Ernst Jünger and Carl Schmitt: Notes on a Tenacious Friendship

In 1914, before the outbreak of the World War One, H. B. Higgins travelled at the invitation of ‘industrial counsellor’ Robert Valentine to the United States, where he found an intellectual community of a kind that no political cause or group of people offered at home. There he joined a network of public-spirited experts who moved easily between universities, business, labour reform groups and journalism. Higgins' intellectual exchanges with jurists including Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter and Learned Hand and labour reformers such as Josephine Goldmark and members of the American Association for Labor Legislation formed the distinctive American context that shaped his iconic ‘Australian’ essay on ‘A New Province for Law and Order’ and a larger transnational Progressivism.

Anyone who has ever experienced a sporting event in a large stadium knows the energy that emanates from stands full of fans cheering on their teams. Although "the masses" have long held a thoroughly bad reputation in politics and culture, literary critic and avid sports fan Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht finds powerful, as yet unexplored reasons to sing the praises of crowds. Drawing on his experiences as a spectator in the stadiums of South America, Germany, and the US, Gumbrecht presents the stadium as "a ritual of intensity," thereby offering a different lens through which we might capture and even appreciate the dynamic of the masses. In presenting this alternate view, Gumbrecht enters into conversation with thinkers who were more critical of the potential of the masses, such as Gustave Le Bon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, José Ortega y Gasset, Elias Canetti, Siegfried Kracauer, T. W. Adorno, or Max Horkheimer. A preface explores college crowds as a uniquely specific phenomenon of American culture. Pairing philosophical rigor with the enthusiasm of a true fan, Gumbrecht writes from the inside and suggests that being part of a crowd opens us up to an experience beyond ourselves.

This article draws together two lively and provocative radical theorists, Emma Goldman and Friedrich Nietzsche, and suggests that a reading at their intersections can inspire political thought, action, and resistance in particular ways. The argument is framed through and productive of a particular archetype which emerges from a reading of these thinkers, that of The Dancer. Both Goldman and Nietzsche have been noted for their affect-laden reflections on dance, as an image of the subject which evades capture within the frameworks of discipline, morality, and ressentiment and which instead commits to a ceaseless and creative insurrection of- and- against the self. Here, I argue that through this image of The Dancer we can conceptualise a form of critical or anarchic subjectivity which can provocatively interpret and inspire radical political action. In the article I look at some of the ways in which dance has formed an important component of radical politics. However I also argue that dance as understood in the terms established through Goldman and Nietzsche moves beyond corporeal performance, indicating a more general ethos of the subject, one of perpetual movement, creativity, and auto-insurrection. I also reflect on the difficulties involved in the idea of ‘self-creation’; as we can see from the more problematic dimensions of Goldman's thought, creation is an ethically and ontologically ambiguous concept which, when affirmed too easily, can serve to mask the subtleties by which relations of domination persist. With this in mind, the article goes on to discuss what it might mean to ‘dance to death’, to negotiate the burden of transvaluation, limitless responsibility, and perpetual struggle which these two thinkers evoke, in the service of a creative and limitless radical political praxis.

Nietzsche-Forum-München

In the late 1970s, The Asiatic Research Center (ARC) and The Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) launched the Korea-Japan Intellectual Exchange (KJIE). The KJIE aimed to promote genuine reconciliation between Japan and Korea, and emphasized cooperation between the two countries by highlighting security and economic agendas. To fully understand the significance of the KJIE, it is important to note three things: First, the ARC and the JCIE were established under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation, respectively, and the KJIE also received significant financial support from these private foundations. Second, the participants of the KJIE were mostly U.S. PhDs and communicated in English papers that applied U.S. social science theories and methodologies. Third, the KJIE was modeled after the U.S.-Japan Intellectual Exchange (“Shimoda conference”). The Shimoda conference was based on the idea that the United States and Japan, who had met as enemies in World War II, would put aside their enmity for the sake of security and economic interests to create a relationship of friendship and goodwill. KJIE applied the idea of the Shimoda conference to the relationship between Korea and Japan. KJIE discussed ways to avoid industrial competition between Korea and Japan and to strengthen Japan’s role against the threat of North Korea. The KJIE was influenced by U.S. interests in strengthening Japan's role in the declining U.S. hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region. However, for this initiative to succeed, Japanese self-controls and changes were essential. Some of the Korean intellectuals who participated in the KJIE were distrustful and did not recognize Japan as a model-state to emulate. Intellectual exchange between Japan and Korea was fraught with discord. This article uses materials from the Rockefeller Archive Center to reveal these facts.

