michael maidan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by michael maidan

Phenomenological reviews, 2020

Idol anxiety as critical theory, 2014

This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol A... more This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol Anxiety in this context is not only the title of a book, but also a state of mind. The realization that the early Mesopotamiaid somehting different than just worship man produced object which we learn from the mis pî ceremony, put us in a mood to acknowledge that perhaps the price we paid and made others pay for monotheism was not insignificant, and that there are other ways to address cultural objects than to subject them to the hammer of ideology critique. Or maybe not.

The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the ... more The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the cradle of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory..

Philosophy in review, 2017

Review of the recently translated correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Gershon Scholem

Philosophy in Review, 2020

Genealogy is a concept mostly associated with Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and, more recently, Gio... more Genealogy is a concept mostly associated with Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and, more recently, Giorgio Agamben. In The Kingdom and the Glory (Stanford University Press 2011), Agamben writes that genealogy is research into a fundamental paradigm that exercised a decisive influence on the development and arrangement of Western Society. This paradigm is of theological origins and, behind the appearance of secularization, is a persistent feature of Western society. While Agamben did not contribute an essay to this collection himself, his interpretation of the 'secularization thesis' and his political theology appear to have guided the editors-but not necessarily the contributorsin their choices for this volume (1-2; Cf. 17, note 5). At the end of their introduction, the editors conclude that the study of the early secularization debate can teach us not only about the melancholic views of the cultural conservative, but also the more optimistic views of authors such as Blumenberg and Taubes. We can imagine an additional lesson. This book can serve as a propaedeutic to the writings of Agamben. Arendt, Benjamin, Heidegger, and Taubes who can be counted as the sources that inspired Agamben's original and controversial interpretation of modernity. The book opens with a methodological section on genealogy and secularization. A section dealing with thinkers not previously associated with the secularization debate, such as Cassirer and Heidegger, Benjamin, and Arendt, follows. Part three centres on Jacob Taubes' thought. The last section deals with the work of the Egyptologist and cultural memory theorist, Jan Assmann. Part I contains two essays. In the first, Kirk Wetters asks about the legitimacy of the genealogical claim. He suggests a classification of such claims into 'weak,' 'traditional,' and 'critical.' Weak genealogies make claims to metaphors of succession, lineage, continuity, friendship or enmity, family, and school. Critical genealogies-associated with the work of Foucault and Nietzschehighlight the contingency and uncertainty of historical derivations (22-3). Based on this typology, Wetters suggests that we review the debate on secularization and evaluate the basis for the claims made by the parties. After reviewing several genealogical contests and claims, Wetters remains unconvinced. If the most important question of any genealogy is what it can contribute to a better understanding of our political or intellectual situation, then we need to be reminded that genealogies can degenerate into the production of alibies and scapegoat (42). Genealogies are important, but they do not provide solutions (45). Agata Bielik-Robson offers a Jewish perspective on the debate. She suggests that the question of the relationship of modernity to pre-modern theology is still unanswered. Both partisans and opponents of secularization agree that with modernity theology became immanent, but from this they draw different consequences. Bielik-Robson sees an opportunity for a crypto-theology, which celebrates immanence, is more joyous, affirmative, and future-oriented. She contrasts the 'death of God Theology'-which she identifies with Jean-Luc Nancy's 'bringing myth to an end'-with a Kabbalistic approach based on tsimtsum (the reduction of divine energy requisite for the creation of the world in the Lurianic myth), as in Jacques Derrida's retelling of the Lurianic myth. Derrida does away with the gnostic or antimodernist temptation. He replaces it with a theology centered on the promise and justice, and with the messianic imperative of 'remembering to remember the future' (70). Part II presents some German thinkers usually not associated with the secularization debate. Sigrid Weigel's 'Distance to Revelation' reconstructs Benjamin's criticism of secularization. Jeffrey

Revista Estudios, 2017

This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in t... more This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in the light of the reintroduction of the question of evil in political discourse and in contemporary philosophical thought.

Cuadernos Judaicos, 2016

Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual... more Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual de izquierda judeo-argentino León Rozitchner (1924-2011). Tomando como punto de partida su libro Ser Judío (1967), la interpretación que Rozitchner hace del judaísmo es analizada en sus escritos sobre san Agustín y sus últimos escritos de la década de los años 2000. Rechazando la interpretación del cristianismo como mera ideología que refleja en forma distorsionada el modo de producción social, Rozitchner elabora en sus últimas obras la idea que el cristianismo es la matriz y condición de posibilidad de la sociedad capitalista, y que su oposición al judaísmo no puede ser otra que una animosidad fundamental de la que la Shoah no es una excepción aberrante sino su manifestación más ejemplar.

