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diff --git a/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md b/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md index 20e09c2..a74958a 100644 --- a/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md +++ b/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md @@ -128,9 +128,7 @@ such, all political forms are effects of the democratic. In other words, Negri’s obfuscation of the question of vio lence can never lead to agonistic monism. - - [...] - + Production of the real: Second, the state of emergency leading to justification @@ -152,8 +150,6 @@ Production of the real: with whether its justifications are believed by those it af fects. - [...] - Torture: Greek political philosophy. 4 Hannah Arendt also pays @@ -191,3 +187,100 @@ Torture: completely fabulatory. -- 32-33 + +Razão instrumental: + + Let us return to consider more carefully how sover + eign violence always strives for justification. This means + that we can characterize the acts of sovereignty as con + forming to a rationalized instrumentalism. Sovereign + violence is instrumental in the sense that it always aims + toward something—it is not vio + + lence for vio + lence’s + sake. This means that the desired outcome of sover + eign violence is calculated with the help of reason. The + extrapolation of violence in instrumental terms is noth + ing new. For instance, Hannah Arendt presents instru + mentalism as the defining feature of violence. 7 Yet the + instrumentalism of sovereign violence is not as self- + evident as it may at first appear. For instance, as Fran + çois Jullien shows, the conception of an instrumental + thinking as appropriate to the political arises in ancient + Greece, and it does not characterize the Chinese cul + ture, including even the ways in which warfare is con + ceived. 8 The important point, then, is to remember that + the instrumentality of reason in the serv ice of a justifi + cation of violence is a characteristic of sovereignty as it + is developed in the Western political and philosophical + tradition. + The “invention” of the instrumentality of reason is + an important moment in the history of thought, and + its “inventors,” the ancient Greeks, amply recognized its + importance. In fact, their tragedies are concerned pre + cisely with the clash between the older forms of thinking + and new forms exemplified by instrumental reason. The + best example of this is perhaps the Oresteia. In the first + play of the trilogy, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, + Clytemnestra. In the second play, Orestes, Agamem + non’s son, responds by killing his mother. In the third + play, the Eumenides, the court of Athens is called to de + cide w + hether Orestes’s murder was justified. The alter + natives are that he is e ither guilty of matricide pure and + simple or that his act was a political one aiming to free + Argos of a tyrant. Th + ere is, then, a standstill or stasis— + and I draw again attention to this word, to which I w + ill + return later—between the two different l egal frame + works: one legality privileging kinship, the other privi + leging instrumental rationality whereby the murder of + Clytemnestra is justified by the end of saving the city + from a tyrant. The judges’ vote is a tie, at which point + the goddess Athena, who presides over the proceedings, + casts the vote to f ree Orestes of the charge of matricide. + Calculative reason prevails as the mode of the political. + But at the same time, it should not be forgotten that the + vote was equally split. For the ancient Athenians, it is + impossible to reconcile the two different legalities—the + politics of kinship and the politics of instrumental + reason. Justice persists in this irreconcilability, despite + its tragic consequences. + + -- 33-35 + +Soberania como persuasão e interpretação: + + In other words, the absoluteness of + sovereignty has nothing to do with the power of sover + eignty as it is exercised through its institutions—the + police, the army, the judiciary, and so on. Rather, the + absoluteness of sovereignty is an expression of the rhe + torical and logical mechanisms whereby sovereignty + uses the justification of violence to dominate public de + bate and to persuade the citizens. The exercise of sover + eignty is the effect of an interpretative process. Differently + put, this entails that the justification of violence is more + primary than the legitimate forms assumed by constituded power. + Without an effective justification, any government loses its + mandate to govern, even though its + decisions and political actions, its policies, and its legis + lative agenda may perfectly conform to the law of the + state. + + -- 52-53 + +Democracia: + + How can democracy as the other of sovereignty be + mobilized to respond to sovereignty’s justification of + violence? This final question is, I believe, the most fun + damental political question. It essentially asks about + the relation of sovereignty and democracy. What is re + quired at this juncture in order to broach the relation + between democracy and sovereignty further is a better + determination of democracy. + + -- 53 |