Truthmaking is the relationship that holds between truths and the objects in the world in virtue of which those truths are true. Truthmaker theorists deploy the idea of truthmaking in order to advance arguments for the existence of various kinds of ontological posits, critique metaphysical positions, and better articulate accounts of truth, realism and other topics. The basic idea behind truthmaking can be found in the work of Aristotle, and is closely connected to logical atomism and correspondence theories of truth. Truthmaking came into its own as an independent research project in contemporary metaphysics in the late 20th century. The truthmaking relation is often, but not always, thought to be a necessary, hyperintensional relation of metaphysical dependence. That is, what it is for some object x to be a truthmaker for some truth p is for the truth of p to depend on the existence of x, such that it is impossible for x to exist and p be false. As some theorists put the point, p is true in virtue of x: p is not made true by just any entity whose existence always accompanies its truth. One major debate in the theory of truthmaking is whether or not all truths have truthmakers. Maximalists argue that all truths need truthmakers; non-maximalists argue that some truths lack truthmakers. Candidate counterexamples are negative existentials (‘There are no flying penguins’), universal generalizations (‘All humans are mortal’) and analytic truths (‘Skyscrapers are buildings’). Truthmaker theorists frequently argue for the existence of objects such as states of affairs or tropes, as such entities, if they exist, necessitate the truth of contingent predications. For example, Socrates himself does not guarantee the truth of ‘Socrates is a philosopher’, for he might have existed but failed to become a philosopher. Hence there must be some object that brings together Socrates and the property of being a philosopher. In this way, some philosophers use truthmaker theory to argue against various forms of metaphysical nominalism. Truthmaker arguments have also been used to argue against presentism, phenomenalism and dispositionalism.

This article details the brief collaboration between Siegfried Kracauer and Gregory Bateson in the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art during World War II as an intriguing episode in intellectual history, touching on film and media studies, anthropology, and German studies. The article presents the Frankfurt School as part of the 1940s’ memorandum culture and thereby attempts to situate the historiography of critical theory during this formative period within a broader intellectual landscape, that is, in dialogue and competition with several other projects, to analyze the Nazi German enemy, in this case, the Culture and Personality School. The article takes Kracauer’s and Bateson’s analyses of the Nazi movie Hitlerjunge Quex as a case in point and, with the help of institutional and biographical contextualization, develops some of their most important methodical innovations and insights into Nazi German propaganda. In particular, the article points to Kracauer’s concept of hypnosis and relates it to Bateson’s media theory.

In response to the pervasiveness of biopolitical administration, Robert Esposito urges us to drop the ill-advised vocabulary of left-right politics and dismiss the critical judgment which is still organized in terms of the time-honored binary of democracy and totalitarianism. At the time when the vital process becomes the only end thought worth pursuing, what is at stake, then, is a far more ”profound” clash between naturalization of history and historicization of nature. The birthmark on biopolitics, so to speak, is the trace left by such a clash. From the chiasmatic interpenetration of nature and history, there emerges the dialectical convergence between the politics which tends to relegate itself to the administration of housekeeping, and the life which, while given pride of place among political values, is ironically exposed to the vicissitudes of zoefication. Without such cognizance of the dialectical entanglement between bios and thanatos, it is impossible to imagine an authentic exteriority where the biopolitical immanence can be imploded and transcended. Hannah Arendt is aware of the full scale of the problem entailed in biopolitical administration, so much so that her analysis is more of note than Michel Foucault's wayward discourse. This paper starts with the impossibility of dialogue between Arendt and Foucault. On this ground, I will proceed to the re-examination of the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and its aftermath. The bad blood between Theodore Roosevelt and Sinclair has been a household story ever since, but the antagonism, I will argue, is actually more apparent than real. Be it Roosevelt's commitment to food safety and population health or Sinclair's preoccupation with the socialist reshaping of society, they both take a stand in favor of, and hence symptomatic of the biopolitical administration. Worthy of note in this regard is Sinclair's incorporation of Nietzsche and Fletcherism into his socialist program, which, along with Roosevelt's obsession with eugenics, enables a glimpse into the glaring lethal implications of the biopolitical governance in the Progressive Era. From this perspective, we should stop ourselves to regard humanitarianism as an adequate response, much less the antidote to the havoc wrought by biopolitics. Generally executed on a humanitarian note, Sinclair's gruesome portrayal of the immigrant workers in Chicago's Packingtown is hence no less a function of the biopolitical killing machine, precisely because it is harnessed to the ongoing fabrication of homo sacer in conformity with the principle of life preservation-a principle that lends fuel to the biopolitical machinery. Little wonder that Alain Badiou, who argues practically along the same line, emphatically takes the condemnation of the life-preservation principle to be a jump-off point for developing an ethical exterior perspective on biopolitical administration.

