Becoming-Other, Becoming-Many: Poststructuralism and the Problem of Justice- George Sotiropoulos– political philosopher and member of Void Network participates in the conference POSTSTRUCTURALISM: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE Wed. 6/3/2019 MADRID

This paper argues that poststructuralist thought can help articulate a critical and materialist notion of justice against the normativist and idealist conceptions dominant today. The assumption that justice is a critical concept goes all the way back to Plato, whose interrogation of the notion in the Republic yields a critical analysis of the political forms existing in Greece at the time. On the other hand, in the very same work, Plato has been taken to canonize an idealist conceptualization of justice, as a normative Ideal that prescribes how things Ought to be. This conception remains prevalent today in mainstream theories of justice, which unfold within a more or less liberal frame of reference. Despite the plurality of perspectives and the willingness to critically engage with key premises of liberal thought, justice continues for the most part to be conceived as a judgment that reason passes on material reality. Recognizing the exclusionary implications of this type of normative political theory, a diverse yet identifiable current of thought has emerged that attempts to recover a more critical conception of justice, which does not adopt however the reductionist attitude of traditional Marxist or more broadly materialist critiques. In this context, the legacy of poststructuralism has been ambivalent. On the one hand, the late work of Derrida has arguably been an inaugurating moment of contemporary critical and non-reductionist theories of justice. On the other hand, it is not hard to find instances in the work of other iconic poststructuralist thinkers that suggest a principled dismissal of the notion’s analytical and political merits. Intentionally or inadvertently, poststructuralism’s radical critique of political normativism has been said (and accused) to lead to a subsumption of justice to power. Even Derrida’s attempts to sustain the irreducibility of the former to the latter, ends up in an aporetic position, which refrains from articulating an alternative, positive conception of justice. It is the latter possibility that my paper explores. Starting with a brief discussion of Derrida and Foucault and then focusing on Deleuze and Guattari, it will be argued that poststructuralist thought provides a fertile basis for a concept of justice that foregrounds the latter’s critical potency without however forfeiting its normative and ethical traits. At the same time, this conception will be shown to be consistent to a materialist theory of social reality, yet respectful of the ideational dimension of justice as well as of its excessiveness vis-à-vis historical actuality.

Conference Program

more info: https://poststructuralismconference.wordpress.com/conference-abstracts/

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The thinker of the Vast Open Horizon,
the enigmatic thinker of the Planetary Age died
in 5 February 2010 in the age of 85.
He will be always with us on our explorations in outer space,
in our great navigations of endless future, in our never ending
travelling inside the centuries, the moments, the galaxies of passions
and the microcosms of experience…
Void Network thanks Kostas Axelos for all great inspiration and
mind expanding philosphical influence that he offered to our collective
for all help that offered to us on our steps to the Edges of the Horizon

Costas Axelos (more usually spelled Kostas Axelos) is a Greek Philosopher. He was born on the 26th of June 1924 in Athens and attended high school at the French Institute^[1] and the German School of Athens, Greece. He enrolled in the Law School in order to pursue studies in law and economics. With the onset of World War II he got involved in politics; during the German and Italian occupation he participated in the Greek Resistance, and later in the Greek Civil War, as an organiser and journalist affiliated with the Communist Party (1941-1945). He was later expelled from the Communist Party and condemned to death by the right-wing government. He was arrested and escaped.

At the end of 1945 Axelos moved to Paris, France, where he studied philosophy at Sorbonne. From 1950 to 1957 he worked as a researcher in the philosophy branch of C.R.N.S, where he was writing his dissertations^[1], and subsequently proceeded to work in Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. From 1962 to 1973 he taught philosophy in Sorbonne. His dissertation “Marx, penseur de la technique” (translated as “Alienation, Praxis and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx”) tried to provide an understanding of modern technology based on the thought of Heidegger and Marx and was very influential in the 1960s, alongside the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse.

Axelos was a collaborator, columnist, and subsequently editor of the magazine ArgumentsArguments in Edition de Minuit^[2]. He has published texts mostly in French, but also in Greek and German. His most important book is “Le Jeu du Monde” (Play of the World), where Axelos argues for a pre-ontological status of play. (1956-1962). He founded and, since 1960, has run the series

Axelos lives in Paris, France and once a year he spends a month in Greece.^{[citation needed]}

His main works are:

• Heraclite et la Philosophie,
• Marx Penseur de la Techique,
• Vers la Pensee Planetaire,
• Le Jeu Du Monde,
• Pour Une Ethique Problematique,
• Systematique Ouverte,
• Metamorphoses.

biographical note from wikkipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostas_Axelos

References

1. ^ ^{a b} “INTERVIEW: Kostas Axelos; Mondialisation without the world”. Radical Philosophy. 2005. http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/pdf/mondialisation.pdf. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
2. ^ “Kostas Axelos”. Éditions de Minuit. http://www.leseditionsdeminuit.eu/f/index.php?sp=livAut&auteur_id=1383. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
   

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