Workshop: Democratic Projects. Derrida, Mouffe, Laclau
13. April 2024, University of Vienna
Workshop: Democratic Projects. Derrida, Mouffe, Laclau
13. April 2024, University of Vienna
As part of our research on Radical Democratic Theories, we are organizing a workshop on foundational texts by Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau, and Chantal Mouffe, in collaboration with the Political Theory Team at the University of Vienna.
Date: April 13, 2024 Location: Conference Room, New Institute Building (NIG), University of Vienna.
Organizers: Matthias Flatscher (Vienna), Leire Urricelqui (Graz), Oliver Marchart (Vienna), Christine Abbt (St. Gallen)
The contributions by Matthias Lorenz, Leire Urricelqui, Anna Weithaler, Matthias Flatscher and Christine Abbt were scrutinised, reflected upon and discussed in depth in the packed seminar room in Vienna. It became clear how relevant Derrida's philosophy of democracies is today. His criticism of absolutising ways of thinking, his insistence on non-identifiability and complexity as the foundations of democratic orders and decisions offers orientation today, especially where it sometimes seems as if there is nothing between warmongering and pacifism. Derrida makes it clear how much the idea of an absolute enemy as well as the idea of an absolute friend refuse politics as a practice. In contrast, Derrida constantly reminds us that politics is a practice and calls on us to take responsibility, not because the situation is clear, but because it is and remains unclear. The realisation of the lack of purity of every standpoint does not lead, as is so often wrongly insinuated, to doing nothing at all and watching as quietly and unnoticed as possible. The realisation of the necessary revisability of decisions does not require passivity, but it does change the decisions. When we learn to understand and think about our judgements as fallible, we turn away from absolutist and fundamentalist views.
For Derrida, democracies are political and ethical projects and they are also based on a realisation (re-)formulated and further developed by philosophers in the wake of Socrates: ‘I know that I know nothing’. Derrida makes it clear that the democratic demands for equality and freedom cannot be separated from this as democratic demands.
Save the Date:
The examination of the foundations of radical democratic theory formation (Derrida, Laclau, Mouffe) will be continued on 11 April 2025 in a second joint workshop in cooperation with the University of Vienna. Further information will follow.