Donatella Di Cesare

David Broder

Capitalist Asphyxia

Immunodemocracy

Tortura. Il miglior amico della tortura è chi tace

We are inclined to see terrorist attacks as an aberration, a violent incursion into our lives that bears no intrinsic relation to the fundamental features of modern societies. But does this view misconstrue the relationship between terror and modernity? In this book, philosopher Donatella Di Cesare takes a historical approach and argues that terror is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has always been a key part of modernity. At its most basic level, terrorism is about the struggle for power and sovereignty. The growing concentration of power in the hands of the state, which is a constitutive feature of modern societies, sows the seeds of terrorism, which is deployed as a weapon by those who are exposed to the violence of the state and feel that they have no other recourse. As Di Cesare illustrates her argument with examples ranging from the Red Brigades and 9/11 to jihadism and ISIS, her sophisticated analysis will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand contemporary terrorism more deeply, as well as to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory.

Terror and Modernity

A stimulating and profound portrayal of the epochal event that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century. Immunodemocracy offers a stimulating and profound portrayal of the epochal event that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century. Moving from the ecological question to the rule of experts, from the state of exception to immunitarian democracy, from rule by fear to the contagion of conspiracy theory, from forced distancing to digital control, Donatella Di Cesare examines how existence is already changing--and what its future political effects may be. In her own personal style, the author reconstructs the dramatic phases of what she calls "the breathing catastrophe." Coronavirus is a sovereign virus that skirts its way around the walls of patriotism and the sovereignists' imperious frontiers. And it reveals in all its terrible crudeness the immunitarian logic that excludes the weakest and hits the poorest. The Cordon sanitaire of disengagement risks expanding beyond all proportion. The disparity between the protected and the helpless--a challenge to any idea of justice--has never been so blatant. The virus has not introduced, but merely brought out into the open the ruthlessness of the capitalism that is now wrapping us in its devastating spiral, in its compulsive, asphyxial vortex. Is it our final warning? The violent global pandemic shows that it is impossible for us to survive if we don't help each other. We will need to protect ourselves from protection and the specter of absolute immunization. When breathing can no longer be taken for granted, we need to rethink a new way of living together.

Highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in "Truth and Method" philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger and connects him with discussions and debates in pragmatism.

A Philosophical Portrait

Gadamer

Philosophers have long struggled to reconcile Martin Heidegger’s involvement in Nazism with his status as one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. The recent publication of his Black Notebooks has reignited fierce debate on the subject. These thousand-odd pages of jotted observations profoundly challenge our image of the quiet philosopher’s exile in the Black Forest, revealing the shocking extent of his anti-Semitism for the first time. For much of the philosophical community, the Black Notebooks have been either used to discredit Heidegger or seen as a bibliographical detail irrelevant to his thought. Yet, in this new book, renowned philosopher Donatella Di Cesare argues that Heidegger’s “metaphysical anti-Semitism” was a central part of his philosophical project. Within the context of the Nuremberg race laws, Heidegger felt compelled to define Jewishness and its relationship to his concept of Being. Di Cesare shows that Heidegger saw the Jews as the agents of a modernity that had disfigured the spirit of the West. In a deeply disturbing extrapolation, he presented the Holocaust as both a means for the purification of Being and the Jews’ own “self-destruction”: a process of death on an industrialized scale that was the logical conclusion of the acceleration in technology they themselves had brought about. Situating Heidegger’s anti-Semitism firmly within the context of his thought, this groundbreaking work will be essential reading for students and scholars of philosophy and history as well as the many readers interested in Heidegger’s life, work, and legacy.

The Black Notebooks

Heidegger and the Jews

La publicación de los Cuadernos negros de Martin Heidegger, entre los años 2013 y 2015 en Alemania, causaron un profundo revuelo en el panorama filosófico. Se reabrió a partir de entonces un debate, muchas veces reduccionista. La grandeza del filósofo y la mezquindad del nazi constituían una paradoja inaceptable: «si ha sido un gran filósofo, entonces no fue un nazi; si fue un nazi, entonces no ha sido un gran filósofo». Pero ambas posiciones son retóricas y profundamente antifilosóficas, como nos viene a demostrar Donatella Di Cesare en este estimulante ensayo. La razón del escándalo que ha sacudido al mundo de los «heideggerianos» y a la filosofía continental es que los Cuadernos negros muestran a un filósofo consciente de sus decisiones políticas, atento a las vicisitudes históricas. Su compromiso político durante los años del nazismo no fue ni un accidente ni un error. Fue, antes bien, el resultado de una elección política coherente con el propio pensamiento. Si resultan turbadores es porque dinamitan los esquemas con que se había venido interpretando a Heidegger hasta el momento. Pero el fino análisis de Donatella Di Cesare también nos muestra cómo el anti-semitismo metafísico de Heidegger se inserta en una larga tradición occidental que abordó, no sin hostilidad y sin la complicidad por parte de los filósofos, la Judenfrage o cuestión judía, bien como un interrogante, porque el judaísmo parecía escapar a una definición, bien como un problema que había que «resolver».

