Das Politische - eine Leerstelle. Zur politischen Philosophie in Frankreich
The Political - A Blank Space. On the Political Philosophy in France

Summary/Abstract: To begin with, I would like to propose that French political philosophy, in keeping with epistemological skepticism developed in France, endeavors to articulate a political ontology. This ontology can no longer be classical, in the sense of speculation. The newer ontology is, however, supported by the assumption that every discursive thinking sees itself forced to resort to an unpreventable. This unprethinkable can only be hypostatized as such. Every attempt to define more closely leads, as Lyotard proves in « The Conflict », to aporias. For political philosophy this means that neither the legitimation of ideas and actions nor the demonstration of the truth of our judgments can take place in a continuum of rational presuppositions and inferences. From this we can not conclude, as is often the case with those philosophers who find in French philosophy the abandonment of the achievements of the Enlightenment, that the meaning of justification is thereby called into question altogether. However, the scope and viability of the classical justification concept are limited. The question that is at stake here, whether a more context-oriented possibility of legitimizing political action is justifiable, will be discussed below.

• Details
• Contents