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This study uses new arguments to reinvestigate the relation between aesthetics and politics in the contemporary debates on democratic theory and radical democracy. First, Carl Schmitt and Claude Lefort help delineate the contours of an aesthetico-political understanding of democracy, which is developed further by studying Merleau-Ponty, Ranciere, and Arendt. The ideas of Merleau-Ponty serve to establish a general "ontological" framework that aims to contest the dominant currents in contemporary democratic theory. It is argued that Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, and Ranciere share a general understanding of the political as the contingently contested spaces and times of appearances. However, the articulation of their thought leads to reconsider and explore under-theorized as well as controversial dimensions of their work.This search for new connections between the political and the aesthetic thought of Arendt and Merleau-Ponty on one hand and the current widespread interest in Ranciere's aesthetic politics on the other make this book a unique study that will appeal to anyone who is interested in political theory and contemporary continental philosophy.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction – The Advent of the Aesthetico-Political
The Enigma of Democracy
Schmitt, Lefort, and the Theologico-Political
The Epistemological Regime of Politics
Conclusion
Chapter I – Our Element: Flesh and Democracy in Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Deus Mortalis
Flesh and Democracy
An Entire Politics
Conclusion
Chapter II – The Law of the Earth: Hannah Arendt and the Aesthetic Regime of Politics
Disagreement: Arendt and Habermas
Political Phenomenology
Spaces and Times of Appearance
Conclusion: Political Kitsch and Ideology Politics
Chapter III – The (Re)Aestheticization of Politics: Jacques Rancière and the Question of Democracy
Rancière, Lefort, and the Political
The Question of Democracy—In America
Recapitulation
Bibliographic References
Summary
This study uses new arguments to reinvestigate the relation between aesthetics and politics in the contemporary debates on democratic theory and radical democracy.
First, Carl Schmitt and Claude Lefort help delineate the contours of an aesthetico-political understanding of democracy, which is developed further by studying Merleau-Ponty, Rancière, and Arendt.
The ideas of Merleau-Ponty serve to establish a general "ontological" framework that aims to contest the dominant currents in contemporary democratic theory. It is argued that Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, and Rancière share a general understanding of the political as the contingently contested spaces and times of appearances. However, the articulation of their thought leads to reconsider and explore under-theorized as well as controversial dimensions of their work.
This search for new connections between the political and the aesthetic thought of Arendt and Merleau-Ponty on one hand and the current widespread interest in Rancière's aesthetic politics on the other make this book a unique study that will appeal to anyone who is interested in political theory and contemporary continental philosophy.
