Metabasis N. 23
digital edition
peer review
Each essay of this journal is reviewed by two anonymous referees and their comments are sent to the authors .
Sovereignty and democracy
May 2017 - Year XII - Number 23
Political reflections
Antigone: the aesthetics of wisdom beyond the law
Domenico Corradini
DOI: 10.7413/18281567096
What these papers deal: not the contrariety without contradiction (Kant) or the contrariety with contradiction (Hegel) between king’s law and divine law on whom killed his brother and killed by his brother, but the archetypes and the archetypical figures. For example: justice | injustice, obedience | disobedience, reason | madness, love | death – while the Chorus plays his part and sings, and dances.
Post-structuralism and Political Thought: some Reflections through Foucault and Derrida
Francesco Giacomantonio
DOI: 10.7413/18281567099
The essay considers and compares the main contributes of the thought of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, regarding the comprehension of important political concepts in the contemporary debate, such as power, sovereignity, democracy, law, freedom and State. Just analysing their theories, it is possible to have an interesting reflection in the prospective of political philosophy, far from unidimensional approaches.
The Myth of Democracy
Carmelo Muscato
DOI: 10.7413/18281567100
The myth of democracy is the result of a narrative that democracy itself builds throughout the process of its own affirmation. In this respect, the contradictions that emerge in democracy are not only its negative face, but they express the intrinsic ambiguity of the mythical narrative. This approach to democracy implies the adoption of a conception according to which reason is not a simple instrument for the satisfaction of pas-sions, but a faculty that governs the passions themselves and directs the will.
“Socialist Utopia” or “Post-secular Society”? Frankfurt School’s Paths
Salvatore Muscolino
DOI: 10.7413/18281567101
In this paper I will compare A. Honneth’s neo-socialist project with J. Habermas’ proposal of a post-secular society. Since both of these approaches are aimed to contrast with neoliberal theories, I will give explanation of my preference for Habermas’. I will do that by considering the relationship between the concepts of utopia, liberty and society.
Sovereignty of the people in democracy
Bantchin Napakou
DOI: 10.7413/18281567102
Democracy is a political regime in which sovereignty belongs to the people. Theoretically, the laws define this sovereignty of the people, as part of the political system, the right to choose its representatives with complete freedom. The electoral way seems to be the expression of this sovereignty desire of the people. Behind this truth, political and ideological issues seem to be influenced by the law of the majority, the popular aspirations. From the internal point of view, the sovereignty of the people is in fact compromised by the policies which only represent the minority deciding for people. From the internal to the external point of view, the power of the people is reduced by the emergence of the international organizations who strip states their sovereignty off. In spite of the new dimension of official sovereignty, the people can be sovereign only when the political decisions are considered as best or the rightest which can exist.
Democracy and republic, soveregnity and authority: Plato's criticism of the democratic regime in Giuseppe Rensi’s reading
Erasmo Silvio Storace
DOI: 10.7413/18281567103
The article explores the genesis of the concept of “democracy” (and its analogies and differences with “republic” concept in the Roman world) starting with its source place: Ancient Greece. After some notices of the birth of this form of government, we will dwell on the criticisms that have come to the notion of democracy from the philosophical perspective, in particular, from Plato’s theory, which will be exposed through the reading key offered by the philosopher Giuseppe Rensi, who, after rebuilding “Plato’s political drama”, will offer some interesting insights into the notions of “authority” and “sovereignty” underlying the Platonic discourse, aimed at showing some limits to the democratic regime.
Philosophical Horizons
The poetical sacrifice and the philosophical basiléia
Giangiacomo Vale
DOI: 10.7413/18281567104
The paper analyses the question of the birth of political philosophy starting from the platonic condemnation of mythical and poetical knowledge and the resulting statement affirming that political life can be reordered only by means of logos. With this founding act, political philosophy is staged for the first time with its methods, languages and instruments, but it can’t be considered without the previous sacrificial act excluding a language based on “irrational” thought. The platonic condemnation sanctions not only the separation between philosophy and poetry, but also one of the strongest and long-lasting axis of western political philosophy: the idea that politics can be reordered only by rational means.
Thematic paths
The power of language: a critical discourse analysis of IRA’s statements
Nicole Cardillo
DOI: 10.7413/18281567095
This paper investigates how the Irish Republican Army (IRA) used language in its statements to discursively construct realities and consensus in Northern Ireland, from the IRA ceasefire announced on 31 August 1994 to the declaration of the complete cessation of its military operations on 28 July 2005: a sensitive period which witnessed the shift of the IRA from violence towards a more peaceful attitude. The analysis aims at discovering the features of the IRA’s discourse and it is conducted on different levels, following the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis, with the support of Corpus Linguistics methodological tools.
Theatrum et imago mundi: baroque’s figures and characters
Antimo Cesaro
DOI: 10.7413/18281567094
In contrast to the Renaissance, the Baroque Age discovers in nature the anomaly, the exception, a constantly evolving metamorphic reality: the thought turns to research, experimentation, free and open forms in a climate of growing disquiet. This giant cultural operation also participates in the courtier universe, where get passionate about everything that is strange, curious and bizarre. In this exaltation of the defect, amusing, but at the same time restless, alternate Morgante, the favorite dwarf of Cosimo I de’ Medici, “hairy Arrigo” and his sister Antonietta, suffering from hypertrichosis universalis congenita, and Maddalena Ventura, the bearded woman portrayed in 1631 by Jusepe de Ribera.
So Χάως for nothing: a working hypotesis on the notion of Χάως in some places of the archaic greek thought
Sergio A. Dagradi
DOI: 10.7413/18281567097
The aim of the essay is to discuss the possibility that the notion of Χάως, as it emerged in the theogony and cosmology of Hesiod and Pherekydes of Syros, would be superimposable onto the notion of Nothingnession, as it was developed by the Phenomenology in the last century.
Fortune and misfortune of dwarves in the XVII century courts
Eleonora Ferraro
DOI: 10.7413/18281567098
In the seventeenth-century Europe, dwarfs were an integral part of court life. Sought after as a curiosity to be shown and, as such, permanent presence of parties, games and entertainment of all kinds, these lilliputians ante litteram were also astute advisers, who were granted special licenses in derogation to the rigid court ceremonial: while, on the one hand, nature had penalized them with the “scale reduction”, on the other hand had bestowed them - almost in return - insight and intuition. The “culture of the bizarre” of the Baroque Age also thrives on their emblematic character, handed down to posterity by the works of famous artists - including Diego Velázquez - who portrayed them alone or in crowded scenes of courtly life.
Metabasis N. 23
digital edition
peer review
Each essay of this journal is reviewed by two anonymous referees and their comments are sent to the authors .
