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Title Details:
Post-critical liberalism and militant freedom as an example of thought
Authors: Kioupkiolis, Alexandros
Reviewer: Sevastakis, Nikolaos
Description:
Abstract:
In recent decades, thought on freedom has been marked and permeated by a set of shared themes that have led to its broader, agonistic rearticulation: the polemic against universal discourse, the limits of the human subject, and the critique of essentialism. A wide range of liberal and other thinkers — from Joseph Raz (1986) and Richard Flathman (2003) to Michel Foucault (1984a, 1988), Roberto Unger (2001), and Cornelius Castoriadis (1985, 1990) — have outlined new ideas of freedom in overlapping ways and through related logics. Across these theoretical frameworks, the subject of freedom is described through the lens of processes of social construction. Agents of action are stripped of fixed essences or any specific, universal conception of the good. Freedom, accordingly, is always bounded, incomplete, and episodic. The argument that follows engages with this broader problematic — its openings, stakes, and limitations. Agonistic self-creation is placed within its contemporary context in order to clarify how and why it proposes an upgraded and more “virtuous” practice of freedom for our time. From a perspective that foregrounds conflict, questioning, and creative transformation, the analysis offers a critique of new conceptions of liberal autonomy that emerged in the wake of various attacks on the autonomous subject, extending beyond the accounts of Castoriadis and Foucault discussed in the previous chapters. It then turns to a systematic comparison of these two thinkers, deepening the exploration of their convergences and divergences in interpreting agonistic autonomy. Finally, it undertakes a response to the now-stereotypical criticism directed at agonistic autonomy — that it is egoistic, immoral, or politically indifferent.
Graphic Editors: Bozionelos, Gavriil
Type: Chapter
Creation Date: 2015
Item Details:
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/gr
Handle http://hdl.handle.net/11419/4817
Bibliographic Reference: Kioupkiolis, A. (2015). Post-critical liberalism and militant freedom as an example of thought [Chapter]. In Kioupkiolis, A. 2015. Philosophies of freedom [Undergraduate textbook]. Kallipos, Open Academic Editions. https://hdl.handle.net/11419/4817
Language: Greek
Is Part of: Philosophies of freedom
Publication Origin: Kallipos, Open Academic Editions