Totalitarianism

The Terrifying Mimicry of Samizdat

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

in Public Culture. Vol. 13, No. 2 (2001): 191-214.

The Stalin Cult between Center and Periphery: Structures of the Cult Community in the Empire of Socialism, 1949-1956 – the Case of GDR, in: Ennker B., Hein-Kircher H. (ed.), Der Führer im Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts, Marburg: Herder-Institut, 2010, pp.297-321.

by Alexey Tikhomirov

Symbols of Power in Rituals of Violence: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm on the Soviet Empire’s Periphery (East Germany, 1945–61)

by Alexey Tikhomirov

published in: Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2012, pp. 47-88.

The Flexible and the Pliant: Disturbed Organisms of Soviet Modernity

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

in Cultural Anthropology. Vol. 19, No. 3 (2004): 392–428.

Hannah Arendt - College essay 2007

by Patricia Danakas

Co-Authored with Etienne Breton.

College essay on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism. College essay on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism.

The Evolution of Totalitarianism: From Stalin to Putin

by Tornike Metreveli

The Soviet Union is commonly cited as “totalitarian.” But just how totalitarian was the Soviet Union? The modern... more The Soviet Union is commonly cited as “totalitarian.” But just how totalitarian was the Soviet Union? The modern Russian Federation?

Reason, Justice, Law and Violence in Plato's Republic

by Benjamin Norris

“The task of a critique of violence can be summarized as that of expounding its relation to law and justice”... more “The task of a critique of violence can be summarized as that of expounding its relation to law and justice” (Benjamin, 278). This is how Walter Benjamin begins his Critique of Violence. Justice and Law are some of the foremost concepts explicitly dealt with in Plato’s Republic yet violence seems to receive a more implicit treatment. Plato believed he was proposing an Aristocracy that would be able to govern the perfectly Just city, but many of his modern critics have argued that the Polis Plato describes resembles a totalitarian society much more than it does a Just one. The purpose of this paper is not to explicitly condemn or defend Plato’s Polis but instead to analyze the unspoken violence within the mythology of the Republic as it relates to Plato’s conceptions of Justice and Law. It is divided in to three parts. Section one will deal with Plato’s overall idea of Justice as each part of the soul/city acting in its proper place and the role the the nobel lie or the useful falsehood, plays in order to justify the structure of the perfect Polis. The second section will deal with the relationship between foundational myths and violence in order to show that Law and Justice in the Republic are intimately tied to a form of mythic violence that Benjamin describes in his critique. The third section will show how a more nuanced analysis of the type of violence operating in the useful falsehood can subvert some of Karl Popper’s concerns with the static and totalitarian nature of the allegedly just city. My goal in this paper is to show that for Plato, Justice and Law rely on a certain type of violence and consequently Law and Justice do not imply non-violence; yet the presence of this “just violence” does not mean that we can reduce Plato’s Republic to a “how-to” guide for totalitarianism.

Entrevista a Leszek Kolakowski:" (English version) No considero Principales corrientes del marxismo mi obra magna"

by Pura Sánchez-Zamorano

Introduzione a "Jacques Maritain e i diritti umani"

by Daniele Lorenzini

Published in D. Lorenzini, "Jacques Maritain e i diritti umani. Fra totalitarismo, antisemitismo e democrazia (1936-1951)", Morcelliana, coll. "Storia", Brescia 2012 (208 p.)

Review: Robert Gellately: Lenin, Stalin und Hitler. Drei Diktatoren, die Europa in den Abgrund führten. Bergisch-Gladbach, Lübbe 2009, 891 S.

by John Andreas Fuchs

In: Forum für osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte 2/2011, S. 185-188.

Hannah Arendt and the Revolution Of Ones

by Mykolas Gudelis

Arendt says: “…Insofar as power always comes from men acting together, ‘acting in concert (Burke); isolated men are... more Arendt says: “…Insofar as power always comes from men acting together, ‘acting in concert (Burke); isolated men are powerless by definition.”
It is precisely this notion that isolated men are powerless by definition that I want to challenge in this paper. While Arendt believes that “miracles” happen, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, she absolutely excludes the possibility of considering actions of single individuals as actions having any political capacity. If we take Arendt’s view that isolated men are powerless, then we could say such a view is very pessimistic and that the actual historical existence of totalitarian states should have been considered as the end of the political world and as the end of humanity indefinitely. However, today we know that this was not the case. Hence, the capacity for actions and actions themselves were not eliminated but were different from what Arendt believes to be an action in the context of the political.

Michael Polanyi on Freedom of Science

by Péter Hartl

This essay is an enlarged version of my conference talk (Michael Polanyi's post-critical epistemology and the moral dimension of science) which I gave at the 20th Days of Frane Petric – Philosophical Trends in Southeast Europe Conference (Cres, Croatia, September 18-21, 2011).