Los Cuadernos negros

Heidegger y los judíos

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002), one of the towering figures of contemporary Continental philosophy, is best known for Truth and Method, where he elaborated the concept of "philosophical hermeneutics," a programmatic way to get to what we do when we engage in interpretation. Donatella Di Cesare highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger, and connects him with discussions and debates in pragmatism. This is a sensitive and thoroughly readable philosophical portrait of one of the 20th century’s most powerful thinkers.

From the shores of Europe to the Mexican-US border, mass migration is one of the most pressing issues we face today. Yet at the same time, calls to defend national sovereignty are becoming ever more vitriolic, with those fleeing war, persecution, and famine vilified as a threat to our security as well as our social and economic order. In this book, written amidst the dark resurgence of appeals to defend ‘blood and soil’, Donatella Di Cesare challenges the idea of the exclusionary state, arguing that migration is a fundamental human right. She develops an original philosophy of migration that places the migrants themselves, rather than states and their borders, at the centre. Through an analysis of three historic cities, Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, Di Cesare shows how we should conceive of migrants not as an other but rather as resident foreigners. This means recognising that citizenship cannot be based on any supposed connection to the land or an exclusive claim to ownership that would deny the rights of those who arrive as migrants. Instead, citizenship must be disconnected from the possession of territory altogether and founded on the principle of cohabitation – and on the ultimate reality that we are all temporary guests and tenants of the earth. Di Cesare’s argument for a new ethics of hospitality will be of great interest to all those concerned with the challenges posed by migration and with the increasingly hostile attitudes towards migrants, as well as students and scholars of philosophy and political theory.

A Philosophy of Migration

Resident Foreigners

It is time for philosophy to return to the city. In today’s crisis-ridden world of globalised capitalism, increasingly closed in on itself, it may seem harder than ever to think of ways out. Philosophy runs the risk of becoming the handmaiden of science and of a hollowed-out democracy. Donatella Di Cesare calls on philosophy instead to return to the political fray and to the city, the global pólis, from which it was banished after the death of Socrates. Suggesting a radical existentialism and a new anarchism, Di Cesare shows that Western philosophy has been characterised by a political vocation ever since its origins in ancient Greece, and argues that the separation of philosophy from its political roots robs it of its most valuable and enlightening potential. But critique and dissent are no longer enough. Mindful of a defeated exile and an inner emigration, philosophers should return to politics and forge an alliance with the poor and the downtrodden. This passionate defence of the political relevance of philosophy and its radical potential in our globalised world will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy and to a wide general readership.

The Political Vocation of Philosophy

Torture is not as universally condemned as it once was. From Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the death of Giulio Regeni, countless recent cases have shocked public opinion. But if we want to defend the human dignity that torture violates, simple indignation is not enough. In this important book, Donatella Di Cesare provides a critical perspective on torture in all its dimensions. She seeks to capture the peculiarity of an extreme and methodical violence where the tormentor calculates and measures out pain so that he can hold off the victim’s death, allowing him to continue to exercise his sovereign power. For the victim, being tortured is like experiencing his own death while he is still alive. Torture is a threat wherever the defenceless find themselves in the hands of the strong: in prisons, in migrant camps, in nursing homes, in centres for the disabled and in institutions for minors. This impassioned book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory as well as to anyone committed to defending human rights as universal and inviolable.

