Secularism and Cosmopolitanism

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-231-16860-1
Verlag: Columbia Univers. Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 146 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 471 g

Reihe: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and secularism—the worldwide and the worldly? While cosmopolitan politics may seem inherently secular, existing forms of secularism risk undermining the universality of cosmopolitanism, because they privilege the European tradition over all others and transform particular historical norms into enunciations of the truth. In this book, the noted philosopher Étienne Balibar explores the tensions lurking at this troubled nexus in order to advance a truly democratic and emancipatory cosmopolitanism, which requires a secularization of secularism itself.

Balibar argues for the universal against its dominant institutions. He questions the categories of thought that underlie popular ideas of secularism and religion and outlines the importance of a new critique for the contemporary world. He argues that conflicts between religious and secular discourses need to be reframed from a point of view that takes into account the cultural hybridization, migration and mobility, and transformation of borders, which have reshaped the postcolonial age. The book considers the uses and misuses of the category of religion and the religious, as well as the crises of national and religious universality. Among the topics discussed are the articulation of religion and culture within the ideological realm; the paradoxical genealogy of monotheism; French laïcité as a hegemonic construction that is now becoming narrowly identitarian; and the implications of the responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks for an extended definition of free speech in the age of terrorism and counterterrorism. Going beyond circumscribed notions of religion and the public sphere, Secularism and Cosmopolitanism is a profound rethinking of identity and difference that seeks to make room for a renewed political imagination.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Balibar, Étienne

Weitere Mitwirkende

Goshgarian, G. M.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politik & Religion, Religionsfreiheit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword
Introduction. Critique in the 21st Century: Political Economy Still, Religion Again
Saeculum
1. Circumstances and Objectives
2. Secularism and Cosmopolitanism: An Aporia?
3. Double Binds: Politics of the Veil
4. Cosmo-Politics and Conflicts between Universalities
5. Finishing with Religion?
6. Culture, Religion, or Ideology
7. Religious Revolutions and Anthropological Differences
8. Secularism Secularized: The Vanishing Mediator
9. Envoi
Essays
10. Note on the Origins and Uses of “Monotheism”
11. “God Will Not Remain Silent”. Zionism, Messianism, and Nationalism
12. What Future for Laïcité?
Statements
13. Three words for the dead and the living (after Charlie Hebdo)
14. On Freedom of Expression and the Question of Blasphemy
15. Identitarian Laïcité

Über Autor(innen)

Étienne Balibar is emeritus professor of philosophy at Paris X Nanterre and emeritus professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is also professor of modern European philosophy at Kingston University, London, and professor of French and comparative literature at Columbia University. His books include Violence and Civility: On the Limits of Political Philosophy (Columbia, 2015).