In the present essay I investigate Polanyi's main arguments for academic freedom. Academic and political freedom are... more In the present essay I investigate Polanyi's main arguments for academic freedom. Academic and political freedom are closely related to each other: if the state takes control over science, it will lead to the collapse of freedom itself in the whole society. His arguments against totalitarianism rely on his anti-positivist philosophy of science. He diagnoses totalitarianism as a denial of academic freedom which is based on a pragmatist view of science and instrumentalist interpretation of moral values. Polanyi's idea of science is a spiritual, idealistic description of a community of free intellectuals who are passionately committed to seeking the truth and have an autonomous community with its own rules and autonomous direction. Seeking the truth in favour of truth itself is the essential goal of science, which can be accomplished only if it remains free from every external influence. I will argue that Polanyi's insights can still be relevant today, when science can become an instrument of profit-oriented practical needs instead of seeking the truth itself, and humanities (including philosophy) are often considered unnecessary.

Totalitarian Perversions of the Art of Persuasion. From Klemperer's LTI to Nabokov's Investigations in "Bend Sinister".

by Beatriz Penas Ibáñez

In Con/Texts of Peersuasion. Coll. Problemata Literaria (69). Kassel: Edition Reichenberger. 2011: pp. 37-62.

This paper explores the political ideological dimension of Nabokov's fiction, a dimension particularly well explored... more This paper explores the political ideological dimension of Nabokov's fiction, a dimension particularly well explored in and exemplified by Nabokov's novel Bend Sinister.
Nabokov's highly intelligent ironic stance on the issue has often led his critics astray when confronted witht this facet of the novelist's work, which as a result, has suffered their neglect to say the least.
Quite often the critic takes Nabokov's ironic comments at their face value. Such literalism produces a misreading of the author's work, which, being highly stylized and aesthetic, is still very much about sinister political agendas and the (un)ethical choice involved in either their acceptance or their rejection by those who must respond to them.

שייכות מצמיתה, חירות במשורה וצדק אין - הרצאה שנשאתי בחגיגות ה100 לתנועה הקיבוצית

by Ada Lampert

totalitarian and radical islamic ideologies

by david suurland

In: Religion, Politics and Law
Edited by: Bart Labuschagne, Reinhard Sonnenschmidt:
Publisher: Brill, Leiden, 2009

A genealogy of radical Islamic theory and practice

by david suurland

published in : Terrorism: Ideology, Law, Policy.
Edited by: Gelijn Molier, Afshin Ellian, David Suurland
Publisher: Republic of Letters, Dordrecht. 2011

The Communist Regime as a Process: 'People's Poland' from Imitation to De-Totalitarization

by Dariusz Stola

Another gentle manifesto towards complexity, contradiction, multiplicity and pluralist democracy for the inhabitants of modern cities

by Constantinos Miltiadis

This is a preliminary draft of a study for a "dialexis" paper, later evolved to a different and larger analysis sharing some similar views, under the title: "Three analytic quasi methods, for a schizoanalytical urban experiment".
The present paper was written in May 2011, at Tecnica University of Lisbon, under professor Carlos Alho. The later paper was completed in Greek, in October 2011, under professor Dimitris Papalexopoulos of Technical University of Athens.

About residential architecture of modern metropolises, the choice or absence of choice that they offer for their... more About residential architecture of modern metropolises, the choice or absence of choice that they offer for their inhabitants, and the totalitarian aspect of architecture of the age of modernity. It focuses on the city of Athens, Greece, and at the end it proposes some kind of flexible and metabolizing urbanism.

Priest or Jester? Jacob L. Talmon (1916-1980) on History and Intellectual Engagement

by Arie Dubnov

History of European Ideas (2008), Volume: 34, Issue: 2
(special issue under my editorship)

This essay provides a general introduction to the special number on Jacob L. Talmon (1916-1980). The essay sketches... more This essay provides a general introduction to the special number on Jacob L. Talmon (1916-1980). The essay sketches the outlines of Talmon's intellectual biography, beginning with his study of the origins of totalitarian democracy, moving through his analysis of nationalism and political messianism, and ending with his study of the ideological clash of the 20th century. The essay raises the question of whether Talmon should be seen as a thinker wishing to defend existing traditions (i.e. a "priest"), or as a radical anti-authoritarian skeptic (i.e. a "jester"). Moreover, being both an anti-nationalist liberal, and a zionist at the same time, Talmon, the essay shows, was aware of the fact his own stance was problematic and at times even paradoxical. The last section of the essay presents the seven essays, which are included in the special issue.

The Myth of Plato's "Statesman"

by Richard Strube

Considerations of tyranny and anarchy, grounded in the myth in Plato's "Statesman" and Agamben's "Homo... Considerations of tyranny and anarchy, grounded in the myth in Plato's "Statesman" and Agamben's "Homo Sacer".