Actuel Marx, 1989

Au cours de ces dernières années, on assiste à l'apparition d'un certain nombre d'ouvrages consac... more Au cours de ces dernières années, on assiste à l'apparition d'un certain nombre d'ouvrages consacrés à la vie et à la pensée de Moses Hess. Ce regain de l'intérêt porté à une des figures plus ou moins oubliées de la pensée socialiste du 19ème siècle ne répond pas seulement à la curiosité de l'historien, voire de l'archiviste, mais à des enjeux complexes au centre desquels se trouve le personnage paradoxal de Hess. L'entrée de Marx dans le monde académique, en particulier après les événements de soixante-huit, ainsi que la confrontation au sein du marxisme de plusieurs tendances opposées, a tout naturellement éveillé l'intérêt à l'égard des sources intellectuelles• de la pensée de Marx. C'est à ce titre que l'importance du mouvement jeune-hégélien a été reconnue, et qu'elle a fait l'objet d'un nombre important d'ouvrages!. Il semblerait que l'intérêt porté à l'oeuvre de Hess réponde aussi à d'autres motivations. En effet, non seulement elle nous permettrait de remonter vers les sources de la pensée de Marx (et d'Engels), c'est-à-dire de cerner les influences intellectuelles qu'ils auraient subies pendant leur jeunesse, mais aussi de reconstruire l'ambifillce intellectuelle de la période dite du Vormârz : et par le biais de cette reconstruction, de replacer l'origine du mouvement socialiste allemand dans son contexte historique et intellectuel. A ces deux enje!lx, vient s'en ajouter un troisième : Hess se trouve à un carrefour où l'actualité, malgré tout, n'a pas cessé. S'il fait figure de père du mouvement socialiste allemand, il est, au même titre, l'un des fondateurs du sionisme ; plus particulièrement de la tendance socialiste au sein du mouvement sioniste. Repenser l'oeuvre de Hess, cela veut dire aussi repenser un certain nombre d'équations qui ne sont ni évidentes, ni incontestables. Hess se veut juif et révolutionnaire, socialiste et sioniste, mais aussi sioniste et socialiste. Lire Hess, c'est autant retrouver du côté sioniste les sources du socialisme, que retrouver du côté socialiste les sources de l'affirmation nationale juive, affirmation que la gauche, autant marxiste que non-marxiste, n'a jamais su intégrer dans sa vision théorique, même si elle l'a fait parfois du point de vue tactique. Hess, à l'égal de Walter Benjamin, explique de façon paradigmatique

Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson Copyright material fr... more Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com-licensed to Staffordshire University-PalgraveConnect-2016-02-08 * From here, ms page 18, corrections and rewritings seem to indicate that it is no longer a matter of one and the same lecture, but of different presentations. (See Appendix below, p. 195 et seq.) 10.1057/9781137044860-Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson

Philosophy in review, 2011

Gary Gutting's book combines the features of an introduction for advanced students of the subject... more Gary Gutting's book combines the features of an introduction for advanced students of the subject with a general interpretation of the nature of French philosophy in the 1960s.

Phenomenological reviews, 2020

Idol anxiety as critical theory, 2014

This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol A... more This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol Anxiety in this context is not only the title of a book, but also a state of mind. The realization that the early Mesopotamiaid somehting different than just worship man produced object which we learn from the mis pî ceremony, put us in a mood to acknowledge that perhaps the price we paid and made others pay for monotheism was not insignificant, and that there are other ways to address cultural objects than to subject them to the hammer of ideology critique. Or maybe not.

The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the ... more The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the cradle of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory..

