- Melbourne Australia
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Marxism, Hannah Arendt, Constitutional Law, and 18 morePolitical Sciences, Philosophy Of Law, Law, Politics, Biopolitics, Republicanism, Political Theology, Michel Foucault, Sociology of Religion, Democratic Theory, Karl Marx, Giorgio Agamben, Federalism, Constitutional Theory, Machiavelli, Louis Althusser, Vanessa Lemm, and Renaissance Philosophyedit
This article argues that the category of legitimacy stands to benefit from a politico-theological analysis and development. The article engages discussions on the methodology of political theology, and shows what contributions the... more
This article argues that the category of legitimacy stands to benefit from a politico-theological analysis and development. The article engages discussions on the methodology of political theology, and shows what contributions the discourse of political theology can bring to recent debates in the political theory of democracy, anarchism and postcolonialism, and on the nature of the modern state and the modern corporation.
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In this essay we take stock of the shortcomings, successes, and promises of 'biopolitics' to understand and frame global health crises such as COVID-19. We claim that rather than thinking in terms of a special relationship between Western... more
In this essay we take stock of the shortcomings, successes, and promises of 'biopolitics' to understand and frame global health crises such as COVID-19. We claim that rather than thinking in terms of a special relationship between Western modernity and biopolitics, it is better to look at a longer and more global history of populations' politics of life and health to situate present and future responses to ecological crises. Normatively, we argue for an affirmative biopolitics, that at once de-securitizes current approaches to our biosocial condition and expands the politics of the human estate to other molar and molecular dimensions.
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The governmental responses to COVID-19 have emphasized the home as perhaps the central place or space through which to "shut down" the spread of the virus. In this chapter I examine the discourse of planetary health as a function of a new... more
The governmental responses to COVID-19 have emphasized the home as perhaps the central place or space through which to "shut down" the spread of the virus. In this chapter I examine the discourse of planetary health as a function of a new biopolitical and biolegal articulation of the idea of "home" that places at the center of concern questions related to planetary habitability which are still in search of their critical idiom. The chapter analyses the category of habitability in light of biological conceptions of life and its dialectical relation with its environment or habitat. It suggests ways to think biopolitically about planetary habitability, and it discusses the biolegal implications of habitability in relation to modalities of control of mobility that have emerged during the governance of the pandemic.
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This paper discusses Colon-Rios's reconstruction of the idea of constituent power in relation to his interpretations of Rousseau and Schmitt. It distinguishes a republican reading of constituent power as immanent to the juridical order... more
This paper discusses Colon-Rios's reconstruction of the idea of constituent power in relation to his interpretations of Rousseau and Schmitt. It distinguishes a republican reading of constituent power as immanent to the juridical order from Schmitt's attempt to join constituent power with dictatorship.
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This paper discusses the connection between the idea of constituent power and Spinoza's theory of nature as first formulated by Carl Schmitt in the context of the paradox of constitutionalism. The paper argues that Hans Kelsen also... more
This paper discusses the connection between the idea of constituent power and Spinoza's theory of nature as first formulated by Carl Schmitt in the context of the paradox of constitutionalism. The paper argues that Hans Kelsen also employs Spinoza in the confrontation with Schmitt and in order to address this paradox. The paper goes on to suggest a republican conception of constituent power that unites the autonomy of the law with the power of the people that is closer to Kelsen's than to Schmitt's conception of constituent power.
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Roberto Esposito, Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 304 pp., ISBN 978-0816649907 ... Melinda Cooper, Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (Seattle:... more
Roberto Esposito, Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 304 pp., ISBN 978-0816649907 ... Melinda Cooper, Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008), 208 ...
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In this article I propose a conception of "civil religion" to bridge the tension (or dissolve the antinomy) between immanence and transcendence that has characterized Italian Theory to date. This tension is due to the two central... more
In this article I propose a conception of "civil religion" to bridge the tension (or dissolve the antinomy) between immanence and transcendence that has characterized Italian Theory to date. This tension is due to the two central components of Italian Theory, namely, the discourse on biopolitics and the discourse on political theology. In what follows I argue that this conception of "civil religion" originates with Machiavelli and is functional to his vision of democratic constitutionalism. I propose a new genealogy of this conception drawn from the history of the reception of Alfarabi and Averroes in western political thought. The article explains that the difference between civil religion and political theology consists in the former maintaining the priority of worldly happiness over otherworldly salvation. The article concludes with a reflection on how this concept of worldly happiness can serve to contrast the "biopolitical" pursuit of private happiness.
