Stasis and Politics: On the Forgotten Role of Violence

• Authors: Zbrzeźniak Urszula
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

One of the major questions emerging in present-day reflections on politics is related to violence and its relation to institutional order and law. In the paper, an issue of concern for a very particular form of political conflict, that is, civil war, is addressed. Violence in politics, and particularly its specific form, that is, stasis (civil war), has been omitted from philosophical reflection on the origins of politics. Contrary to the traditional representation of the constitution of the political sphere, contemporary political philosophy attempts to grasp the fundamental place of violence in politics. This paper will analyze two major ways of representing politics: the traditional one, which suppresses violence, and the contemporary one, which brings to the forefront of reflection the presence of it. The comparison of these two depictions of politics affords us a comprehension of the evolution of contemporary reflection on politics, and deeply modifies how we understand politics. This article focuses on the reinterpretation of the view of politics offered by Nicole Loraux and Chantal Mouffe and discloses the influence of their reflection on our understanding of politics.

Keywords

EN

civil war; conflict; politics; democracy; Mouffe; Loraux; Agamben; Arendt

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 2(8)
• Pages: 40–50

Dates

published

2019-07-31

Contributors

author

Zbrzeźniak Urszula

• Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14394/eidos.jpc.2019.0016