humanist human-animal distinction, which in recent years has been examined in inventive ways, sometimes under the rubric of so-called posthumanism or animal studies. On the contrary, one might say that I am—for the purposes of argument—abolishing the distinction in the name of raising the possibility of. . .

Human/Animal : Stathis Gourgouris

My interest on this occasion is not to test the traditional humanist human-animal distinction, which in recent years has been examined in inventive ways, sometimes under the rubric of so-called posthumanism or animal studies. On the contrary, one might say that I am—for the purposes of argument—abolishing the distinction in the name of raising the possibility of. . .

Impolitic : Emily Apter

Impolitic, used as an adjective, hardly stands out as a high-performing political concept or premier Untranslatable on the order of the citoyen-sujet, partisano, subaltern, party hack, unpolitical man (as in Thomas Mann’s 1918 Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen (Reflections of an Unpolitical Man), or der Untertan (the title of Heinrich Mann’s 1914 novel. . .

Impolitic : Emily Apter

Impolitic, used as an adjective, hardly stands out as a high-performing political concept or premier Untranslatable on the order of the citoyen-sujet, partisano, subaltern, party hack, unpolitical man (as in Thomas Mann’s 1918 Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen (Reflections of an Unpolitical Man), or der Untertan (the title of Heinrich Mann’s 1914 novel. . .

Intelligence : Oded Zipory

A common discussion of the concept of intelligence is taking place in the discourse of psychology, which considers the most effective and reliable ways to measure this concept. This discussion also deals with the tension between the biological and the social foundations of intelligence, and mainly through an elaboration upon this tension, the context in which the. . .

Intelligence : Oded Zipory

A common discussion of the concept of intelligence is taking place in the discourse of psychology, which considers the most effective and reliable ways to measure this concept. This discussion also deals with the tension between the biological and the social foundations of intelligence, and mainly through an elaboration upon this tension, the context in which the. . .

Katechon : Peter Szendy

When one looks up the entry for the verb katechō in an ancient Greek dictionary—let us say the Liddell and Scott—, one finds: to hold fast, to hold back, to withhold, to check, to restrain, to bridle, to detain, to inhibit, to gain possession of, to be master of, to control, to possess, to occupy, to fill, to be spread over, to cover. The polysemy of the word is restrained, though, or . . .

Katechon : Peter Szendy

When one looks up the entry for the verb katechō in an ancient Greek dictionary—let us say the Liddell and Scott—, one finds: to hold fast, to hold back, to withhold, to check, to restrain, to bridle, to detain, to inhibit, to gain possession of, to be master of, to control, to possess, to occupy, to fill, to be spread over, to cover. The polysemy of the word is restrained, though, or . . .

Missing : Thangam Ravindranathan

Missing is not so much a concept here as a conceit, a trick, and I cannot say for sure whether I am the one playing the trick or the one tricked. Here’s how I might quickly tell this sticky, burdensome, embarrassing tale, less like an albatross than like a dog. There is a part of me that feels secretly, inordinately anxious in the presence of concepts. Do not worry, I said to . . .

Missing : Thangam Ravindranathan

Missing is not so much a concept here as a conceit, a trick, and I cannot say for sure whether I am the one playing the trick or the one tricked. Here’s how I might quickly tell this sticky, burdensome, embarrassing tale, less like an albatross than like a dog. There is a part of me that feels secretly, inordinately anxious in the presence of concepts. Do not worry, I said to . . .

Moral : Steven Lukes

Is the concept moral a political concept and, if so, in what ways? To address this as yet opaque question we must first recognize that the meanings of both ‘moral’ and ‘political’ are multiple and controversial. Some initial semantic underlaboring is therefore necessary to clear the way forward and this will inevitably involve stipulating, albeit provisionally, definitions of. . .

Moral : Steven Lukes

Is the concept moral a political concept and, if so, in what ways? To address this as yet opaque question we must first recognize that the meanings of both ‘moral’ and ‘political’ are multiple and controversial. Some initial semantic underlaboring is therefore necessary to clear the way forward and this will inevitably involve stipulating, albeit provisionally, definitions of. . .

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