Enfatizando la discrepancia entre “la política” y “lo político”, Ernesto Laclau corona su examen ... more Enfatizando la discrepancia entre “la política” y “lo político”, Ernesto Laclau corona su examen de los puntos ciegos de la tradición marxista con un elogio del populismo. Su recentramiento de “lo político” no postula un comienzo epitomizado por un gran acontecimiento. Antes bien, Laclau pondera la fundamentación ontológica de la política en tanto abismo de toda politicidad. Este ensayo evalúa críticamente la conjunción de maniobras deconstruccionistas y democráticoradicales a través de las cuales Laclau inviste el cuerpo del líder populista con un carácter extra-cotidiano. En términos de Laclau, de hecho, la política radical requiere la figura del líder populista que, ontológicamente, señala el camino hacia la emancipación. Sin embargo, se mostrará cómo la suposición de que el cuerpo del líder anima los comienzos políticos y los canaliza primordialmente, restringe la anterior “profundización del proyecto materialista” de Laclau y excluye una consideración del papel que “los muchos”...
La tematización que Martin Heidegger realizó sobre la noción de “lo político” fue siempre subsidi... more La tematización que Martin Heidegger realizó sobre la noción de “lo político” fue siempre subsidiaria respecto de la primacía que el autor de Sein und Zeit le asignó a la de πόλις, entendida como el sitio esencial en el que la historia se despliega. Contra Heidegger, sin embargo, la referencia a “lo político” se multiplica en la filosofía política contemporánea. En años recientes, de hecho, un “giro ontológico” en esta disciplina ha proclamado una distinción analítica entre “la política” —ámbito referido a las prácticas y expresiones empíricas de las relaciones de poder y toma de decisiones— y “lo político” —es decir, el modo en el que la sociedad es instituida. Paradójicamente, Heidegger fue entendido como el precursor teórico de esta maniobra, también denominada “diferencia política”. Esta problemática re-apropriación de la “diferencia ontológica” heideggeriana indica que “la política” refiere al nivel de los entes, mientras que “lo político” tiene estricta relación con el ámbito ...
Extraordinary Matters: The Political After Martin Heidegger examines why a return to ontology bec... more Extraordinary Matters: The Political After Martin Heidegger examines why a return to ontology became a vital source for conceptualizing political beginnings in contemporary continental thought. Martin Heidegger was exemplary of this trend. His ontological view of political foundation, I contend, reveal a philosophical desire to challenge everyday life and denounce quotidian monotony and repetition. My research rereads this period in Heidegger’s work in order to propose a radical rethinking of current accounts of political beginnings. I argue, in particular, that his theoretical unification of politics and ontology epitomizes a pervasive philosophical enmity toward ordinariness. Such an enmity has since become widespread in continental thought, influencing thinkers from Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe to Jean-Luc Nancy to Ernesto Laclau. Breaking with such readings of Heidegger that see political novelty as part of the realm of “the extraordinary,” my work instead reassesses the ordinary enactment of what I call “the common” as constituting the very core of political beginnings. The first chapter of my dissertation uses archival material to reconstruct the understudied encounter between Heidegger and Carl Schmitt in the 1930s. Analyzing the dispute between the two thinkers and its broader context, I argue that this encounter catalyzed Heidegger’s ontologization of politics. Heidegger rejected liberal and communist versions of “life in common” both politically and philosophically, replacing these conceptions with what I describe as “exceptionalism”—an ontological account of “the political” [das Politische] based on extraordinariness. In the remaining chapters of the dissertation, I scrutinize the variations on exceptionalism as they appear in a number of postwar works of continental philosophy influenced by Heidegger. In the second chapter, I begin with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, and their Centre de recherches philosophiques sur le politique, to illustrate the impact of the notion of “the political” on French deconstruction and the problem of “the common.” Through a theoretical reading of archival material, this chapter raises questions about the ontological distinction between “politics” [la politique] and “the political” [le politique]—a distinction that has become prominent in contemporary critical theory. In its stead, I argue for a politics of the common that radicalizes what Lacoue-Labarthe terms a “déconstruction active du politique.” The final chapter further questions the collapse of politics and ontology by examining “the populist moment” in political thought. This chapter considers plural and ordinary enactments of “the many” at work in political beginnings, eschewing essentialist theories of the political body found in texts such as Ernesto Laclau’s On Populist Reason. Challenging prevalent conceptions of contemporary continental thought, especially the idea that exceptional moments or the actions of “great men” might account fully for political beginnings, I turn to the role played by “the many,” that is, those who manifest what I claim is an an-archic principle of democratic politics.2022-12-3
Over the course of two decades, from 1995 to 2015, Giorgio Agamben published a series of nine boo... more Over the course of two decades, from 1995 to 2015, Giorgio Agamben published a series of nine books, not in sequence but conceived from the beginning as parts of a project sharing the title of its first volume, <em>Homo sacer</em>. These nine books have now been collected into a single volume edition in French (2016), English (2017), and Italian (2018), rendering visible the extent to which the project as a whole amounts to a radical revision of Western philosophy yet also enacted a painstaking self-revision in its course. With the entire trajectory of <i>Homo sacer </i>now evident in its completed arch and rearranged order, the symposium sets out to explore crucial concepts and issues at stake in the project and the new contours they reveal within the larger framework, while also interrogating the hidden spots in the work, unresolved points from which new researches will depart, as Agamben himself has incessantly done with his ever-growing meshwork of refere...