In the historical and political literature we will not encounter such a diverse and, in its impact, individually ambiguous term as the “conservative revolution”. Although it is possible to place it within one of its creators, in the application of its practices we will come across many substantive discrepancies. This is certainly due to the creative idea of the people and the language that the revolutionaries used. In the basis of this historical-political dialogue, although the dissertation is concerned only with the period of the Weimar Republic, we can see the changes already taking place in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Thus to this day Friedrich Nietzsche is regarded as the spiritual father of the “conservative revolution”. The cult of the “superman” (Übermensch) he created (Übermensch) broke the ties with the hitherto values of Christianity in favour of crossing out God's universe in the world. For many intellectuals, it represented a theoretical-cognitive pluralism in the recording of moral tables for modern humanity. Nietzschean nihilism, as a construct of the “superman”, uprooted youth from bourgeois structures, and thus from their duty of service to their elders, guiding them towards the heroic realm. In its dimension, it overcame the statu quo of the time in favour of renewal and liberation towards the inner evolution of the “superman”. It resulted from the constant struggle and persistence of a reality which the “superman” then created himself. The significance of the Nietzschean construct for the fundamental ideas of the “conservative revolution” was best summed up by Thomas Mann. In his original reflections on the apolitical man, he shattered the previous norms of political structure in favour of the heroism awakening in youth. Subsequent intellectuals who were unquestionably counted among the founders of the revolutionary idea of the Weimar period agreed with this thought: Ernst Jünger, Ernst Julius Jung, Carl Schmidt, Wilhelm Stapel. The acolyte of the young revolutionaries' thought became the First World War. It broke the link with the pre-industrial mentality in favour of militant-apologists, from whom a new state elite was to crystallise. It was to create a hierarchy of cadres based on society. Thus, among the soldiers on the battlefield, the idea of defence of the homeland and sacrifice on the altar of war was born. Internally, it created an anthropology and philosophy of war to which the German youth was called. This sense of struggle was to evolve from defeat into a new different Germany: “we had to lose the war in order to win Germany”. The National Socialists, after coming to power in 1933, were keen to use the educational concept of the „conservative revolution” and the youth organisations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nazi pedagogy drew on these reservoirs as a model for creating the Third Reich's ideal of the “new man”.

Nietzsche nella Rivoluzione conservatrice

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview ArticleHistoricizing Nietzsche? Paradoxes and Lessons of a Hard Case . Keith Ansell-Pearson . Steven E. Aschheim . Ernst Behler . Steven Taubeneck . Adrian Del Caro . Bruce Detwiler . Michael Allen Gillespie , Tracy B. Strong . Lester H. Hunt . Joachim Köhler . . . Bernd Magnus , Stanley Stewart , Jean-Pierre Mileur . Alistair Moles . Ernst Nolte . Carl Pletsch . Alan D. Schrift . Gary Shapiro . Gary Shapiro . Peter Sloterdijk . Robert C. Solomon , Kathleen M. Higgins . Henry Staten . Seth Taylor . Leslie Paul Thiele . Mark warren . Alan White Nietzsche Contra Rousseau: A Study of Nietzsche's Moral and Politicial Thought. Keith Ansell-Pearson The Neitzche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990. Steven E. Aschheim Confrontations: Derrida/Heidegger/Nietzsche. Ernst Behler Neitzsche on Truth and Philosophy. Steven Taubeneck Nietzsche Contra Nietzsche: Creativity and the Anti-Romantic. Adrian Del Caro Neitzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism. Bruce Detwiler Nietzsche's New Seas: Explorations in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Politics. Michael Allen Gillespie , Tracy B. Strong Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue. Lester H. Hunt Zarathustras Geheimnis: Friedrich Nietzsche und seine verschlüsselte Botschaft . Joachim Köhler Nietzsche as Postmodernist: Essays Pro and Contra. Clayton Koelb. Nietzsche's Case: Philosophy as/and Literature. Bernd Magnus , Stanley Stewart , Jean-Pierre Mileur Nietzsche's Philosophy of Nature and Cosmology. Alistair Moles Nietzsche und der Nietzscheanismus. Ernst Nolte Young Nietzsche: Becoming a Genius. Carl Pletsch Nietzsche and the Question of Interpretation: Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction. Alan D. Schrift Alcyone: Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, and Women. Gary Shapiro Nietzschean Narratives. Gary Shapiro Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism. Peter Sloterdijk Reading Nietzsche. Robert C. Solomon , Kathleen M. Higgins Nietzsche's Voice. Henry Staten Left-Wing Nietzscheanism: The Politics of German Expressionism, 1910-1920. Seth Taylor Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul: A Study of Heroic Individualism. Leslie Paul Thiele Nietzsche and Political Thought. Mark warren Within Nietzsche's Labyrinth. Alan White Nietzsche's Philosophy of Art. Julian Young Allan MegillAllan Megill Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 68, Number 1Mar., 1996 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/245288 Views: 12Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1996 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Adrian Del Caro “Zarathustra Is Dead, Long Live Zarathustra!”, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 41, no.11 (Apr 2011): 83–93.https://doi.org/10.5325/jnietstud.41.1.0083Patrik Aspers Nietzsche’s Sociology 1, Sociological Forum 22, no.44 (Oct 2007): 474–499.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2007.00032.x

