From 2b4cd21f164e34317035e469c0a9bad55f286719 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Silvio Rhatto Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2019 23:45:39 -0300 Subject: Updates books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state --- books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md | 52 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) diff --git a/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md b/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md index a74958a..57a0e92 100644 --- a/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md +++ b/books/philosophy/stasis-before-the-state.md @@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ * https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xhr6vd * https://www.academia.edu/35908382/Vardoulakis_Stasis_Before_the_State_--_Introduction * https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823277414/stasis-before-the-state/ +* Topics: + * Ruse of sovereignty. + * Diference between justification and judgement. ## Excerpts @@ -284,3 +287,52 @@ Democracia: determination of democracy. -- 53 + +> The first ever democracy was instituted through the Solonian reforms that were +> introduced to counteract a chronical political no less than social crisis in +> Athens. The crisis was the result of a protracted animosity between the rich +> and the poor parties. The confrontation was largely because of material +> inequalities, such as the requirement to hold property in order to be a +> citizen, and the economic inequalities that were threatening to turn into +> slaves a large portion of the poor population who had defaulted on their +> payments. Unsurprisingly, given the sensitivity of these issues, tensions +> ran high, and the city often found itself in conflict or stasis, with the two +> sides taking arms against each other. The situation had reached an acute +> crisis, at which point the Athenians re­ solved that they had to take decisive +> action. They turned to Solon, who was largely viewed as impartial and wise, to +> write a new constitution for the city. He responded by compiling the first ever +> democratic constitution. +> +> [...] +> +> The crisis is the condition of citizenship and residency within +> Athens and even of the possibility of the operation of the state. Solon's law +> does not describe mea­sures whereby the crisis can be avoided. Instead, it +> describes how everyone is required to participate in it -- as if the aim is to +> accentuate the crisis. Those who avoid conflict will be punished. The +> democratic overcoming of crisis consists in the institutionalization of +> crisis within the constitution. According to Solon, his fellow Athenians need +> to recognize the illusion that the implementation of measures can always +> prevent crisis. According to Solon, democracy consists in the dispelling of +> that illusion. This does not mean that certain measures or policies cannot and +> should not be devised to ameliorate or evade predictable crises. Rather, it +> highlights that such mea­sures are never adequate. Or, to put it the other +> way around, Solon sees crisis as a way of being, as a condition of existence, +> and he is determined that his democratic constitution aknowledges this. +> +> -- 57-58 + +> Democracy does not seek to be charitable to the other but instead affords the +> other the respect to give them a voice to express their opinions as well as to +> debate and rebuke these opinions. +> +> -- 73 + +> These insights amount to saying that a democratic being is conflictual +> -- which is to say that it cannot find certainty in any political regime +> promising unity or in a state characterized by order, peace, and stability. +> Rather, democracy in this sense is a regime that is inherently open to the +> possibility of conflict without any underlying structure to regulate this +> conflict or to resolve it to some­ thing posited as higher. +> +> -- 76 -- cgit v1.2.3