Philosophy in review, 2017

Review of the recently translated correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Gershon Scholem

Philosophy in Review, 2020

Genealogy is a concept mostly associated with Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and, more recently, Gio... more Genealogy is a concept mostly associated with Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and, more recently, Giorgio Agamben. In The Kingdom and the Glory (Stanford University Press 2011), Agamben writes that genealogy is research into a fundamental paradigm that exercised a decisive influence on the development and arrangement of Western Society. This paradigm is of theological origins and, behind the appearance of secularization, is a persistent feature of Western society. While Agamben did not contribute an essay to this collection himself, his interpretation of the 'secularization thesis' and his political theology appear to have guided the editors-but not necessarily the contributorsin their choices for this volume (1-2; Cf. 17, note 5). At the end of their introduction, the editors conclude that the study of the early secularization debate can teach us not only about the melancholic views of the cultural conservative, but also the more optimistic views of authors such as Blumenberg and Taubes. We can imagine an additional lesson. This book can serve as a propaedeutic to the writings of Agamben. Arendt, Benjamin, Heidegger, and Taubes who can be counted as the sources that inspired Agamben's original and controversial interpretation of modernity. The book opens with a methodological section on genealogy and secularization. A section dealing with thinkers not previously associated with the secularization debate, such as Cassirer and Heidegger, Benjamin, and Arendt, follows. Part three centres on Jacob Taubes' thought. The last section deals with the work of the Egyptologist and cultural memory theorist, Jan Assmann. Part I contains two essays. In the first, Kirk Wetters asks about the legitimacy of the genealogical claim. He suggests a classification of such claims into 'weak,' 'traditional,' and 'critical.' Weak genealogies make claims to metaphors of succession, lineage, continuity, friendship or enmity, family, and school. Critical genealogies-associated with the work of Foucault and Nietzschehighlight the contingency and uncertainty of historical derivations (22-3). Based on this typology, Wetters suggests that we review the debate on secularization and evaluate the basis for the claims made by the parties. After reviewing several genealogical contests and claims, Wetters remains unconvinced. If the most important question of any genealogy is what it can contribute to a better understanding of our political or intellectual situation, then we need to be reminded that genealogies can degenerate into the production of alibies and scapegoat (42). Genealogies are important, but they do not provide solutions (45). Agata Bielik-Robson offers a Jewish perspective on the debate. She suggests that the question of the relationship of modernity to pre-modern theology is still unanswered. Both partisans and opponents of secularization agree that with modernity theology became immanent, but from this they draw different consequences. Bielik-Robson sees an opportunity for a crypto-theology, which celebrates immanence, is more joyous, affirmative, and future-oriented. She contrasts the 'death of God Theology'-which she identifies with Jean-Luc Nancy's 'bringing myth to an end'-with a Kabbalistic approach based on tsimtsum (the reduction of divine energy requisite for the creation of the world in the Lurianic myth), as in Jacques Derrida's retelling of the Lurianic myth. Derrida does away with the gnostic or antimodernist temptation. He replaces it with a theology centered on the promise and justice, and with the messianic imperative of 'remembering to remember the future' (70). Part II presents some German thinkers usually not associated with the secularization debate. Sigrid Weigel's 'Distance to Revelation' reconstructs Benjamin's criticism of secularization. Jeffrey

Revista Estudios, 2017

This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in t... more This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in the light of the reintroduction of the question of evil in political discourse and in contemporary philosophical thought.

Cuadernos Judaicos, 2016

Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual... more Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual de izquierda judeo-argentino León Rozitchner (1924-2011). Tomando como punto de partida su libro Ser Judío (1967), la interpretación que Rozitchner hace del judaísmo es analizada en sus escritos sobre san Agustín y sus últimos escritos de la década de los años 2000. Rechazando la interpretación del cristianismo como mera ideología que refleja en forma distorsionada el modo de producción social, Rozitchner elabora en sus últimas obras la idea que el cristianismo es la matriz y condición de posibilidad de la sociedad capitalista, y que su oposición al judaísmo no puede ser otra que una animosidad fundamental de la que la Shoah no es una excepción aberrante sino su manifestación más ejemplar.