Confronted with an arguably incomplete critique of the notion and history of sovereignty, contemp... more Confronted with an arguably incomplete critique of the notion and history of sovereignty, contemporary lines of thinking have forcefully returned to the inquiry into political foundations. These theoretical approaches in philosophy and the humanities at large have attempted to find possibilities of dialogue concerning the critique of sovereign structures of power, the undoing of systemic violence, as well as the development of ideas of community and mutual aid. The conference 'Anarchē' aims to investigate the contemporary philosophical attempts at questioning traditional concepts of political foundations in order to rethink the central notion of ground or <i>archē</i>.
This essay restages Arendt’s Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger regarding ‘political beginnings’. ... more This essay restages Arendt’s Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger regarding ‘political beginnings’. Sketching Heidegger’s exceptionalist account of ‘new beginnings’ and Arendt’s dispute with him in relation to the tension between the spheres of ‘philosophy’ and ‘politics’, I trace her position about ‘political founding’. I claim that Arendt invites us to recognize the ‘principle of an-archy’ innate to ‘political beginnings’, which cannot be absorbed by exceptionalist invocations of the ‘history of […]
espanolLa tematizacion que Martin Heidegger realizo sobre la nocion de “lo politico” fue siempre ... more espanolLa tematizacion que Martin Heidegger realizo sobre la nocion de “lo politico” fue siempre subsidiaria respecto de la primacia que el autor de Sein und Zeit le asigno a la de πόλις, entendida como el sitio esencial en el que la historia se despliega. Contra Heidegger, sin embargo, la referencia a “lo politico” se multiplica en la filosofia politica contemporanea. En anos recientes, de hecho, un “giro ontologico” en esta disciplina ha proclamado una distincion analitica entre “la politica” —ambito referido a las practicas y expresiones empiricas de las relaciones de poder y toma de decisiones— y “lo politico” —es decir, el modo en el que la sociedad es instituida. Paradojicamente, Heidegger fue entendido como el precursor teorico de esta maniobra, tambien denominada “diferencia politica”. Esta problematica re-apropriacion de la “diferencia ontologica” heideggeriana indica que “la politica” refiere al nivel de los entes, mientras que “lo politico” tiene estricta relacion con el ...
Amplifying the distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, Ernesto Laclau crowns his exam... more Amplifying the distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, Ernesto Laclau crowns his examination of the blind spots of the Marxist tradition with an encomium of populism. His project to re-centre ‘the political’ does not postulate a beginning marked by a great event. Instead, Laclau celebrates ontological foundation as the abyss of all politicity. This chapter critically assesses how Laclau invests the body of the populist leader with an extra-quotidian character. I will also show how the assumption that the body of the leader animates political beginnings and primordially channels them restrains Laclau’s previous ‘deepening of the materialist project’.
espanolLas universidades no han estado ajenas a las transformaciones del entorno. Las innovacione... more espanolLas universidades no han estado ajenas a las transformaciones del entorno. Las innovaciones tecnologicas, la globalizacion, la reduccion del Estado, la liberalizacion de los mercados, el incremento de la demanda, el aseguramiento de la calidad y las nuevas exigencias de especializacion laboral entre otros procesos, han implicado cuestionamientos a su tradicional funcionamiento. Chile vive un momento de crisis educativa observada diferencialmente por los actores tensionando y complejizando un debate que discute las estructuras universitarias. Emerge un cuestionamiento a los modelos de financiamiento, los mecanismos de acreditacion y las formas de gobierno universitario. La crisis coincide con las movilizaciones estudiantiles y se profundiza por las denuncias de corrupcion, problemas de eficiencia y eficacia, mientras la institucionalidad se deslegitima. La identificacion de tipos predominant es de orientacion frente a las posibilidades de cambio posibilita el analisis de escen...
