Lawin Modern Society Lawin Modern Society

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Lawin Modern Society Lawin Modern Society LAWIN MODERN SOCIETY LAWIN MODERN SOCIETY Toward a Criticism of Social Theory Roberto Mangabeira Unger l�I THE FREE PRESS New York lffil THE FREE PRESS 1230 Avenueof theAmericas New York, NY 10020 Copyright© 1976 by RobertoMangabeira Unger All rights reserved, including theright of reproduction in whole or in partin anyform. THE FREEPRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc. First Free Press Paperback Edition 1977 Manufacturedin the United Statesof America Paperbound printing number 10 Unger,Library ofRoberto Congress Mangabeira. Cataloging in Publication Data Law in modern society. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sociological jurisprudence. I. Title. Law 34o.1'15 74-27853 ISBN 0-02-932880-2 pbk. NOTE This study builds upon my Knowledge and Politics (Free Press, 1975). To make the present work intelligibleto readers unfamiliar with Knowledge and Politics, it wa,; necessary in some cases to restate ideas developed in the earlier book. CONTENTS CHAPTER1. The Predicament of Social Theory 1 The "burden of the past" in social theory 1 Social theory and political philosophy 3 The unity and crisis of social theory 6 The problem of method 8 The problem of social order 23 The problem of modernity 37 Human nature and history 40 Law 43 CHAPTER2. Law and the Forms of Society 47 The problem 47 Three concepts of law 48 The emergence of bureaucratic law 58 The separation of state and society 58 The disintegration of community 61 The division of labor and social hierarchy 63 The tension within bureaucratic law 64 The emergence of a legal order 66 Group pluralism 66 Natural law 76 Liberal society and higher law 83 VII viii I Contents The Chinese case: a comparative analysis 86 The hypothesis 86 Custom and "feudalism" in early China 88 The transformation period: from custom to bureaucratic law 96 Confucianists and Legalises 105 Limits of the Chinese comparison: the experience of other civilizations 110 The sacred laws of ancient India, Islam, and Israel 110 The Graeco-Roman variant 120 Law as a response to the decline of order 127 CHAPTER 3. Law and Modernity 134 The perspective of modernization 134 The comparison of societies: a preliminary framework 13 7 Elements 137 Tribal society 140 Liberal society 143 Aristocratic society 147 Social change 15 3 Law and European aristocratic society 155 Between feudalism and liberalism 15 5 Law in the Sta"ndestaat 158 Liberal society and its law 166 Consensus 166 Hierarchy 170 Law and the state I 7 6 Law, bureaucracy, and liberalism: a German example 181 The disintegration of the rule of law in postliberal society 192 Contents I ix Posdiberal society 192 The welfare state and the decline of the rule �� 1� The corporate state and the attack on public and positive law 200 Formality, equity, and solidarity 203 The retreat from legality: the German story continued 216 Beyond liberal society 220 The varieties of modernity 223 Comparing modern societies 223 Traditionalistic society 224 Revolutionary socialist society 2 31 The unity of modernism 234 Law beyond modern society: two possibilities 238 CHAPTER 4. The Predicament of Social Theory Revisited 243 Revisiting social theory 243 The problem of method 245 The problem of social order 262 The problem of modernity 265 Social theory, metaphysics, and politics 266 Notes 269 Index 297 1 THE PREDICAMENT OF SOCIAL THEORY THE "BURDEN OF THE PAST" IN SOCIAL THEORY1 It is a commonplace that great men impose a burden upon those who come after them. When there has been remarkable achievement in politics, art, or thought, the generation that followsin its wake, and benefits fromit, may suffer the paralyzing sense that nothing really important remains to be done. It may feel that the most brilliant oppor­ tunities have already been explored and turned to advantage. As a result, the successors seem faced with a dilemma: either they become mere caretakers of the monuments the great have left them, or, desirous of independence, but despairing of excellence, they drastically narrow their ambitions and set out to till, with technical proficiency, a small field. In the history of speculative thought, this dilemma assumes a characteristic form. On one hand, the epigones 1 2 / LAW IN MODERN SOCIETY may become exegetes of the classical texts even while they are guilt ridden by the loss of their autonomy. On the other hand, they may pretend that the preceding era belongs to some obscure prehistory of their science, in which it was still possible to work unhampered by distinctions among disci­ plines. They embrace specialization as an alternative that protects them from comparison with their forerunners at the cost of condemning them to a sort of permanent intellectual minority. Both these responses to the problem of following an age of extraordinary accomplishments are failuresof the mind and of the heart. They represent refusals to look straight into the face of greatness and to imitate, boldly and honestly, what one admires. Such cowardice exacts a high price, for it leads scholars to a secret disrespect of self, masked by a defensive skepticism about general speculation. In this situation, the only way people have to affirm their own identities is to quibble with details in their masters' work-to seek the glory of the Crab, which figures in the Zodiac because it bit the heel of Hercules. 