Arendt and Kant on Politics

This paper is an effort to engage a single though crucial dimension of Arendt’s political thought, her reading of Kant, and to focus specifically on how two short texts by Kant, the appendices to his ‘Perpetual Peace’ (PP), challenge her claim to be developing the political philosophy Kant would have written ‘had he had the strength’. These pages therefore offer a critique of the exegetical value of Arendt’s work on Kant, at least as contained in her Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, yet refrain from challenging the defensibility of her political project taken on its own terms. Indeed, I would argue, one may prefer Arendt’s project to Kant’s without thereby accepting her claim that there is anything especially Kantian about it. In pursuit of these aims, (1) I begin by situating Arendt’s work on Kant in the context of her larger project, focusing especially on her motivations – what does she want to find in Kant, and why was she drawn specifically to his work on aesthetic judgement? What does she hope to do with it? There are very specific reasons for her attraction, I suggest, apparent once her attention to Kant is considered in relation to her larger project, and (2) I offer an account of these. On this basis,  (3) I consider two arguments made by Kant in the appendices to PP which stand out rather starkly in contradiction to Arendt’s reading. In conclusion, I offer a new defence of my suggestion that, as attractive as Arendt’s project may be in our times, she is wrong to confuse it with Kant’s own. [14 pages]

Openness and orthodoxy: Charles Taylor’s therapeutic ambitions in A Secular Age

BA Paper (revised), Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

This paper presents a close reading of A Secular Age (SA) intended to show how it may be read as a self-contained therapeutic project in Wittgenstein’s sense designed, in two stages, (1) to liberate the reader from the prejudicial and constraining effects of the standard story of secularization and offer ‘the immanent frame’ as a new ‘best account’ of our lived experience, then (2) to offer a complete redescription of the immanent frame, in broadly Christian theological language, intended to lead the reader into an ‘open space’ where the possibility of relating to spiritual sources may again appear as a live option. I argue that in pursuing this project Taylor espouses a broadly pragmatist, Jamesian, and even at a certain point fideistic conception of religious belief, and ends up defending a conception of the role of religion in public life which is more reminiscent of John Dewey’s ‘common faith’ or even Richard Rorty’s ‘romantic polytheism’ than of John Milbank’s radical orthodoxy (RO).

After outlining each stage of Taylor’s project in SA and calling attention to the practical and political implications which he himself identifies, I consider how these implications stand first in relation to Dewey’s and Rorty’s work, then to Milbank’s. I conclude that although Taylor’s work may indeed be ‘consistent’ in certain respects with work in RO, such consistency is not apparent in their respective conceptions of the role of religion in public life. One does well to think twice before attaching the label ‘radically orthodox’ to Taylor, at least in the partisan sense currently defended by Milbank. [35 pages]

An audio recording of a conference presentation based on an earlier version of this paper is available here:
http://www.spadeworker.com/2009/06/13/openness-and-orthodoxy/

After rationalism: the moral and religious implications of Taylor's and Rorty's epistemological critiques

Masters thesis, Religious Studies, McGill University

This paper examines and compares the different ways in which Charles Taylor and Richard Rorty critique the representationalism and foundationalism characteristic of modern epistemology (Chapter One), then considers how their critiques affect their respective understandings of morality (Chapter Two) and of the role of religious belief in modern secular societies (Chapter Three). Rorty's and Taylor's epistemological debate is presented as an example of the differences between, on the one hand, ‘anti-ontological’ or pragmatic post-foundational philosophies (such as Rorty's) and, on the other, ‘weak ontological’, contact realist alternatives (such as Taylor's). The paper concludes with a defense of Taylor's position over Rorty's, and, in doing so, makes a case for the rejection of strictly naturalist accounts of the moral and religious life in favor of a (weak ontological) picture of the human person as necessarily oriented in relation to transcendent goods of other trans-human realities. [122 pages, June 2006]

Listed online at: http://www.nd.edu/~rabbey1/dissertations.htm.