Actuel Marx, 1989

Au cours de ces dernières années, on assiste à l'apparition d'un certain nombre d'ouvrages consac... more Au cours de ces dernières années, on assiste à l'apparition d'un certain nombre d'ouvrages consacrés à la vie et à la pensée de Moses Hess. Ce regain de l'intérêt porté à une des figures plus ou moins oubliées de la pensée socialiste du 19ème siècle ne répond pas seulement à la curiosité de l'historien, voire de l'archiviste, mais à des enjeux complexes au centre desquels se trouve le personnage paradoxal de Hess. L'entrée de Marx dans le monde académique, en particulier après les événements de soixante-huit, ainsi que la confrontation au sein du marxisme de plusieurs tendances opposées, a tout naturellement éveillé l'intérêt à l'égard des sources intellectuelles• de la pensée de Marx. C'est à ce titre que l'importance du mouvement jeune-hégélien a été reconnue, et qu'elle a fait l'objet d'un nombre important d'ouvrages!. Il semblerait que l'intérêt porté à l'oeuvre de Hess réponde aussi à d'autres motivations. En effet, non seulement elle nous permettrait de remonter vers les sources de la pensée de Marx (et d'Engels), c'est-à-dire de cerner les influences intellectuelles qu'ils auraient subies pendant leur jeunesse, mais aussi de reconstruire l'ambifillce intellectuelle de la période dite du Vormârz : et par le biais de cette reconstruction, de replacer l'origine du mouvement socialiste allemand dans son contexte historique et intellectuel. A ces deux enje!lx, vient s'en ajouter un troisième : Hess se trouve à un carrefour où l'actualité, malgré tout, n'a pas cessé. S'il fait figure de père du mouvement socialiste allemand, il est, au même titre, l'un des fondateurs du sionisme ; plus particulièrement de la tendance socialiste au sein du mouvement sioniste. Repenser l'oeuvre de Hess, cela veut dire aussi repenser un certain nombre d'équations qui ne sont ni évidentes, ni incontestables. Hess se veut juif et révolutionnaire, socialiste et sioniste, mais aussi sioniste et socialiste. Lire Hess, c'est autant retrouver du côté sioniste les sources du socialisme, que retrouver du côté socialiste les sources de l'affirmation nationale juive, affirmation que la gauche, autant marxiste que non-marxiste, n'a jamais su intégrer dans sa vision théorique, même si elle l'a fait parfois du point de vue tactique. Hess, à l'égal de Walter Benjamin, explique de façon paradigmatique

Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson Copyright material fr... more Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com-licensed to Staffordshire University-PalgraveConnect-2016-02-08 * From here, ms page 18, corrections and rewritings seem to indicate that it is no longer a matter of one and the same lecture, but of different presentations. (See Appendix below, p. 195 et seq.) 10.1057/9781137044860-Lectures on the Will to Know, Michel Foucault, Edited by Arnold I. Davidson

Philosophy in review, 2011

Gary Gutting's book combines the features of an introduction for advanced students of the subject... more Gary Gutting's book combines the features of an introduction for advanced students of the subject with a general interpretation of the nature of French philosophy in the 1960s.

Phenomenological Review, 2024

Revierw of Haberma's Also a History of Philosophy

CUADERNOS JUDAICOS No 40, 2023

Review of Jerry Muler's biography of Jacob Taubes.

Dorsal, 2013

El objetivo de esta nota es presentar un número de publicaciones recientes sobre la obra de Fouca... more El objetivo de esta nota es presentar un número de publicaciones recientes sobre la obra de Foucault que tienen en común enfrentarse a la pregunta, enunciada recientemente por Phillippe Sabot, de «¿cómo reconstituir un corpus a partir de un archivo?» 1. Esta dificultad se agudiza en el caso de Foucault, quien rechaza la pertinencia tanto de la historia de las ideas, como la noción misma de autor, que el problematiza en una famosa conferencia de 1969. En esta, Foucault señala que autoría es una relación de atribución. Autor es aquel al que se le puede atribuir lo dicho o lo escrito; pero la atribución, incluso en aquellos casos en los que se trata de un autor conocido, nunca es algo evidente. Se trata, más bien, del resultado de operaciones críticas complejas, raramente justificadas. Hay una incertidumbre del opus 2. Comentando acerca de la traducción al francés de las obras completas de Nietzsche que Foucault y Deleuze codirigieron, Foucault se interroga retóricamente qué constituye una parte de la obra. ¿Acaso también una nota de lavandería? 3 Poco podía Foucault imaginar que esta pregunta habría de formularse algunos años más tarde acerca de su propia obra. En el texto de la conferencia de 1969, Foucault diferencia entre «masas

