Movement : Hagar Kotef

Movement is the change in the position of a body (object or subject) or part of it over the course of a certain interval of time. This is my working definition. By the end of this essay I hope to open this definition, not so much by “abstracting movement”—by thinking of the more “metaphoric” meanings it encompasses—but by exploring the ways in which the. . .

Movement : Hagar Kotef

Movement is the change in the position of a body (object or subject) or part of it over the course of a certain interval of time. This is my working definition. By the end of this essay I hope to open this definition, not so much by “abstracting movement”—by thinking of the more “metaphoric” meanings it encompasses—but by exploring the ways in which the. . .

Myth : Chiara Bottici

Why are philosophers, and in particular political philosophers, reluctant to focus on political myth as a primary topic for their investigations? Why do they keep oscillating between the Scylla of rationalism, with its normative standards, and the Charybdis of political theology, with its smell of death? Not only do political myths exist, but they are also theorized . . .

Myth : Chiara Bottici

Why are philosophers, and in particular political philosophers, reluctant to focus on political myth as a primary topic for their investigations? Why do they keep oscillating between the Scylla of rationalism, with its normative standards, and the Charybdis of political theology, with its smell of death? Not only do political myths exist, but they are also theorized . . .

Nature : Lukas Rieppel

Nature may seem like an unlikely choice for a lexical project devoted to political concepts. This is because it is often defined in terms of the non-human, such as when John Stuart Mill described it as everything “that takes place without the agency… of man.” For many, I suspect the word conjures a mental image of plants, animals, and perhaps even the wilderness. The . . .

Nature : Lukas Rieppel

Nature may seem like an unlikely choice for a lexical project devoted to political concepts. This is because it is often defined in terms of the non-human, such as when John Stuart Mill described it as everything “that takes place without the agency… of man.” For many, I suspect the word conjures a mental image of plants, animals, and perhaps even the wilderness. The . . .

Occupation : Jacques Rancière

Contributing to a lexicon of political terms normally supposes that you take for granted that politics exists per se as a well-established sphere of human activity, so that one should choose either a concept belonging to that sphere or a concept dealing with its foundations, be they ontological, theological, or other. My own contention, however, is that this . . .

Occupation : Jacques Rancière

Contributing to a lexicon of political terms normally supposes that you take for granted that politics exists per se as a well-established sphere of human activity, so that one should choose either a concept belonging to that sphere or a concept dealing with its foundations, be they ontological, theological, or other. My own contention, however, is that this . . .

Poetry : Hannan Hever

Almost any poem may be termed political, if we define political poetry as that which problematizes the authority of the government or any other powerful entity that creates meaning. Lyric poems operating in particular social contexts may be considered political too. The political qualities of a lyric poem that undermine the system of power relationships in which. . .

Poetry : Hannan Hever

Almost any poem may be termed political, if we define political poetry as that which problematizes the authority of the government or any other powerful entity that creates meaning. Lyric poems operating in particular social contexts may be considered political too. The political qualities of a lyric poem that undermine the system of power relationships in which. . .

Property : William Keach

For a medievalist, thinking about a political concept for our modernity is at the same time a curse and a moment of revelation. For some, the Middle Ages are just too far away, constituting a radical alterity. 1 Others, like Hans Robert Jauss, view this alterity as an advantage, as something that could beget a new, fresher view on modernity. The Middle Ages . . .

Property : William Keach

For a medievalist, thinking about a political concept for our modernity is at the same time a curse and a moment of revelation. For some, the Middle Ages are just too far away, constituting a radical alterity. 1 Others, like Hans Robert Jauss, view this alterity as an advantage, as something that could beget a new, fresher view on modernity. The Middle Ages . . .

Reclamation : Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg

In its most common usage today and the one upon which I focus here, reclamation refers to the conversion of wasteland – especially of land previously under water – into land fit for use, cultivation, or construction. I also, however, extend this meaning to broader political and conceptual uses: the reclamation not only of lands but also of a concept. My thinking . . .

Reclamation : Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg

In its most common usage today and the one upon which I focus here, reclamation refers to the conversion of wasteland – especially of land previously under water – into land fit for use, cultivation, or construction. I also, however, extend this meaning to broader political and conceptual uses: the reclamation not only of lands but also of a concept. My thinking . . .

Resilience: Bonnie Honig

Resilience is defined in the OED as the “action or an act of rebounding or springing back; rebound, recoil” or as “Elasticity; the power of resuming an original shape or position after compression, bending, etc.” or as “the work given back by the spring after being strained to the extreme limit within which it can be strained again and again.” The concept “resilience”. . .

Resilience: Bonnie Honig

Resilience is defined in the OED as the “action or an act of rebounding or springing back; rebound, recoil” or as “Elasticity; the power of resuming an original shape or position after compression, bending, etc.” or as “the work given back by the spring after being strained to the extreme limit within which it can be strained again and again.” The concept “resilience”. . .