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Recent work on legal personhood and corporations has pointed out the problematic character of such "artificial" legal personality, either because it gives legal protection to "in-human" behavior on the part of corporations, or because it... more
Recent work on legal personhood and corporations has pointed out the problematic character of such "artificial" legal personality, either because it gives legal protection to "in-human" behavior on the part of corporations, or because it unduly employs legal personhood to graft "human" rights protection onto corporations. In both cases, though, the "natural" legal person is employed as standard to criticize the "artificial" legal person. Other legal theorists, on the contrary, have defended the plasticity of legal personhood claiming that it responds better to an ongoing process of de-naturalizing the "human" person, as well as allowing, via "artificial" legal personhood, the application of human rights to nonhuman beings, like rivers, forests and the like. In this chapter I want to bring back a distinction between corporation and trust, according to which the corporations endow groups of actors with one personality "by fiction" whereas the latter refer to a "real personality" of groups. I shall first discuss the crucial consequences that follow from this distinction with respect to: (a) the power relations within a group; (b) the relation between use and ownership; and (c) self vs other-directed purpose of corporations and trusts. I shall then make an argument as to why the idea of a trust may work better as a vehicle for the ascription of legal personality as well as human rights to nonhuman things than the ideas of fictional legal personality and corporate personhood.
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One of the important features of neoliberalism is its adoption of " rule of law " as a fundamental condition for the proper operation of a free market and as a medium for the disembedding of the market from the state. However, " rule of... more
One of the important features of neoliberalism is its adoption of " rule of law " as a fundamental condition for the proper operation of a free market and as a medium for the disembedding of the market from the state. However, " rule of law " is traditionally understood to be one of the defining features of republicanism. How is one to understand this coincidence? And where does the real difference between neoliberalism and neorepublicanism lie? This chapter addresses the changes that neoliberal thought makes to the republican conception of " rule of law " in order to render it functional to its own imperatives, primarily the defence of the " spontaneous order " (Hayek) of the economy with respect to state planning and legislation. The chapter discusses Hayek's adoption of the concept of concrete order (nomos) originally introduced by Schmitt in the early 1930s, and discusses how and why it functions in Hayek's central distinction between " judge-made law " and (parliamentary) " legislation. " By emphasizing the former at the expense of the latter, neoliberal thinking at once diminishes the political power of the people and attempts to steer constitutional thinking and practice towards a mere " negative " constitutionalism that protects the interests of private persons (including corporations) at the expense of the common interests of the people.
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This response discusses the possibility of an affirmative biopolitics based on a materialist and atheist idea of eternal life in light of some of the challenges raised by the critiques of Morejón, Ricciardi, and Fenves. The first... more
This response discusses the possibility of an affirmative biopolitics based on a materialist and atheist idea of eternal life in light of some of the challenges raised by the critiques of Morejón, Ricciardi, and Fenves. The first challenge concerns whether an affirmative biopolitics is at all possible given that biopolitics contains as an imma-nent possibility a racial politics that leads to a " necropolitics " (Mbembe). The second challenge concerns the political character of Italian theory, especially in Agamben, and its relation to communism and republicanism. The third challenge concerns the applicability of recent cosmological speculations for the purpose of joining messianism and historical materialism in Benjamin's thought.
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El estado moderno, con todos sus poderes, es un " poder constituido " y está basado en la representación política. El poder constituyente, por el contrario, es el poder de un pueblo para instituir o desinstituir una forma de Estado.... more
El estado moderno, con todos sus poderes, es un " poder constituido " y está basado en la representación política. El poder constituyente, por el contrario, es el poder de un pueblo para instituir o desinstituir una forma de Estado. Pareciera que tal poder constituyente es completamente extraño a la esfera de la representación y así se ha conceptualizado en recientes discusiones. Este ensayo quiere repensar la relación entre poder constituyente y principio de representación. El ensayo plantea dos argumentos: primero, que el poder del pueblo requiere de un " device of representation " (para usar el termino de Rawls) si quiere ser constituyente. Es decir, se debe de pensar una relación interna entre poder constituyente y representación política. Pero, al mismo tiempo, este ensayo argumenta que la forma de representar al orden constituyente no puede ser ni "monárquica" (o populista) ni "parlamentaria" y que existe una forma de representar al pueblo que no presupone al pueblo ni como una multitud suelta sin poder (Hobbes) ni como algo ya siempre constituido y representado en tanto forma estatal (Sieyès, Schmitt). Esta representación alternativa sería la forma indicativa y no electoral de formar asambleas constituyentes.
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CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abbreviations to the Works of Machiavelli 1. Context: The Renaissance and the Machiavellian “Moment” 2. Overview: The Prince as a Work of Rhetoric and of Philosophy 3. The Seduction of a Prince: Dedication.... more
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations to the Works of Machiavelli
1. Context: The Renaissance and the Machiavellian “Moment”
2. Overview: The Prince as a Work of Rhetoric and of Philosophy
3. The Seduction of a Prince: Dedication.
4. Acquiring State: chapters 1-6.
5. Securing Society: chapters 7-10.
6. Arming the People: chapters 11-14.
7. The New Prince Goes through the Looking Glass: chapters 15-23.
8. Disarming Fortune and the Arming of Heaven: chapters 24-26.
9. Reception and Influence
Notes
Notes for Further Reading
Selective Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations to the Works of Machiavelli
