Evans Ecce Humanitas

Beholding the Pain of Humanity
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-0-231-54558-7
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten

Reihe: Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

The very idea of humanity seems to be in crisis. Born in the ashes of devastation after the slaughter of millions, the liberal conception of humanity imagined a suffering victim in need of salvation. Today, this figure appears less and less capable of galvanizing the political imagination. But without it, how are we to respond to the inhumane violence that overwhelms our political and philosophical registers? How can we make sense of the violence that was carried out in the name of humanism? And how can we develop more ethical relations without becoming parasitic on the pain of others?

Through a critical exploration of violence and the sacred, Ecce Humanitas recasts the fall of liberal humanism. Brad Evans offers a rich analysis of the changing nature of sacrificial violence, from its theological origins to the exhaustion of the victim in the contemporary world. He critiques the aestheticization that turns victims into sacred objects, sacrificial figures that demand response, perpetuating a cycle of violence that is seen as natural and inevitable. In novel readings of classic and contemporary works, Evans traces the sacralization of violence as well as art’s potential to incite resistance. Countering the continued annihilation of life, Ecce Humanitas calls for liberating the political imagination from the scene of sacrifice. A new aesthetics provides a form of transgressive witnessing that challenges the ubiquity of violence and allows us to go beyond humanism to imagine a truly liberated humanity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Evans, Brad

Weitere Mitwirkende

Chapman, Jake

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Foreword: An Obituary for the Liberal, by Jake Chapman
Preface: Encountering the Void
Part I: The Sacrifice
1. Humanity Bound
2. The Sacred Order of Politics
3. The Shame of Being Human
Part II: The Fall of Liberal Humanism
4. A Higher State of Killing
5. The Death of the Victim
6. A Sickness of Reason
Part III: Into the Void
7. Annihilation
8. The Transgressive Witness
9. Wounds of Love
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Contributor: Brad Evans Brad Evans is Professor of Political Violence and Aesthetics and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath.