Adventures in the anti-humanist dialectic

Towards the reappropriation of humanism

Bibliographic Data

ID2398342
AuthorsKieran Durkin (0000-0002-8996-7685, University of York, York, UK, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume25
Issue2
Pages292-311
Publication date2022-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1368431021991775
OpenAlexW3131034135
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited22

The hegemonic discourse on humanism in the contemporary academy - a critical discourse in the form of a theoretical anti-humanism - is marked by a certain degree of impoverishment. This impoverishment is the result of many contextual factors, including the ideological purposes to which the discourse has been put, but also the effects of internal workings of the paradigm associated with anti-humanism itself. In this article, I trace the development of this discourse in its foundational early- and mid-twentieth century manifestations, outlining its central characteristics as well as its tensions and aporias, both theoretical and political. I argue that the critical discourse, which has informed our contemporary understanding of humanism, needs to be meaningfully sublated and that a new discourse - one that has reflected deeply upon the anti-humanist discourse: its strengths and its weaknesses - should take its place

Adventure · Aesthetics · Critical theory · Dialectic · Epistemology · Hegemony · Humanism · Ideology · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political theory and Gramsci

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