2 There are circumstances in which these attitudes may be harder or easier to avoid. Once a long period of time has passed since the age of greatness, it becomes simpler to stand on one's own feet. The thinkers under whose shadow one lives may be defined as classics. This act of defining the masterpieces of most immediate concern to one as classics may have a curiously liberating effect. For it means that one is already able to acknowledge and to emulate a past generation of theorists while retaining a sense of the uniqueness of his own situation and of the dignity of the tasks that remain to be carried out. Thus, he need no longer fear to confess that the unresolved problems in their work are his own problems, and he is free to enter into a partnership with them. Everything that has been said in the preceding para­ graphs about the relationship between greatness and posterity The Predicamentof Social Theory I 3 applies to our attitude toward the men who, in the latter half of the nineteenth century and in the first decades of the twentieth, created what has come to be known as social theory. One thinks especially of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Much of social thought since their time has been divided betweencommentary on theirdoctrines or specializa­ tion within the traditions they established. The further away these specialized fields move from the original ambitions of the founders, and the more they pretend to scientific inde­ pendence, the less enlightening they seem to become. Yet, from many sides, it appears increasingly true that we can begin to see Marx, Durkheim, and Weber as classics, and to view what they produced as a classical social theory in contrast to the long tradition of political philosophy that preceded it. SOCIAL THEORY AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Social theory is the study of society whose characteristic features began to appear in the writings of Montesquieu, his contemporaries, and successors and which reached a sort of culmination in the works of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. It first established its identity by contrast to the political thought of the ancients and the Schoolmen. Two features chiefly distinguish it from the earlier tradition: one has to do with its conception of its own aim and method; the other with a view of the relation between human nature and history. Both aspects are familiar enough, but their implications for the central issues of social thought remain misunderstood. The political philosophy of the ancients was at once descriptive and prescriptive. This means much more than that it was interested in determining how society ought co be organized or that it cried co put its views of the individual and of society to practical use, for both things may be said of much 4 / LAW IN MODERN SOCIETY modern social theory. It signifies that the method employed by the traditional theory was one to which the distinction between fact and value, description and evaluation, was largely, though not wholly, alien. One who understood what individuals in society really were would also apprehend what they ought to be. At the heart of this doctrine lay a view of the relation between purpose and being and a corresponding vision of the laws that govern both nature and society. Every being strives to accom­ plish its inherent purpose or good, which is the more perfect realization of its own nature. In so doing, it also serves God's plan. Man's consciousness consists of the factthat he does not instinctively know his aim; he must discover it by thought. Consequently, he has the power to deviate from it. The striving for fulfillment of purpose imparts to all phenomena a certain regularity that is perceived as obedience to law. Such laws, determinative of the good and established by God, show us both what things are like and what they ought to become. In this tradition of thought, there is little or no place for distinctions between (a) descriptive or explana­ tory laws about the interrelations of natural or social phenom­ ena and (b) moral or political rules designed co determine how individuals should act. The contrasts of fact and value, of science and moral judgment, and thereforealso of law in the descriptive and the prescriptive sense are among the main themes in the tradition of social theory, as well as in the growth of the natural sciences.