Charles Taylor on modern secularity

Presented at McGill University, September 2007

This paper outlines several themes developed in Taylor’s writings prior to the publication of A Secular Age (September 2007) that would prove central to his argument in that work. Namely: (1) his characterization of the contemporary intellectual terrain as a ‘three-cornered contest’ between neo-Nietzscheans, exclusive humanists, and believers, and the danger for any of these positions of becoming a ‘closed world structure’; (2) his notion of the ‘modern moral order’ and its rootedness in a desire for Reform emerging out of Christian theism; and (3) the possibility of ‘multiple modernities’, and especially of a ‘Catholic modernity’, which may entertain quite different views concerning the proper role of religious belief in modern societies. These themes are presented in the context of currents debates sparked by the ‘new atheists’ (Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, et al.), and it is suggested that Taylor's approach offers a way out from the black or white, ‘yea-or-nay’ spirit in which these debates have most often been conducted. [15 pages]

Skipping the middle man: Taylor on mediational epistemology

Presented at McGill University, November 2006

This paper begins with a discussion of ‘Cartesian-Lockean’ epistemology (i.e., ‘mediational epistemology’) as presented by Charles Taylor, then locates Taylor's own ‘phenomenological holist’ mode of critique in relation to another, ‘Quinean holist’ mode. Taylor's own critique is then examined from two angles: first as a negative engagement, by which he tries to show up the missteps inherent in any mediational approach; then as a positive engagement, or effort to articulate a new, more adequate account of agent and world. Two conclusions are defended: (1) that Taylor's own ‘phenomenological holism’ provides a more stable platform than the ‘Quinean holism’ of Rorty, et al., from which to critique mediational views, and (2) that Taylor’s work in moral philosophy may be regarded as an extension and application of his critique of mediational epistemology. [15 pages]

What is politics? On the singularity of the political

This paper addresses the question 'what is politics?' by reference to Oliver Marchart's book Post-Foundational Political Thought. Marchart develops the notion of a 'political difference' analogous to Heidegger's ontological difference, and suggests that only post-foundationalist approaches cognizant of this difference, and not anti-foundationalist approaches which 'forget' the difference, are able to provide an adequate answer to the question 'what is politics?'. This paper argues that Claude Lefort and Marcel Gauchet illustrate the dangers inherent in forgetting the political difference (or, i.e., in anti-foundationalism) by showing how such forgetting can lead to totalitarianism or an unsustainable individualism. [8 pages]

Osama bin Laden’s Global Islamism and Wahhabi Islam

Published in the McGill Journal of Middle East Studies, Volume VIII (2005-06)

Adopting the premise that Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network may be understood as ‘tapping into’ a ‘minority Islamic tradition’ (i.e., radical Wahhabism), this paper aims, first, to define this tradition more clearly by examining the lives and work of ibn Taymiyya and ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab. Then, through a close reading of bin Laden’s public statements from 1996 through 2005, the nature of bin Laden’s employment and manipulation of this tradition is examined more closely. Special attention is given to distinguishing bin Laden’s reception of this tradition from that of contemporary religious authorities in Saudi Arabia. It is concluded that although bin Laden and contemporary Saudi authorities both draw on the same ‘minority tradition’ of Islamist reform, bin Laden’s relation to this tradition is selective, pragmatic, and illegitimate by the standards of ibn Taymiyya or ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab themselves. [22 pages]


Also available online at:
http://www.mcgill.ca/files/mes/MJMESSozek.pdf

The ‘philosophical passages’ in Plato’s Republic

This paper discusses the relation between three central images in Books VI and VII of Plato’s Republic – Sun, Line, and Cave – and considers the extent to which the three form a single coherent picture. Each image is treated separately, through a brief exposition and assessment of relevant critical issues, then the question of their coherence is considered by way of conclusion. [15 pages]

Paul on the resurrection of the body

Paul’s conception of the resurrection body is discussed through a close textual exegesis of 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, along with an analysis of the structure and setting of the passage. Some conclusions are drawn concerning the relation between Pauline and Hellenistic understandings of the relation of spirit to body, and the relation of both understandings to modern Christian notions of the ‘afterlife’. [13 pages]

On the healing of the paralytic

A textual exegesis and commentary of Mark’s account of Jesus’ healing of the paralytic in Mk 2:1-12. [15 pages]