Philosophy in Review, 2023

Phenomenological Reviews, 2022

Book review of the recently published biography of Jacob Taubes

Philosophy in Review, 2022

Kleinberg's recent book can be read as a biography of Emmanuel Levinas as a Jewish intellectual a... more Kleinberg's recent book can be read as a biography of Emmanuel Levinas as a Jewish intellectual and educator. The pages of the book's four chapters have a two-column layout, labelled 'Our side' and 'the Other Side.' To that effect, we need to read the Introduction, then column A from chapters One through Four. Then, to go back and read column B from chapters One through Four, and lastly, the concluding chapter. If we follow the plain reading, we encounter a competent account of Levinas's intellectual development, with particular emphasis on his turn, after the war, from a career in philosophy and literature to an involvement with the problem of French Judaism's survival after the Holocaust. Kleinberg's account is solid, showcases the secondary literature, and benefits from the publication in recent years of Levinas's papers and drafts from the war and early postwar periods. In addition, Kleinberg provides a good characterization of Levinas's role as teacher and later director of the École Normale Israelite Orientale (the teachers training school of the Alliance Israelite Universel) and his involvement in the Colloques des Intellectuels Juifs de Langue Française. He provides a convenient chronological table of the meetings of the Colloques, their subjects, the title of Levinas's lecture, and the date of publication of the proceedings, or in some cases, of the publication of Levinas's lesson in other venues (xv-xviii). However, this reading would be contrary to the author's stated intentions. The whole layout of the book conspires against it. We need to treat the two-column page layout as a conceptual claim to follow the author's intention. Kleinberg follows Derrida's Glas's steps, using a multicolumn format. This format evokes the layout used in the traditional Jewish editions of Scripture and the Talmud, with one crucial difference. In the traditional Jewish editions, the center of the page is occupied by Scripture or the Talmudic text, surrounded by the most authoritative medieval commentaries. There is only commentary in Derrida's Glas and Kleinberg's text, unanchored to any consecrated ur-text. This architecture is supposed to explore the problem of the transcendence of Levinas's commentary. Kleinberg has been rehearsing this question in some of his previous work. A 2012 paper (In/finite Time: Tracing Transcendence to Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Lectures, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 20:3, 375-387) asks about transcendence in the context of Levinas's Totality and Infinity and suggests the importance of the Talmudic Turn for his thinking. His more recent Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past (2017), refers to the present book as a concrete study of a double science of history inspired by Derrida's critique of the metaphysics of presence. Kleinberg presents his thesis in the Introduction, pointing to the fact that contrary to some of his disciples' hagiographical accounts of Levinas's life, he did not train in the study of the Talmud in the traditional 'Vilna style.' Therefore, he cannot be a link in the transmission chain, which originated in the Gaon of Vilna and his students and was later popularized by rabbi Chaim of Volozhin (p. 3). Levinas never made such a claim. On the contrary, he always claimed to be a pupil

Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, 2022

Book review of Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois individualism

Phenomenological Reviews, 2021

Review of Stuart Elden's "The Early Foucault".

Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, 2020

Bernard E Harcourt Critique and Praxis: A Critical Philosophy of Illusions, Values, and Action

Phenomenological Reviews, 2020

Review of Martin Jay's book Splinter in your eye: The Frankfurt School Provocations, 2020

Philosophy in Review, 2020

Book Review of "Genealogies of the Secular"

Phenomenological Reviews, 2020

Book Revew of Penal Theories and Institutons

Reading Religion, 2020

Book Review of Shlomo Avineri's Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution, Yale University Press, 2019

Phenomenological Reviews, 2020

Review of the English translation of Foucault's "Discourse and Truth" and "Parresia". Follow the ... more Review of the English translation of Foucault's "Discourse and Truth" and "Parresia". Follow the link to read online.

Metapsychology Online Reviews, Sep 23, 2019

A review of Todd May's "A Decent Life."

Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, May 3, 2013

Metapsychology on line Reviews, Jul 23, 2013

This companion to the work of French thinker Michael Foucault offers an overview of his work, and... more This companion to the work of French thinker Michael Foucault offers an overview of his work, and critical essays that explore Foucault's insights and his influence on contemporary social and political thought.

Puilosophy in Review, Sep 2013

This is in reality two different books. The first is a presentation, translation, and discussion ... more This is in reality two different books. The first is a presentation, translation, and discussion of Ernst Cassirer's 1930 essay 'Form and Technology'; the second, an exploration of how some of the concepts developed in 'Form and Technology' and in the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (PhSF) could be used to continue Cassirer's project in more contemporary ways.

Review of Lazzarato's Signs and Machines.

Review of Foucault's 1980 Dartmouth lectures.

On the life and work of Felix Weil, one of the fathers of the Frankfurt School.

Review of the recently published correspondence between Arendt and Scholem.