Torture

Silvia Benso

Roberto Esposito

Massimo Donà

Emanuele Severino

Massimo Adinolfi

Gérard Bensussan

Gennaro Carillo

Giuseppe Cantillo

Massimo Cacciari

Jean-François Courtine

Giannino Di Tommaso

Biagio de Giovanni

Adriano Fabris

Félix Duque

Franco Ferrari

Ernesto Forcellino

Bruno Forte

Romano Gasparotti

Giulio Giorello

Giulio Goria

Enrica Lisciani-Petrini

Eugenio Mazzarella

Giuseppe Moro

Edoardo Mirri

Giacomo Petrarca

Gaetano Rametta

Enrico Redaelli

Valerio Rocco Lozano

Rocco Ronchi

Carlo Sini

Luigi Vero Tarca

Andrea Tagliapietra

Fulvio Tessitore

Francesco Tomatis

Aldo Trione

Francesco Valagussa

Carlo Invernizzi

Andrea Bellantone

Il centro di questo libro è fuori del libro, in altri libri: nell’opera di Vincenzo Vitiello, con la quale gli autori dei saggi qui raccolti si sono nel tempo confrontati. Per gli ottant’anni del filosofo, hanno accolto volentieri l’idea di proseguire per un altro tratto un colloquio, che riprende autori e domande fondamentali del pensiero occidentale – da Platone a Aristotele, da Kant a Hegel, da Nietzsche a Heidegger a molti altri –, in una pluralità di prospettive e di proposte che dimostra la fecondità del dialogo tenuto nel corso di questi anni da alcune delle maggiori voci della filosofia contemporanea. In filosofia non esistono tradizioni che non vengano sempre nuovamente rimesse in questione. La forma stessa del mettere in questione, del logon didonai, ha da essere interrogata circa il suo statuto e i suoi titoli di legittimità. Una scepsi radicale attraversa dunque il pensiero filosofico. «Chi vuole che la sua parola abbia senso, deve farsi forte di ciò che a tutti è comune e ha senso»: così si legge in un frammento di Eraclito: nei testi che qui si presentano, la filosofia e i filosofi che la praticano danno forza a ciò che è loro comune, ma insieme sperimentano anche l’infirmitas di questa forza, secondo la lezione più cara a Vincenzo Vitiello.

Per gli ottant’anni di Vincenzo Vitiello

Trovarsi accanto

Marginada por la reflexión, presentada por los medios de comunicación como un evento caótico y escurridizo, la revuelta es un tema incandescente en el escenario global. Aunque se encienda, se apague, se vuelva a propagar, la revuelta no es un evento efímero, sino que es una transición anárquica que se produce en el proceso de liberación de la arquitectura política. A través de la revuelta podemos vislumbrar lo que sucede «afuera», más allá del orden estatocéntrico, en torno a las protegidas fronteras del espacio público; podemos abrir brechas, cuestionar el statu quo, denunciar la injusticia, cuestionar «lo dado». En este elogio de la revuelta, Donatella Di Cesare aborda sus diversos aspectos políticos y filosóficos, ofrece una interpretación política de la máscara, del ocultar el rostro para mostrarse un sujeto, y el desafío que supone para el Estado y la economía desencarnada. La prestigiosa filósofa revela en El tiempo de la revuelta las enormes asimetrías sociales, pone al descubierto la disparidad de fuerzas que configuran los límites de la polis, denuncia la vigilancia planetaria y se pregunta por los fenómenos «afuera» del Estado, por la revolución perdida y por la resistencia.

El Tiempo de la revuelta

English summary: Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) is one of the most representative figures of twentieth century philosophy. What is his philosophical hermeneutics really about? And how did it develop and change over the years? Donatella Di Cesare recounts the life of the Marburg philosopher and retraces all the stages of his thought, from his student days in his hometown to the dark hours of Nazism and the war years in Leipzig, from the birth of hermeneutics in Heidelberg to its success in the United States and worldwide. Gadamer's philosophy increasingly moved away from Heidegger and chose Plato's dialogue, enabling him to develop his thoughts critically. By forsaking a metaphysical foundation, which did however not mean a renunciation of universality, his philosophical hermeneutics accepts finiteness and, at the same time, is receptive to a ceaseless dialogue in the ongoing comparison with other major contemporary philosophical trends. German description: Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) gehort zu den bedeutendsten Vertretern der Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sein Hauptwerk Wahrheit und Methode ist mittlerweile zu einem Klassiker geworden. Aber worin besteht eigentlich seine philosophische Hermeneutik? Wie entwickelt und verandert sie sich im Lauf der Jahre? Auf einfache und bundige Weise schildert Donatella Di Cesare Gadamers Leben und geht allen Etappen seines Denkens nach: von den Studienjahren in Marburg bis zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und den Kriegsjahren in Leipzig, von der Geburt der Hermeneutik in Heidelberg bis zum Erfolg in Amerika und in der Welt. Das Spiel der Kunst, die Wirkungsgeschichte, eine lebensnahe Ethik, die Frage nach dem Verstehen, der Horizont der Sprache, dies alles bildet den theoretischen Kern, aus dem sich eine Philosophie entwickelt, die sich immer weiter von der Heideggers entfernt und den platonischen Dialog bevorzugt, um ihre Gedanken kritisch zu entfalten. Indem sie auf jede metaphysische Letzbegrundung verzichtet, was aber keinen Verzicht auf Universalitat bedeutet, nimmt die philosophische Hermeneutik zugleich die Endlichkeit an und offnet sich zu einem unendlichen Dialog. Ihre Kontur als eine Philosophie der unendlichen Endlichkeit zeichnet sich dabei auch in der Auseinandersetzung mit den anderen zeitgenossischen Philosophien ab: mit der Ideologiekritik Habermas', dem Pragmatismus Rortys, der Dekonstruktion Derridas, dem Nihilismus Vattimos und dem Denken der Differenz. Abschliessend zeichnet die Autorin die neuesten Perspektiven einer Hermeneutik des Anderen ab.

ein philosophisches Porträt

Donatella Di Cesare

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