Next week! Heidegger, Schmitt, Dugin: Exploring Intellectual Sources of Illiberalism

Heidegger, Schmitt, Dugin

Exploring Intellectual Sources of Illiberalism

Friday, October 20, 2023

3:00 - 5:00 PM (EDT)

in-person

Voesar conference room 412Q

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20052

This event is on the record and open to the public.

This seminar bridges political philosophy and political science and roots out the intellectual precursors of today's illiberal wave. It discusses how non-humanist philosophers like Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, and Alexander Dugin became referential names for the transatlantic New Right and for certain non-liberal governments. Concepts such as Being, the notion of the existential enemy, and the geopoliticization of identity are now dominant frames in the far-right, illiberal, and authoritarian world. This seminar invites a critical re-examination of the relationship between philosophy and ideology.

Agenda

3:00 - Opening remarks by Marlene Laruelle

3:05 - The Hidden King of Thought or the Emperor with No Clothes? Heidegger and the Crisis of Philosophy

Harrison Fluss, St. John's University

3:20 - The Existential Enemy and the “Ability to Strike Dead [Totschlagenkönnen]”: Reinhart Koselleck between Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt

Emmanuel Faye, University of Rouen Normandy

3:35 - Carl Schmitt, Liu Xiaofeng and the Longevity of Chinese Empire: A Reflection on an Academic-political Reality in China

Jiantao Liu, Saint Louis University

3:50 - Alexander Dugin: Philosopher or Ideologue?

Ronald Beiner, University of Toronto

4:05 - Discussion

Speakers

Harrison Fluss is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University and a corresponding editor for Historical Materialism. His writing has appeared in Jacobin Magazine and the New Republic.

Emmanuel Faye is Professor Emeritus of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy and a member of Équipe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Aires Culturelles (ERIAC UR 4705). A specialist in the Renaissance and Descartes, he has also published several critical studies on Heidegger and his reception.

Jiantao Liu is Visiting Professor at Saint Louis University.

Ronald Beiner is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1982 he published an edition of Hannah Arendt's Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy (foreign-language editions have appeared or are forthcoming in 15 other languages). He is the author of Political Judgment (1983); What's the Matter with Liberalism? (1992); Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit (1997); Liberalism, Nationalism, Citizenship (2003); Civil Religion (2011); Political Philosophy: What It Is and Why It Matters (2014); and Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right (2018).

Moderator

Marlene Laruelle is a Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program.

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Illiberalism Studies Program

Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES)

Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

1957 E Street, NW | Suite 412 | Washington, DC | 20052

(202) 994-3368| illibstudies@gwu.edu | illiberalism.org

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