James R Martel
Biographic Data
| ID | 4391785 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James R Martel |
| GIVEN NAMES | James R |
| FAMILY NAME | Martel |
| SIGNATURE | MARTEL J R |
| AFFILIATIONS | San Francisco State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Anarchist Prophets: Disappointing Vision and the Power of Collective Sight
In Anarchist Prophets James R. Martel juxtaposes anarchism with what he calls archism in order to theorize the potential for a radical democratic politics. He shows how archism—a centralized and hierarchical political form that is a secularization of ancient Greek and Hebrew prophetic traditions—dominates contemporary politics through a prophet’s promises of peace and prosperity or the threat of violence. Archism is met by anarchism, in which a c…
Introduction: Disappointing Vision
Nothing Absolute: German Idealism and the Question of Political Theology
Featuring scholars at the forefront of contemporary political theology and the study of German Idealism, Nothing Absolute explores the intersection of these two flourishing fields. Against traditional approaches that view German Idealism as a secularizing movement, this volume revisits it as the first fundamentally philosophical articulation of the political-theological problematic in the aftermath of the Enlightenment and the advent of secularit…
The Law is Not a Thing: Kafkan (Im)materialism and Imitation Jam
In this article, I look at the question of how the law continually refounds itself in relationship to the material world by borrowing from that materiality a sense of its own tangibility (which it otherwise does not have) even as it in turn draws material orbits into its object lending them a certain sense of power and nobility (which they otherwise do not have either). This exchange suggests an unexpected vulnerability for the law insofar as it …
The Misinterpellated Subject
Although Haitian revolutionaries were not the intended audience for the Declaration of the Rights of Man, they heeded its call, demanding rights that were not meant for them. This failure of the French state to address only its desired subjects is an example of the phenomenon James R. Martel labels Complicating Althusser's famous theory, Martel explores the ways that such failures hold the potential for radical and anarchist action. In addition t…
Walter Benjamin’s Black Flashlight: Promoting Misreading over Persuasion to Decenter Textual and Political Authority
Many theorists promote a decentralized politics but very few of them practice this decentralization textually. In this essay, I engage with three techniques Benjamin employs to decenter his authority in the text: allegory, montage and the production of text as “pure means.” Taken together, these practices amount to what I am calling Benjamin’s use of a “black flashlight.” Rather than illuminate his text with his own knowledge, seeking to win the …
The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment
Divine Violence: Walter Benjamin and the Eschatology of Sovereignty
Divine Violence looks at the question of political theology and its connection to sovereignty. It argues that the practice of sovereignty reflects a Christian eschatology, one that proves very hard to overcome even by left thinkers, such as Arendt and Derrida, who are very critical of it. These authors fall into a trap described by Carl Schmitt whereby one is given a (false) choice between anarchy and sovereignty, both of which are bound within—a…
Nietzsche's Cruel Messiah
Divine Violence: Walter Benjamin and the Eschatology of Sovereignty
"Hobbes's "Thinking-bodies
Hobbes's "Thinking-bodies" James R. Martel (bio) Samantha Frost . Lessons from a Materialist Thinker: Hobbesian Reflections on Ethics and Politics. Palo Alto CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. 212 pages. $47.22 (cloth); $21.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8047-5747-8 In "Lessons from a Materialist Thinker," Samantha Frost begins by telling us that "Thomas Hobbes is not who we think he is." (1) She proceeds to offer a dramatic retelling of Hobbes, princi…
Subverting the Leviathan: Reading Thomas Hobbes as a Radical Democrat
"In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes's landmark work on political philosophy, James R. Martel argues that although Hobbes pays lip service to the superior interpretive authority of the sovereign, he consistently subverts this authority throughout the book by returning it to the reader."--Jacket
Can We Do Away with Sacrifice
Politics in Chastened Times
Politics in Chastened Times
Can We Do Away with Sacrifice
Subverting the Leviathan: Reading Thomas Hobbes as a Radical Democrat
"In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes's landmark work on political philosophy, James R. Martel argues that although Hobbes pays lip service to the superior interpretive authority of the sovereign, he consistently subverts this authority throughout the book by returning it to the reader."--Jacket
"Hobbes's "Thinking-bodies
Hobbes's "Thinking-bodies" James R. Martel (bio) Samantha Frost . Lessons from a Materialist Thinker: Hobbesian Reflections on Ethics and Politics. Palo Alto CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. 212 pages. $47.22 (cloth); $21.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8047-5747-8 In "Lessons from a Materialist Thinker," Samantha Frost begins by telling us that "Thomas Hobbes is not who we think he is." (1) She proceeds to offer a dramatic retelling of Hobbes, princi…
Nietzsche's Cruel Messiah
Divine Violence: Walter Benjamin and the Eschatology of Sovereignty
Divine Violence: Walter Benjamin and the Eschatology of Sovereignty
Divine Violence looks at the question of political theology and its connection to sovereignty. It argues that the practice of sovereignty reflects a Christian eschatology, one that proves very hard to overcome even by left thinkers, such as Arendt and Derrida, who are very critical of it. These authors fall into a trap described by Carl Schmitt whereby one is given a (false) choice between anarchy and sovereignty, both of which are bound within—a…
The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment
Walter Benjamin’s Black Flashlight: Promoting Misreading over Persuasion to Decenter Textual and Political Authority
Many theorists promote a decentralized politics but very few of them practice this decentralization textually. In this essay, I engage with three techniques Benjamin employs to decenter his authority in the text: allegory, montage and the production of text as “pure means.” Taken together, these practices amount to what I am calling Benjamin’s use of a “black flashlight.” Rather than illuminate his text with his own knowledge, seeking to win the …
The Misinterpellated Subject
Although Haitian revolutionaries were not the intended audience for the Declaration of the Rights of Man, they heeded its call, demanding rights that were not meant for them. This failure of the French state to address only its desired subjects is an example of the phenomenon James R. Martel labels Complicating Althusser's famous theory, Martel explores the ways that such failures hold the potential for radical and anarchist action. In addition t…
The Law is Not a Thing: Kafkan (Im)materialism and Imitation Jam
In this article, I look at the question of how the law continually refounds itself in relationship to the material world by borrowing from that materiality a sense of its own tangibility (which it otherwise does not have) even as it in turn draws material orbits into its object lending them a certain sense of power and nobility (which they otherwise do not have either). This exchange suggests an unexpected vulnerability for the law insofar as it …
Nothing Absolute: German Idealism and the Question of Political Theology
Featuring scholars at the forefront of contemporary political theology and the study of German Idealism, Nothing Absolute explores the intersection of these two flourishing fields. Against traditional approaches that view German Idealism as a secularizing movement, this volume revisits it as the first fundamentally philosophical articulation of the political-theological problematic in the aftermath of the Enlightenment and the advent of secularit…
Anarchist Prophets: Disappointing Vision and the Power of Collective Sight
In Anarchist Prophets James R. Martel juxtaposes anarchism with what he calls archism in order to theorize the potential for a radical democratic politics. He shows how archism—a centralized and hierarchical political form that is a secularization of ancient Greek and Hebrew prophetic traditions—dominates contemporary politics through a prophet’s promises of peace and prosperity or the threat of violence. Archism is met by anarchism, in which a c…
Introduction: Disappointing Vision
Philosophy (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Law (3 works) · Political Theology and Sovereignty (3 works)