Recommended publications
  • Shang Yang 商鞅 and Legalist 法家 Reform in the Ancient Chinese State of Qin 秦
    SHANG YANG 商鞅 AND LEGALIST 法家 REFORM IN THE ANCIENT CHINESE STATE OF QIN 秦 Daniel HAITAS Abstract Legalism has played a major role in the history of the Chinese legal and governmental tradition. One of the major exponents and formulators of this school of thought in ancient times was Shang Yang, an official in the state of Qin. Shang Yang oversaw a program of law reform in Qin in such areas as criminal law and the economic life of the country which aimed to strengthen the power of the state. This can be said to have had long term consequences for both Chinese and world history, in that the strengthening and reorganization of Qin along the lines of Legalist principles helped lead to its gaining preeminence amongst the other states vying for influence in the Warring States period, ultimately leading to the unification of China under the rule of the Qin dynasty. Keywords: Shang Yang, Legalism, law reform, Qin state, criminal law, economic regulation. that would be known among the general population, which included a system of strict punishments to be 1. Introduction applied equally to all. Additionally, he implemented Throughout much of the history of the Chinese reforms that favoured agriculture at the expense of legal and governmental tradition, two different schools commerce. of thought have been portrayed as competing and This study particularly draws on the Book of Lord coexisting at the same time; these are the Legalists 法 Shang 商君書, the earliest surviving and foundational 1 家 and the Confucians 儒家 . Both sought to maintain text of the Legalist school whose authorship is 7 social order, yet differed in the primary methods attributed to Shang Yang .
    [Show full text]
  • Consuetudine, Coutume, Gewohnheit and Ius Commune: an Introduction
    Zeitschri des Max-Planck-Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte Rechts R Journal of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History geschichte g Rechtsgeschichte Legal History www.rg.mpg.de http://www.rg-rechtsgeschichte.de/rg24 Rg 24 2016 234 – 243 Zitiervorschlag: Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History Rg 24 (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/rg24/234-243 Emanuele Conte Consuetudine, Coutume, Gewohnheit and Ius Commune. An Introduction Dieser Beitrag steht unter einer Creative Commons cc-by-nc-nd 3.0 Abstract Various views of the historical phenomenon of custom coexist in the world’s legal historical schol- arship. Some scholars hold that customs are the primary feature of a people’s autonomy and self- determination in the permanent struggle against the »imperialist« attitudes of major powers. Others try to stay closer to historical sources, where the concept of custom has apparently served as a tool of argumentation that has proven very useful in defending the jurisdictional rights of collective subjects, such as cities, religious communities or regional powers. The key to correctly understanding medieval theories of custom is the relationship between custom and the ius commune. The latter is the complex of normative authorities and doctrinal interpretations produced by jurists from the 12th to the 15th century. This relationship was not as conflictual as some of the legal historical literature depicts. Some examples regarding serfdom, private peace and customary procedures of evidence show how complicated the intertwining of the ius com- mune, customary laws and municipal statutes in thelateMiddleAgescanbe. □× Rg 24 2016 Emanuele Conte Consuetudine, Coutume, Gewohnheit and Ius Commune. An Introduction The issue of the relation between local custom- an extremely strong School of »Germanists« that ary laws and the »common law« (ius commune) is had detached themselves from the typical method- at the root of an imposing tradition of historical ology of the pandectistic scholarship.
    [Show full text]
  • French and German Cultural Cooperation, 1925-1954 Elana
    The Cultivation of Friendship: French and German Cultural Cooperation, 1925-1954 Elana Passman A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History Chapel Hill 2008 Approved by: Dr. Donald M. Reid Dr. Christopher R. Browning Dr. Konrad H. Jarausch Dr. Alice Kaplan Dr. Lloyd Kramer Dr. Jay M. Smith ©2008 Elana Passman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT ELANA PASSMAN The Cultivation of Friendship: French and German Cultural Cooperation, 1925-1954 (under the direction of Donald M. Reid) Through a series of case studies of French-German friendship societies, this dissertation investigates the ways in which activists in France and Germany battled the dominant strains of nationalism to overcome their traditional antagonism. It asks how the Germans and the French recast their relationship as “hereditary enemies” to enable them to become partners at the heart of today’s Europe. Looking to the transformative power of civic activism, it examines how journalists, intellectuals, students, industrialists, and priests developed associations and lobbying groups to reconfigure the French-German dynamic through cultural exchanges, bilingual or binational journals, conferences, lectures, exhibits, and charitable ventures. As a study of transnational cultural relations, this dissertation focuses on individual mediators along with the networks and institutions they developed; it also explores the history of the idea of cooperation. Attempts at rapprochement in the interwar period proved remarkably resilient in the face of the prevalent nationalist spirit. While failing to override hostilities and sustain peace, the campaign for cooperation adopted a new face in the misguided shape of collaborationism during the Second World War.
