There's no shame in a continental philosopher saying they are a Marxist, but it's almost impossible to admit to being an anarchist. Silently, perhaps even unknowingly, philosophical anarchism "borrows" its definition from political anarchism, but the two remain strangers to each other. What do Reiner Schuermann, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Ranciere have in common? Each of them ascribed a determining ontological, ethical, or political value to anarchy - yet not a single one ever called themselves an "anarchist." It is as if anarchism were unmentionable and had to be concealed, even though its critique of domination and of government is poached by the philosophers.
In a semantic revolution, anarchists redefined anarchy not as disorder but as organization free of the "governmental prejudice." Without this definition - taken directly from political anarchist Joseph Proudhon - none of the philosophical concepts of anarchy would have been possible.
Stop Thief! Anarchism and Philosophy calls out the plundering of anarchism by philosophy. It's a call that is all the more resonant today as the planetary demand for an alternative political realm raises a deafening cry. It also alerts us to a new philosophical awakening. Catherine Malabou proposes to answer the cry by re-elaborating a concept of anarchy articulated around a notion of the "non-governable" far beyond an inciting of disobedience or common critiques of capitalism. Anarchism is the only way out, the only pathway that allows us to question the legitimacy of political domination and to unsettle our confidence that we need to be led if we are to survive.
There's no shame in a continental philosopher saying they are a Marxist, but it's almost impossible to admit to being an anarchist. Silently, perhaps even unknowingly, philosophical anarchism "borrows" its definition from political anarchism, but the two remain strangers to each other. What do Reiner Schuermann, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Ranciere have in common? Each of them ascribed a determining ontological, ethical, or political value to anarchy - yet not a single one ever called themselves an "anarchist." It is as if anarchism were unmentionable and had to be concealed, even though its critique of domination and of government is poached by the philosophers.
In a semantic revolution, anarchists redefined anarchy not as disorder but as organization free of the "governmental prejudice." Without this definition - taken directly from political anarchist Joseph Proudhon - none of the philosophical concepts of anarchy would have been possible.
<i>Stop Thief! Anarchism and Philosophy</i> calls out the plundering of anarchism by philosophy. It's a call that is all the more resonant today as the planetary demand for an alternative political realm raises a deafening cry. It also alerts us to a new philosophical awakening. Catherine Malabou proposes to answer the cry by re-elaborating a concept of anarchy articulated around a notion of the "non-governable" far beyond an inciting of disobedience or common critiques of capitalism. Anarchism is the only way out, the only pathway that allows us to question the legitimacy of political domination and to unsettle our confidence that we need to be led if we are to survive.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'Stop Thief! is essential reading for all those committed to understanding and overcoming historic rifts between anarchy (popularly identified with leaderless politics, anti-globalization movements, libertarianism and the deconstructed "administrative state") and anarchism as philosophy. Boldly contending that "philosophers of anarchy have never conceptualized the anarchist dimension of their concepts of anarchy," Malabou devotes chapters to major thinkers - Rainer Schuermann, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Ranciere - whose work has been qualified as "post-anarchist" in spirit and critical method. Affirming philosophical anarchism with conviction and originality, Malabou reviews historic critiques of political foundationalism and theories of state power that have sought to undo the arke of sovereignty, from Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes to Heidegger and Derrida. She brings to light myriad ways in which structures of anti-domination, destituent power, thwarted mastery and inoperative command arise from their own recursive, self-defeating, autoimmunitarian and negational logics. Older, semi-forgotten anarchist ideas - like mutualism or alternatives to propertied notions of selfhood and privatized right - are brought back and rendered re-usable for a contemporary revolutionary praxis. And with these reinvigorated conceptual frameworks, protean forms of revolt come into relief, positioned against the toxic fusion of "government violence and the uberization of life" that underwrites late liberal, authoritarian political cultures of today.'
Emily Apter, Julius Silver Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University
'<i>Stop Thief!</i> is essential reading for all those committed to understanding and overcoming historic rifts between anarchy (popularly identified with leaderless politics, anti-globalization movements, libertarianism and the deconstructed "administrative state") and anarchism as philosophy. Boldly contending that "philosophers of anarchy have never conceptualized the anarchist dimension of their concepts of anarchy," Malabou devotes chapters to major thinkers - Rainer Schuermann, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Ranciere - whose work has been qualified as "post-anarchist" in spirit and critical method. Affirming philosophical anarchism with conviction and originality, Malabou reviews historic critiques of political foundationalism and theories of state power that have sought to undo the arke of sovereignty, from Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes to Heidegger and Derrida. She brings to light myriad ways in which structures of anti-domination, destituent power, thwarted mastery and inoperative command arise from their own recursive, self-defeating, autoimmunitarian and negational logics. Older, semi-forgotten anarchist ideas - like mutualism or alternatives to propertied notions of selfhood and privatized right - are brought back and rendered re-usable for a contemporary revolutionary praxis. And with these reinvigorated conceptual frameworks, protean forms of revolt come into relief, positioned against the toxic fusion of "government violence and the uberization of life" that underwrites late liberal, authoritarian political cultures of today.'
<b>Emily Apter, Julius Silver Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University</b>
Catherine Malabou is Professor of Philosophy at Kingston University London.
<b>Catherine Malabou</b> is Professor of Philosophy at Kingston University London.
Autor*in
University of Paris-X Nanterre
Übersetzung
Translator's Note
1 Surveying the Horizon
2 Dissociating Anarchism from Anarchy
3 On the Virtue of Chorus Leaders: Archy and Anarchy in Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>
4 Ontological Anarchy. From Greece to the Andes: Traveling with Reiner Schuermann
5 Ethical Anarchy: The Heteronomies of Emmanuel Levinas
6 "Responsible Anarchism": Jacques Derrida's Drive for Power
7 Anarcheology: Michel Foucault's Last Government
8 Profanatory Anarchy: Giorgio Agamben's Zone
9 Staging Anarchy: Jacques Ranciere Without Witnesses
Conclusion: Being an Anarchist
Notes
Index
