Spontaneity : Maya Kronfeld

This essay is part of my project of reclaiming the concept of spontaneity for philosophy, jazz, and literature. I bring together Immanuel Kant’s notion of spontaneity from the Critique of Pure Reason with Elvin Jones’ album Puttin’ it Together and Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz to address critical impasses around

Spontaneity : Maya Kronfeld

This essay is part of my project of reclaiming the concept of spontaneity for philosophy, jazz, and literature. I bring together Immanuel Kant’s notion of spontaneity from the Critique of Pure Reason with Elvin Jones’ album Puttin’ it Together and Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz to address critical impasses around

Contre- : Bernard E. Harcourt

Is it possible to imagine a concept that is so productive that it leads us beyond the ordinary play of “countermoves in the same game”? Is it conceivable that the particle “contre-” or, in English, “counter-,” could overcome the opposition from which it is born and generate a fully autonomous conceptual form? . . .

Contre- : Bernard E. Harcourt

Is it possible to imagine a concept that is so productive that it leads us beyond the ordinary play of “countermoves in the same game”? Is it conceivable that the particle “contre-” or, in English, “counter-,” could overcome the opposition from which it is born and generate a fully autonomous conceptual form? . . .

Literature : John Cayley

When discussing literature in the early 1990s, Jacques Derrida was quick to remark, “The name ‘literature’ is a very recent invention.” Historically and politically located, therefore. Literature, particularly when it is taken to derive from or include oral linguistic aesthetic practices, has also been understood as an inevitable, evolved,

Literature : John Cayley

When discussing literature in the early 1990s, Jacques Derrida was quick to remark, “The name ‘literature’ is a very recent invention.” Historically and politically located, therefore. Literature, particularly when it is taken to derive from or include oral linguistic aesthetic practices, has also been understood as an inevitable, evolved,

Exposure : Erin Graff Zivin

Two propositions. First proposition: exposure is a political concept. Second proposition: exposure is a method describing the performative articulation of political concepts. The current formulation, as well as the limits, of the concept “exposure” are found in Emmanuel Levinas’s thought, characterized by. . .

Exposure : Erin Graff Zivin

Two propositions. First proposition: exposure is a political concept. Second proposition: exposure is a method describing the performative articulation of political concepts. The current formulation, as well as the limits, of the concept “exposure” are found in Emmanuel Levinas’s thought, characterized by. . .

Imperception : Alex Moskowitz

Phillis Wheatley Peters’s collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773. First appearing in London, the collection is perhaps best remembered today for the poem titled “On Being Brought from Africa to America” . . .

Imperception : Alex Moskowitz

Phillis Wheatley Peters’s collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773. First appearing in London, the collection is perhaps best remembered today for the poem titled “On Being Brought from Africa to America” . . .

Performativity : Bonnie Honig

“Everybody’s talking about performativity, now,” Eve Sedgwick said in 1993. She said it was because of Judith Butler’s book Gender Trouble, which cast sex/gender as performative, that is to say, as a discursive product, not the natural cause, of words uttered . . .

Performativity : Bonnie Honig

“Everybody’s talking about performativity, now,” Eve Sedgwick said in 1993. She said it was because of Judith Butler’s book Gender Trouble, which cast sex/gender as performative, that is to say, as a discursive product, not the natural cause, of words uttered . . .

Domestic Violence : Barbara N. Nagel

To call “domestic violence” a “political concept” presents a provocation inasmuch as the domos is generally understood to stand apart from the political (or not to really be part of the polis): “domestic violence” suggests a small, domesticated form of violence. And yet . . .

Domestic Violence : Barbara N. Nagel

To call “domestic violence” a “political concept” presents a provocation inasmuch as the domos is generally understood to stand apart from the political (or not to really be part of the polis): “domestic violence” suggests a small, domesticated form of violence. And yet . . .

Like : Jacques Lezra

When I say that the word “like” is a political concept, I am taking advantage of the peculiar features of the English language, in which “like” serves a number of different grammatical and conversational functions, stands at the point of convergence of diverse etymologies, and gathers together . . .