    [Show full text]
  • Emanuel J. Mickel Ganelon After Oxford the Conflict Between Roland
    Emanuel J. Mickel Ganelon After Oxford The conflict between Roland and Ganelon and the subsequent trial form an important part of the Chanson de Roland. How one looks at the trial and Ganelon's role in the text bears significantly on one's interpretation of the epic. While most critics acknowledge that Roland is the hero of the chanson and Ganelon the traitor, many, perhaps a majority, find flaws in Roland's character or conduct and accept the argument that Ganelon had some justification for his actions in the eyes of Charlemagne's barons and, perhaps, in the view of the medieval audience. Roland, of course, is blamed for desmesure and Ganelon is justified by the argument that his open defiance of Roland and the peers in the council scene gave him the right, according to the ancient Germanic ethical and legal code, to take vengeance on his declared adversaries. Proponents of this thesis allege that the Chanson de Roland, a text which they date to the eleventh century, reflects a growing tension and conflict between the powerful feudal barons and the growing power of the monarchy.1 The barons represent the traditions and custom law of a decentralized state where the king is primus inter pares, but essentially a baron like themselves. As the French monarchy grew in strength and was bolstered in a theoretical sense by the centralizing themes of Roman law, conflict between the crown and the nobility became apparent.2 1 For specific analysis of the trial in terms of allegedly older Germanic tradition, see Ruggero Ruggieri, Il Processo di Gano nella Chanson de Roland (Firenze: Sansoni, 1936); also George F.
    [Show full text]
  • The Use of Philosophers by the Supreme Court Neomi Raot
    A Backdoor to Policy Making: The Use of Philosophers by the Supreme Court Neomi Raot The Supreme Court's decisions in Vacco v Quill' and Wash- ington v Glucksberg2 held that a state can ban assisted suicide without violating the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. In these high profile cases, six phi- losophers filed an amicus brief ("Philosophers'Brief') that argued for the recognition of a constitutional right to die.3 Although the brief was written by six of the most prominent American philoso- phers-Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Thomas Scanlon, and Judith Jarvis Thomson-the Court made no mention of the brief in unanimously reaching the oppo- site conclusion.4 In light of the Court's recent failure to engage philosophical arguments, this Comment examines the conditions under which philosophy does and should affect judicial decision making. These questions are relevant in considering the proper role of the Court in controversial political questions and are central to a recent de- bate focusing on whether the law can still be considered an autonomous discipline that relies only on traditional legal sources. Scholars concerned with law and economics and critical legal studies have argued that the law is no longer autonomous, but rather that it does and should draw on many external sources in order to resolve legal disputes. Critics of this view have main- tained that legal reasoning is distinct from other disciplines, and that the law has and should maintain its own methods, conven- tions, and conclusions. This Comment follows the latter group of scholars, and ar- gues that the Court should, as it did in the right-to-die cases, stay clear of philosophy and base its decisions on history, precedent, and a recognition of the limits of judicial authority.
    [Show full text]
  • On Progressive Alternative: Unger Versus Žižek
    Original Paper UDC 165.741:141.82Unger, R.M., Žižek, S. 177:32 Received January 13th, 2010 Lenart Škof University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities in Koper, Department of Philosophy, Titov trg 5, SI–6000 Koper [email protected] On Progressive Alternative: Unger versus Žižek Abstract In the paper we discuss the question of the future of democracy within some current projects of the emancipatory politics. We first critically approach Žižek’s and Badiou’s well-known revitalization of the idea of communism and link their projects to the burning issues of inequalities in the world system. Following this approach we elaborate on R.M. Unger’s recent book The Self Awakened and both defend his version of radicalized pragmatism and enlarge some of his uses of pragmatism (divinization, awakening of the self) to wider politico-ethical contexts. Key words pragmatism, democracy, emancipatory politics, Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, Roberto Man- gabeira Unger I In his recent book The Self Awakened, Roberto Mangabeira Unger presents the reader with the credo of his radicalized pragmatism as a program of social reconstruction. He writes: “A radicalized pragmatism is the operational ideology of the shortening of the distance between context-preserving and context-transforming activities. It is thus a program of permanent revo- lution – however, a program so conceived that the word ‘revolution’ is robbed of all romantic otherworldliness and reconciled to the everydayness of life as it is.”1 For the pragmatist Unger, “the shortening of the distance” is a mark of practi- cal progress as needed in times of economic and social instability.