Revolution : Ariella Azoulay

The judgment “this is revolution” or “this is not revolution”—voiced in various places and times by citizens and, among them, experts on revolution—is derived from the nature of the common concept of revolution. Instead of inviting one to ask what is revolution, it has offered itself for use since the eighteenth century. Thus the study of revolutions is contained. . .

Revolution : Ariella Azoulay

The judgment “this is revolution” or “this is not revolution”—voiced in various places and times by citizens and, among them, experts on revolution—is derived from the nature of the common concept of revolution. Instead of inviting one to ask what is revolution, it has offered itself for use since the eighteenth century. Thus the study of revolutions is contained. . .

Rule of Law : J.M. Bernstein

Gustav Radbruch twice served as the Minister of Justice for the Social Democratic Party during the Weimar period. The final version of his Legal Philosophy was published in 1932. He went to ground during the Nazi reign of terror, only to resurface in 1946 with an essay entitled “Statutory Lawlessness and Supra-Statutory Law,” that, in response to the gross perversions. . .

Rule of Law : J.M. Bernstein

Gustav Radbruch twice served as the Minister of Justice for the Social Democratic Party during the Weimar period. The final version of his Legal Philosophy was published in 1932. He went to ground during the Nazi reign of terror, only to resurface in 1946 with an essay entitled “Statutory Lawlessness and Supra-Statutory Law,” that, in response to the gross perversions. . .

Sacrifice : Michael Sawyer

The late Chinua Achebe, in his magisterial work of fiction, Things Fall Apart, employs the opening of Yeat’s “Second Coming” as the epigraph and as inspiration for the title to his most well known work of fiction. Yeats writes:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; To begin this. . .

Sacrifice : Michael Sawyer

The late Chinua Achebe, in his magisterial work of fiction, Things Fall Apart, employs the opening of Yeat’s “Second Coming” as the epigraph and as inspiration for the title to his most well known work of fiction. Yeats writes:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; To begin this. . .

Sexual Difference : Joan Copjec

In the mid-1970s a global warming began to melt the icy resistance of feminists to psychoanalysis. Yet only a decade later signs of another climate change in the relations between feminism and psychoanalysis were already apparent. Teresa de Lauretis, in her ground-breaking book, Technologies of Gender, articulated the slogan under which the reverse. . .

Sexual Difference : Joan Copjec

In the mid-1970s a global warming began to melt the icy resistance of feminists to psychoanalysis. Yet only a decade later signs of another climate change in the relations between feminism and psychoanalysis were already apparent. Teresa de Lauretis, in her ground-breaking book, Technologies of Gender, articulated the slogan under which the reverse. . .

Sharia : Ali Benmakhlouf

The “divine law,” the so-called “Sharia” in the Arabic language, refers not only to legal theories in the Islamic world, but mainly to an epistemic and methodological way of life: “The Sharia was as much a way of living and of seeing the world as it was a body of belief and intellectual play. Jurists and philosophers express very explicitly the idea that the divine law is not found . . .

Sharia : Ali Benmakhlouf

The “divine law,” the so-called “Sharia” in the Arabic language, refers not only to legal theories in the Islamic world, but mainly to an epistemic and methodological way of life: “The Sharia was as much a way of living and of seeing the world as it was a body of belief and intellectual play. Jurists and philosophers express very explicitly the idea that the divine law is not found . . .

Skepticism : Peter Nicholls

In choosing “skepticism” as a concept to address here, I’ve taken a cue from a well-known passage in Nietzsche’s Will to Power where he complains of philosophers that “they have trusted in concepts as completely as they have mistrusted the senses: they have not stopped to consider that concepts and words are our inheritance from ages in which thinking was very modest . . .

Skepticism : Peter Nicholls

In choosing “skepticism” as a concept to address here, I’ve taken a cue from a well-known passage in Nietzsche’s Will to Power where he complains of philosophers that “they have trusted in concepts as completely as they have mistrusted the senses: they have not stopped to consider that concepts and words are our inheritance from ages in which thinking was very modest . . .

Survival : Gil Anidjar

“I must repeat,” Primo Levi famously insisted, “we, the survivors, are not the true witness.” Out of this unusual claim or insight, Levi did more than his share in dedicating his life and works to a reflection on the witness, the true or complete witness, and on testimony. It should not be surprising therefore that, himself a paradigmatic figure, witness to the witnesses, Levi did not have. . .

Survival : Gil Anidjar

“I must repeat,” Primo Levi famously insisted, “we, the survivors, are not the true witness.” Out of this unusual claim or insight, Levi did more than his share in dedicating his life and works to a reflection on the witness, the true or complete witness, and on testimony. It should not be surprising therefore that, himself a paradigmatic figure, witness to the witnesses, Levi did not have. . .

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