Radical Critique as the Paradox of Post‐Political Society

Bibliographic Data

ID7093662
AuthorsB Diken (0000-0002-2661-8568)
Year2009
Volume23
Issue5
Pages579-586
Publication date2009-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThird Text (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-8822 • E-ISSN: 1475-5297
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09528820903184815
OpenAlexW1977524135
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This article focuses on the intimate relationship between two concepts, revolution and critique, arguing that the understanding of radical critique within social and aesthetic theory was directly inspired by the concept of revolution – revolution as a libertarian utopia that links critical thought with its epoch. However, despite its previous role as the most important concept of modern social life, politics and critical thought, in today’s post‐political society, in which radical social change is not imaginable, ‘revolution’ seems to have become an obsolete idea. Today the concept of critique seems to be locked into and de‐valued in a post‐political paradigm, which tends to collapse the virtual aspect of politics and critique into the actual. Against this background, the article takes issue with critique as a paradoxical concept, a virtual ‘problem’ that can be actualised in different conceptions or ‘solutions’ but can never be reduced to them, an event that cannot fully actualise itself in a final form

Aesthetics · Critical theory · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Political philosophy · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Utopia · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Critical Theory and Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy

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