Like : Jacques Lezra

When I say that the word “like” is a political concept, I am taking advantage of the peculiar features of the English language, in which “like” serves a number of different grammatical and conversational functions, stands at the point of convergence of diverse etymologies, and gathers together . . .

Dreadlocked Logics of Impossibility : Janine Jones

“I do not believe that genocide and slavery can be contained.” Due to ways in which Indigenous and Black peoples’ subjugation has been co-produced through land dispossession, logics of elimination, and the abjection of Black people through Black disvalue, Indigenous genocide and Black enslavement…

Dreadlocked Logics of Impossibility : Janine Jones

“I do not believe that genocide and slavery can be contained.” Due to ways in which Indigenous and Black peoples’ subjugation has been co-produced through land dispossession, logics of elimination, and the abjection of Black people through Black disvalue, Indigenous genocide and Black enslavement…

Necropolitics : Andrés Fabián Henao Castro

Achille Mbembe’s “Necropolitics” (2003) represents death’s entrance into the conceptual field of political science. Since Socrates defined philosophy as the art of dying in order to qualify the nature of being human in the Phaedo, death had been under philosophy’s conceptual domain in the Western tradition. Other disciplines . . .

Necropolitics : Andrés Fabián Henao Castro

Achille Mbembe’s “Necropolitics” (2003) represents death’s entrance into the conceptual field of political science. Since Socrates defined philosophy as the art of dying in order to qualify the nature of being human in the Phaedo, death had been under philosophy’s conceptual domain in the Western tradition. Other disciplines . . .

Paradise : Iván Hofman

Among the privileged concepts that may belong to a politico-theological lexicon, “Paradise” has been endowed with both the loftiness characteristic of the solemn promise it augurs, as well as with the light-headed, almost ludic, good news (gospel) of the future it sets forth. The history of its concept has been marked by the obsession . . .

Paradise : Iván Hofman

Among the privileged concepts that may belong to a politico-theological lexicon, “Paradise” has been endowed with both the loftiness characteristic of the solemn promise it augurs, as well as with the light-headed, almost ludic, good news (gospel) of the future it sets forth. The history of its concept has been marked by the obsession . . .

Pornography : April Alliston

For political reasons, there has never been consensus around any definition of pornography. The concept remains among the most radically unthought and unquestioned terms in common use. Twentieth-century political battles over its definition were virtually silenced by overwhelming resistance to theorizing the concept . . .

Pornography : April Alliston

For political reasons, there has never been consensus around any definition of pornography. The concept remains among the most radically unthought and unquestioned terms in common use. Twentieth-century political battles over its definition were virtually silenced by overwhelming resistance to theorizing the concept . . .

Dictatorship : Andreas Kalyvas

“Dictatorship,” Vladimir Lenin wrote a century ago, “is a big word, and big words should not be thrown about carelessly.” Lenin may have been wrong on many things, but he was certainly right in this case. Dictatorship is indeed a “big word” or, to be more precise, a master concept, a concept with a pivotal continuous presence in political . . .

Dictatorship : Andreas Kalyvas

“Dictatorship,” Vladimir Lenin wrote a century ago, “is a big word, and big words should not be thrown about carelessly.” Lenin may have been wrong on many things, but he was certainly right in this case. Dictatorship is indeed a “big word” or, to be more precise, a master concept, a concept with a pivotal continuous presence in political . . .

Entrepreneurial Science : Yarden Katz

‘Entrepreneurial science’ is not the most intellectually scintillating concept, but I chose it because it seemed politically urgent. So, what is ‘Entrepreneurial Science’? We can begin by asking: who is the entrepreneurial scientist? But for that, we will need to know: Who is the scientist? In his elegantly written book The Scientific Life (2008) . . .

Entrepreneurial Science : Yarden Katz

‘Entrepreneurial science’ is not the most intellectually scintillating concept, but I chose it because it seemed politically urgent. So, what is ‘Entrepreneurial Science’? We can begin by asking: who is the entrepreneurial scientist? But for that, we will need to know: Who is the scientist? In his elegantly written book The Scientific Life (2008) . . .

Lex Animata: Jesús R. Velasco

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. 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 . . .

Lex Animata: Jesús R. Velasco

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. 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 . . .