    [Show full text]
  • Harvard Theological Review Literature on Church History
    Harvard Theological Review http://journals.cambridge.org/HTR Additional services for Harvard Theological Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Literature on Church History, 1914–1920. II. The Mediaeval Church Gustav Krüger Harvard Theological Review / Volume 15 / Issue 04 / October 1922, pp 323 - 405 DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000001577, Published online: 03 November 2011 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/ abstract_S0017816000001577 How to cite this article: Gustav Krüger (1922). Literature on Church History, 1914–1920. II. The Mediaeval Church. Harvard Theological Review, 15, pp 323-405 doi:10.1017/S0017816000001577 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/HTR, IP address: 128.122.253.212 on 07 May 2015 LITERATURE ON CHURCH HISTORY IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND, HOLLAND, AND THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES, 1914-1920 GUSTAV KRUGER PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN GIESSEN, GERMANY II. THE MEDIAEVAL CHURCH CONTENTS I. General 325 II. Early Mediaeval Christianity (a) Sources 335 (b) Monographs 337 III. The Empire and the Church (a) Sources 342 (b) Monographs 343 IV. The Papacy (a) Sources 851 (b) Monographs 854 V. Bishops and Bishoprics (a) Sources 358 (b) Monographs 360 VI. Councils 361 VII. Ecclesiastical Law and Liturgy 362 VIII. Saints, Monks, and Monasteries (a) General 865 (b) Saints and Monastic Orders 368 IX. Scholastic Philosophy and Theology (a) Texts 379 (b) Scholastic Philosophers 885 X. The German Mystics 896 XI. Reformers 899 XII. Norwegian Church History 402 823 324 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW ABBREVIATIONS AAB Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. AGW Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen.
    [Show full text]
  • Repointing the Constitution
    Final Version (for publication) Repointing the Constitution By Janice Rogers Brown United States Circuit Judge United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Joseph Story Lecture The Heritage Foundation Wednesday, October 22, 2014 5:30 PM The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE Washington, D.C. 20002 First, I want to thank The Heritage Foundation for asking me to deliver this year’s Joseph Story Lecture. I am honored and intimidated to be in such august company. I especially want to express my gratitude to Ed Meese for his friendship, for his many kindnesses, and for being such a mensch. For those of you who do not speak Yiddish, it means a man of integrity and honor. But for General Meese’s courage and integrity, conversations like this one would be pointless. We are all indebted beyond anything we could repay because he took seriously his oath to support and defend the Constitution. This is where I usually offer my caveats: I am not a scholar, or a philosopher, and certainly not a theologian. Today I speak only as a conservative – one who has the good fortune to be particularly ill-educated. Having escaped an Ivy League Education, I now find myself free to think however I like. As a conservative, I spend my time thinking about the present evils of the world, unlike my liberal counterparts who spend their time thinking up new ones. These days I find myself, like Gladys Knight, thinking “I’ve really got to use my imagination; to think up good reasons to keep on keeping on.” I developed a new appreciation for Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: a Proposal in Natural Philosophy
    philosophies Book Review The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy. By Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2014; 566 pp.; ISBN-10: 1107074061, ISBN-13: 978-1107074064 Matt McManus ID Politics Science and International Relations, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Toronto, ON M6B 1T2, Canada; [email protected] Received: 14 July 2018; Accepted: 17 July 2018; Published: 18 July 2018 To do genuinely interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work is the goal of many scholars. Some achieve it better than others. But to engage in truly systematic and all-encompassing scholarship almost seems anachronistic, not to mention a trifle arrogant. Given the complexities involved in mastering even a single discipline, who could have the audacity to claim expertise across them all. Such ambition and systematicity, not to mention the borderline audacity that underlies it, is part of the thrill that comes from reading any book Roberto Unger. Where others might painstakingly tie themselves into knots justifying their right to engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, Unger