Lefort as a reader of Machiavelli and Marx.

This essay begins with the contention that phenomenology has taken a “hermeneutic turn,” “the things themselves” are always already interpreted. Philosophers often elaborate their own positions through a “reading” of the works of other philosophers. This is the case for Claude Lefort. Through his in...

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Published in:Continental Philosophy Review Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 401 - 421
Main Author: Flynn, Bernard
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Sep2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Lefort as a reader of Machiavelli and Marx.
      aug:
        au: Flynn, Bernard
        affil: Department of Philosophy, New School for Social Research, East 16th Street, 10003, New York City, NY, USA
      su:
        Phenomenology
        Hermeneutics
        Philosophers
        Proletariat
        Modernity
      sug:
        subj:
          Phenomenology
          Hermeneutics
          Philosophers
          Proletariat
          Modernity
      keyword:
        Machiavelli
        Marx
        The political
        The symbolic dimension
      ab: This essay begins with the contention that phenomenology has taken a “hermeneutic turn,” “the things themselves” are always already interpreted. Philosophers often elaborate their own positions through a “reading” of the works of other philosophers. This is the case for Claude Lefort. Through his interpretive reading of the works of Machiavelli one sees the origin of Lefort’s idea of the autonomy and the anonymity of the political and thus his notion of political modernity. In tracing the evolution of Lefort’s relationship to Marx, we witness the process by which he disengages himself from his early “enchantment” with the works of Marx and the idea of the proletariat as a class bearing universal interest. Ultimately he criticizes Marx for his attempt to derive the political from the dimension of the social. This issues in his theory of totalitarianism as the attempt of a regime to close in on itself, thus denying any gesture to the dimension of the other.
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    language: English
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