GPHI 6621 -

Institution:

The New School

Subject:

Description:

Metamorphoses of Sacralization: Poetry, Politics, and the Problem of Belief Fall 2008. Three credits. Simon Critchley This is a seminar about politics and belief: the argument is advanced that there are no "politics" without the experience of belief. As Oscar Wilde wrote,"Everything to be true must become a religion." The necessity for a momentof sacralization in the constitution of any polity is demonstrated, and a history of such sacralization is laid out, with historical examples of civil religion from the ancient Greeks through to American democracy, state socialism, and including current (perhaps vacuous) popular debates about European identity and the spectre of Jihadism. Using Rousseau as a guide, it is demonstrated how politics and law require something like religion to bind citizens together, referred to as "the catechism of the citizen." Hans Blumenberg ? The Legitimacof the Modern Age and Charles Taylor's recent work factor significantly in this model of politics, which significantly challenges the standard left-liberal secularization narrative. The course concludes by criticizing the contemporary theologization of politics, arguing instead for belief at the level of poetry rather than religion, leading to the closing hypothesis of "a politics of the supreme fiction." Note this seminar includes three sessions with Alain Badiou in November.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.newschool.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 229-5600

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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