This paper examines the position of women of color in the discipline of geography in terms of our relatively small numbers, or what one geography professor described as being ‘as rare as hen's teeth’. Using pedagogical examples, the paper analyzes institutionalized racism and sexism at the level of the educational institution, both in geography and also in interdisciplinary locations such as gender studies. Drawing from collective analysis and interdisciplinary research, I propose interdisciplinary strategies of mentorship and support, intellectual exchange, and political engagement outside the academic context as ways to address disciplinary isolation for women of color in the field. I argue that these strategies can offer crucial alternative entry points into intellectual and political projects and can open up the discipline itself by destabilizing its structural and intellectual hierarchies and expanding the scope and relevance of geographic research. ‘Asian American women in human geography are as rare as hen's teeth.’ (Professor in Geography) De ser ‘los dientes de gallinas’: Los Costumbres Interdisciplinarios de mujeres de color en Geografía Este papel examina la posición de mujeres de color en la disciplina de geografía en cuanto a nuestras cifras relativamente bajas, o lo que describió una profesora de geografía como ser ‘tan raro como dientes de gallinas’. Usando ejemplos pedagógicos, este papel analiza el racismo y el sexismo institucionalizados en la institución educacional no solo en geografía sino en sitios interdisciplinarios tal como estudios de género. Utilizando análisis colectivo y estudios interdisciplinarios, propongo estrategias interdisciplinarias de aconsejar y apoyo, intercambios intelectual, e involucrar en las políticas afuera del contexto académico para abordar el aislamiento disciplinario para mujeres de coloren el campo. Argumento que estas estrategias podría ofrecer entradas alternativas cruciales a los proyectos intelectuales y políticos, y además, podría hacer accesible la disciplina de geografía a través de la desestabilización de sus jerarquías estructuradas e intelectuales y la expansión de la amplitud y relevancia de investigación geográfica.

Aristotelian Necessities

"Socialisme ou Barbarie", Castoriadis' political group from 1949 to 1967, was not only an independent and original project of left-wing activism in post-war France, but also the source of a novel concept of work analysis that still stimulates today’s researchers. Crucial was their attempt to analyse daily work and work experiences and to search for the hidden traces of self-organisation. The core finding at work is that the contradictory bureaucratic organisation requires the subject's participation (inclusion) and his/her exclusion at the same time. Bureaucratisation for Castoriadis was the characteristic and – differing from Weber – pseudo-rational tendency of modern capitalism, expressing itself most clearly in the realm of work. In this sense Castoriadis draws a good deal of his theoretical inspiration from "Socialisme ou Barbarie's" work analysis. The group tried to establish a work research in revolutionary perspective with qualitative, most authentic methods to gain informations: through the collection of testimonials of proletarian experiences and their self-interpretation by their authors themselves ("témoignages"). These témoignages are thick descriptions of daily work life and of work experiences. Its insights from the inside inform us about the double life of the enterprise as a formal and informal organisation. And since inclusion and exclusion tendencies here exist as parallels, autonomy and heteronomy seem to be simultaneous tendencies in bureaucratic organisations. From here derives the group's and Castoriadis' temporary optimism and their hope to find germs of autonomy and of emancipation and to advance work's and society's humanisation.

The First World War and its aftermath changed the position of intellectuals in Europe dramatically and politically and culturally reordered the continent. Now, even more than before the war, they attributed a political and societal mission to themselves, or were called upon by others. German intellectuals operated at the centre of these developments. They were confronted with the arrival and clash of new ideologies and moved between reconciliation, dialogue and exclusion. Some of them yielded to the ideological temptations and became ‘fellow travellers’ of communism or fascism, and contributed to what Julien Benda called the ‘treason of the intellectuals’. The rise of fascism and communism, and consequently the search for allies and partners and the expansion of exile communities, prompted national and transnational encounters with other intellectuals, most prominently in France. As a result, discussions about the nature and future of Europe were at the centre of their intellectual exchange.