1. Context: The Renaissance and the Machiavellian “Moment”
2. Overview: The Prince as a Work of Rhetoric and of Philosophy
3. The Seduction of a Prince: Dedication.
4. Acquiring State: chapters 1-6.
5. Securing Society: chapters 7-10.
6. Arming the People: chapters 11-14.
7. The New Prince Goes through the Looking Glass: chapters 15-23.
8. Disarming Fortune and the Arming of Heaven: chapters 24-26.
9. Reception and Influence
Notes
Notes for Further Reading
Selective Bibliography
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Research Interests: Hobbes and Rule of Law
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Review essay
Colin Bird, Human Dignity and Political Criticism, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 276 pages
Andrea Sangiovanni, Humanity without Dignity. Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights, Harvard UP 2017, 320 pages
Colin Bird, Human Dignity and Political Criticism, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 276 pages
Andrea Sangiovanni, Humanity without Dignity. Moral Equality, Respect, and Human Rights, Harvard UP 2017, 320 pages
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Étienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth are representative figures of a generation of political theorists who stand under the shooting star of May 1968, the high season of insurrectionary politics in the last half century. The... more
Étienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière and Axel Honneth are representative figures of a generation of political theorists who stand under the shooting star of May 1968, the high season of insurrectionary politics in the last half century. The books under review offer a welcome opportunity to consider the lessons they draw from this event and its aftermath at the twilight of their careers. However, taken as a whole these books also reveal the limits of this style of radical democratic theory which only in a very approximate way has registered the passing of the baton, which occurred roughly during the same period, between a politics aiming at emancipation and a politics of governmentality or biopolitics.
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... The study of the temporal fundaments of liberal democracy advocated by Scheuerman is an important and worthwhile endeavor, but it should be carried out with a view to examining their internal relation to the ... replacement of... more
... The study of the temporal fundaments of liberal democracy advocated by Scheuerman is an important and worthwhile endeavor, but it should be carried out with a view to examining their internal relation to the ... replacement of political power (popular sovereignty) by biopower. ...
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RESUMEN el tema central de esta entrevista es la biopolítica y su situación respecto a las tradiciones de filosofía moderna. asimismo se discute la relación entre las ideologías políticas del siglo XX y el surgimiento de la biopolítica.... more
RESUMEN el tema central de esta entrevista es la biopolítica y su situación respecto a las tradiciones de filosofía moderna. asimismo se discute la relación entre las ideologías políticas del siglo XX y el surgimiento de la biopolítica. por último, la entrevista aborda la ...
In this interview, Professor Miguel Vatter talks about the concept of political theology, its origin and theoretical reception. Professor Vatter also discusses political-theology elements in the thought of Leo Strauss, who is one of the... more
In this interview, Professor Miguel Vatter talks about the concept of political theology, its origin and theoretical reception. Professor Vatter also discusses political-theology elements in the thought of Leo Strauss, who is one of the main authors he worked on. At the end, it proposes a discussion of current issues that are linked to an interpretation of political-theology.
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En esta entrevista Miguel Vatter se refiere a la importancia de El Príncipe al cumplirse 500 años de su escritura. También se pronuncia sobre el renovado interés en la figura de Maquiavelo, particularmente por las nuevas lecturas... more
En esta entrevista Miguel Vatter se refiere a la importancia de El Príncipe al cumplirse 500 años de su escritura. También se pronuncia sobre el renovado interés en la figura de Maquiavelo, particularmente por las nuevas lecturas filosóficas sobre su pensamiento y el aporte que produjo al desarrollo del enfoque republicanista. Asimismo, Vatter profundiza en una de las corrientes de interpretación, el republicanismo radical, que ubica a Maquiavelo como el promotor de la universalidad del pueblo como base social de cualquier Estado legítimo. Para concluir, Vatter analiza algunas premisas maquiavelianas a la luz de los acontecimientos en Chile, destacando los alcances de la discusión sobre el poder constituyente y la gravedad de la crisis de la representación política.
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In the The Republic of the Living, Miguel Vatter offers an original and provocative intervention into the burgeoning field of biopolitical theory. Vatter’s book is erudite, and wide-ranging, stretching form an examination of Greek tragedy... more
In the The Republic of the Living, Miguel Vatter offers an original and provocative intervention into the burgeoning field of biopolitical theory. Vatter’s book is erudite, and wide-ranging, stretching form an examination of Greek tragedy in Hegel’s
account of civil society, through to critical engagements with contemporary biopolitical theorists, including Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito.
account of civil society, through to critical engagements with contemporary biopolitical theorists, including Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito.
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This article discusses an anti-sovranist variant of political theology. Recent work on the sociology of modern constitutionalism has identified its source in the so-called Papal legal revolution that proclaimed the autonomy of the Church... more
This article discusses an anti-sovranist variant of political theology. Recent work on the sociology of modern constitutionalism has identified its source in the so-called Papal legal revolution that proclaimed the autonomy of the Church in relation to the Empire. The claim is that this legal revolution contributed to the "secularization" or de-sacralization of political power and established legality as the principle of legitimacy. This paper critically discusses this genealogy of constitutionalism. It proposes an alternative route to modern secularism and constitutionalism that passes through the reception of Averroistic doctrines in the philosophy of Dante.