Al-Jazeera
25 Dec 2012
There are many important and active philosophers today: Judith Butler
in the United States, Simon Critchley in England, Victoria Camps in
Spain, Jean-Luc Nancy in France, Chantal Mouffe in Belgium, Gianni
Vattimo in Italy, Peter Sloterdijk in Germany and in Slovenia, Slavoj
Zizek, not to mention others working in Brazil, Australia and China.
None is better than the others. All are simply different, pursue
different philosophical traditions, write in different styles and, most
of all, propose different interpretations.
While all these philosophers have become points of references within
the philosophical community, few have managed to overcome its boundaries
and become public intellectuals intensely engaged in our cultural and
political life as did Hannah Arendt (with the Eichmann trial), Jean-Paul
Sartre (in the protests of May 1968) and Michel Foucault (with the
Iranian revolution).
These philosophers became public intellectuals not simply because of
their original philosophical projects or the exceptional political
events of their epochs, but rather because their thoughts were drawn by
these events. But how can an intellectual respond to the events of his
epoch in order to contribute in a productive manner?
In order to respond, as Edward Said once said, the intellectual has
to be "an outsider, living in self-imposed exile, and on the margins of
society", that is, free from academic, religious and political
establishments; otherwise, he or she will simply submit to the
inevitability of events.
To read more......
No comments:
Post a Comment