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Homo Perfidus: an Antipathology Sagi Cohen

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Homo Perfidus: an Antipathology Sagi Cohen Homo Perfidus: An Antipathology by Sagi Cohen BA, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 2006 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Political Science and for the Cultural, Social, and Political Thought Program (CSPT) Sagi Cohen, 2009 University of Victoria All nights reserved. This thesis may not be reproducted in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the pernission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Homo Perfidus: An Antipathology by Sagi Cohen BA, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 2006 Supervisory Committee Dr. Arthur Kroker, Department of Political Science Supervisor Dr. Bradley Bryan, Department of Political Science Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Arthur Kroker, Department of Political Science Supervisor Dr. Bradley Bryan, Department of Political Science Departmental Member This thesis explores the notion of betrayal through a sustained examination of two politically abject types – ‘the corpse/body’ and ‘the dilettante’. By expounding on what is here termed an ‘antipathology’, it performs a phenomenology of these types, not so much enclosing them as totalities, or consistent concepts/essences, as taking them in their discursive import, “at their word”. The argument unfolds via readings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Emmanuel Lévinas – both serving as each other’s readers and interpreters – taken to share the project of critiquing morality in the name of what I term, after Lévinas, ‘ethics’. This antipathology of treason aims at evoking the mechanisms of political ‘abjection’ – a concept borrowed from Julia Kristeva – employed in the traitor’s expulsion from the political. It will thus probe into the ethical implications of this expulsion, insofar as it is taken here to be inscribed deep within prevalent ethico-political discourses, part-and-parcel of their sustaining inertia. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee .................................................................................................... ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... vii Prologomenon.................................................................................................................viii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... x Preface............................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 1 Introductory Gesture..................................................................................................... 1 The Pathos of Distance ............................................................................................. 1 Anachrony.......................................................................................................... 1 Asymmetry....................................................................................................... 11 Morality and Metaphysics....................................................................................... 15 Abusing the name of God ................................................................................ 15 Dominating Empathy....................................................................................... 21 Antipity ............................................................................................................ 28 Back to Life............................................................................................................. 34 Embodied Will................................................................................................. 34 The Other's Hell ............................................................................................... 38 Politics of Treason?.......................................................................................... 45 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................... 52 The Corpse.................................................................................................................... 52 v Introduction............................................................................................................. 52 The Subject and the Abject..................................................................................... 55 In the throws of Subjectivity............................................................................ 55 Fear and the language of want ......................................................................... 58 The will to fear?............................................................................................... 59 Melancholia - between 'ob' and 'ab' ................................................................. 60 Throwing Up, and Away......................................................................................... 62 The abject as sacred ......................................................................................... 62 Identity under siege.......................................................................................... 64 The Corpse's Betrayal ............................................................................................. 67 Integrity - the empty stable .............................................................................. 68 The corpse - will's horror ................................................................................. 69 No exit - the corpse and the Other ................................................................... 73 Conclusion: The Body's Turn ................................................................................. 78 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................... 81 The Dilettante............................................................................................................... 81 Introduction............................................................................................................. 81 A Nomad................................................................................................................. 84 Nomads and 'States' ......................................................................................... 84 Nomadic spaces and 'State' territories.............................................................. 86 Movement vs. speed......................................................................................... 88 Nomad science, nomad war ............................................................................. 89 The Mourning Sun .................................................................................................. 93 vi A violence laid bare (deterritorializing morality) ............................................ 93 Odd to joy - the 'nomadilettante'.................................................................... 100 The Inter-face........................................................................................................ 106 [Enter the Parasite:] Given quite a start ......................................................... 106 Responsibility and the 'Don't-Care' (the insignificant other)......................... 111 The An-archy of Disturbance................................................................................ 118 Disturbing economy....................................................................................... 118 Substitution/institution/destitution................................................................. 122 Conclusion - the dilettante's betrayal .................................................................... 130 Exergue: "Qui Intinguit Mecum" ............................................................................... 138 Not a Conclusion; but an after-word........................................................................... 148 Notes............................................................................................................................... 162 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 190 vii Acknowledgments Many people helped, in many different ways, my thinking in this project, with which I have been implicated for quite some time. I therefore owe many thanks: In Canada, I would like to thank: Amy Verdun whom I can only honestly describe as my personal guardian-angel; Arthur Kroker for his support, advice and faith; Bradley Bryan for cool conversations and inspiring beers (and vice versa); R. B. J. Walker for Coffee and ad-vice; Tara Da-Silva, Laurel Barnes and Cael Husband – for their endless patience, acceptance and help; Feng Xu for holding my hand as I walked through the valley of the shadow of death; and to my CSPT and Political Science accomplices, for their welcoming gestures and our challenging encounters.. In Israel, I would like to thank: Leah Gilula – for, what can I
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