simply steamrolls over all objections to think and write about whatever he wishes. In many, this might simply be intellectual over reach. But Unger is the rare exception. His seemingly encyclopediac capacity for philosophical systematization has moved from impressive to genuinely inspiring in his recent work. Unger began his career at Harvard Law in the 1970s, as a founding member of the critical legal theory movement in American jurisprudence. His youthful manuscript, Knowledge and Politics, remains a minor classic and develops a reasonably novel criticism of liberal legalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Spinoza's Methodology: a Genetic Account of Fundamental Concepts in His Early Writings
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy Philosophy 2021 Spinoza's Methodology: A Genetic Account of Fundamental Concepts in His Early Writings Clay Graham University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6479-8945 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2021.186 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Graham, Clay, "Spinoza's Methodology: A Genetic Account of Fundamental Concepts in His Early Writings" (2021). Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy. 30. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/30 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Legitimacy As a Personal and Intellectual Journey
    Documento de Trabajo International Center for Globalization and Development Working Paper N°40 Political Legitimacy as a Personal and Intellectual Journey Jean-Marc Coicaud September 2019 www.ciglob.org Contact us / Contáctenos: [email protected] Santiago – Chile Chinese Political Science Review https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-019-00134-0 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Political Legitimacy as a Personal and Intellectual Journey Jean‑Marc Coicaud1 Received: 7 August 2019 / Accepted: 31 August 2019 © Fudan University 2019 Abstract The article highlights the intellectual path and the research agenda developed by the author over the years concerning the question of political legitimacy. The irst sec‑ tion focuses on issues of legitimation in the context of Latin American authoritar‑ ian democracies. The second section of the article refers to political legitimacy as political responsibility in the context of legal and political theory. The third and last section addresses the relevance of political legitimacy at the international level, on which the research agenda of the author now concentrates. Keywords Legitimacy · Latin America · Political responsibility · International legitimacy · United Nations 1 Introduction In this article, I focus on what has been my interest and engagement in questions of political legitimacy over the years. As such, it is a sort of short intellectual biogra‑ phy. The article is organized into three parts. To begin wih I stress how the issue of legitimacy has been one of my key intellectual concerns ever since I started to do research on politics, initially in the context of the study of political and legal regimes in Latin America. Then the article highlights my understanding of political legiti‑ macy as political responsibility and what this means for the evaluation and judge‑ ment of politics.
    [Show full text]
  • Katherine-Mckittrick-Sylvia-Wynter-On
    Sylvia Wynter Sylvia Wynter ON BEING HUMAN AS PRAXIS Katherine McKittrick, ed. Duke University Press Durham and London 2015 © 2015 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Arno Pro by Graphic Composition, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Sylvia Wynter : on being human as praxis / Katherine McKitrick, ed. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5820- 6 (hardcover : alk. Paper) isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5834- 3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Wynter, Sylvia. 2. Social sciences—Philosophy. 3. Civilization, Modern—Philosophy. 4. Race—Philosophy. 5. Human ecology—Philosophy. I. McKitrick, Katherine. hm585.s95 2015 300.1—dc23 2014024286 isbn 978- 0- 8223- 7585- 2 (e- book) Cover image: Sylvia Wynter, circa 1970s. Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Te New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (sshrc / Insight Grant) which provided funds toward the publication of this book. For Ellison CONTENTS ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Katherine McKitrick 1 CHAPTER 1 Yours in the Intellectual Struggle: Sylvia Wynter and the Realization of the Living Sylvia Wynter and Katherine McKitrick 9 CHAPTER 2 Unparalleled Catastrophe for Our Species? Or, to Give Humanness a Diferent Future: Conversations Denise Ferreira da Silva 90 CHAPTER 3 Before Man:
    [Show full text]