ABSTRACT In contrast to the scenario depicted by Carl Schmitt, contemporary theory has contradict... more ABSTRACT In contrast to the scenario depicted by Carl Schmitt, contemporary theory has contradicted the “thesis of differentiation” between aesthetics and “the political.” Critical theorists claimed aesthetic analysis’ relevance for grasping aspects of the political realm. And political thought took an “aesthetic turn.” Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière have been influential figures in this turn. Their thought offers a clear response to the challenges to the aesthetico-political Schmitt poses. To approach Arendt and Rancière’s responses, this essay proceeds in three parts. The first section analyses Arendt’s reading of the connection between aesthetics and politics. Focusing on a major shift in her perspective on judgement, I argue that her account is influenced by the ungrounded character of politics. The second section thematises the role that the relationship of aesthetics and politics has in Rancière’s work. I claim that his writings might be read as a challenge to Arendt’s attempt to “stabilise” politics by distinguishing it from the social question. Finally, the third section explicitly contrasts Arendt and Rancière’s accounts of the aesthetic-political. I conclude by arguing that their projects are crucial resources for formulating a critical theory that should resist the exceptionalist temptation to conceive “the political” as an incontestable nature.
Abstract This article addresses Eric L. Santner’s claim that “there is more political theology in... more Abstract This article addresses Eric L. Santner’s claim that “there is more political theology in everyday life than we might have ever thought” by analyzing the “theologico-political problem” in the work of three prominent twentieth-century political thinkers—Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt. Schmitt, Strauss, and Arendt share a preoccupation with the crisis of modern political liberalism and confront the theologico-political problem in a similar spirit: although their responses differ dramatically, their individual accounts dwell on the absence of incontestable principles in modern society that can justify life-in-common and the persistence of the political order. Their writings thus engage with the question of the place of “the absolute” in the political realm. In particular, Arendt’s indirect approach to the theologico-political problem is crucial to understanding the radicality of a political world in which traditional certainties can no longer be re-established. The theoretical trajectory I present suggests that the dispersion of political theology in everyday life has a specific corollary: modern politics operates within the tragic and paradoxical nature of its unstable and common origins that cannot be incorporated in exceptionalist versions of the body politic.
Sheldon Wolin, one of the most influential contemporary political theorists, died in 2015 at the ... more Sheldon Wolin, one of the most influential contemporary political theorists, died in 2015 at the age of 93. His remarkable legacy within political thought includes written works such as Politics and Vision and lives on as well in a variety of his former students, for instance, Cornel West and Wendy Brown. Wolin's intellectual heritage is sure to persist, given that he "lived in the presence of time past, time present, and time future" 2 .This brief essay, however, does not seek an obituary tone 3. Rather, I will comment on particular topics inherent to Wolin's
Leo Strauss's critical engagement with Martin Heidegger's thought is widely recognized. Central t... more Leo Strauss's critical engagement with Martin Heidegger's thought is widely recognized. Central to Strauss's depiction of Heidegger's intellectual and political failures is the latter's disdain for political philosophy. For Strauss, in fact, Heidegger overlooked important inquiry into the good political order insofar as he replaced political philosophy with a belief in Dasein's finitude as key to attaining a virtuous life. However, Strauss's unfavorable rendition of Heidegger's mortalism, the article explains, neglects esoteric maneuvers-imbued with political inflections-advanced by the author of Sein und Zeit. By analyzing Heidegger's esotericism as well as his search for the permanence of the secret and inscrutable, the article shows how Strauss disregards Heideggerian sigetics (Sigetik) when foregrounding what he views as Heidegger's disdain for political philosophy. Through the theoretical trajectory proposed by this essay, in sum, we will see that Heidegger's exceptionalist esotericism is what Strauss ignored.
Enfatizando la discrepancia entre “la política” y “lo político”, Ernesto Laclau corona su examen ... more Enfatizando la discrepancia entre “la política” y “lo político”, Ernesto Laclau corona su examen de los puntos ciegos de la tradición marxista con un elogio del populismo. Su recentramiento de “lo político” no postula un comienzo epitomizado por un gran acontecimiento. Antes bien, Laclau pondera la fundamentación ontológica de la política en tanto abismo de toda politicidad. Este ensayo evalúa críticamente la conjunción de maniobras deconstruccionistas y democráticoradicales a través de las cuales Laclau inviste el cuerpo del líder populista con un carácter extra-cotidiano. En términos de Laclau, de hecho, la política radical requiere la figura del líder populista que, ontológicamente, señala el camino hacia la emancipación. Sin embargo, se mostrará cómo la suposición de que el cuerpo del líder anima los comienzos políticos y los canaliza primordialmente, restringe la anterior “profundización del proyecto materialista” de Laclau y excluye una consideración del papel que “los muchos”...
La tematización que Martin Heidegger realizó sobre la noción de “lo político” fue siempre subsidi... more La tematización que Martin Heidegger realizó sobre la noción de “lo político” fue siempre subsidiaria respecto de la primacía que el autor de Sein und Zeit le asignó a la de πόλις, entendida como el sitio esencial en el que la historia se despliega. Contra Heidegger, sin embargo, la referencia a “lo político” se multiplica en la filosofía política contemporánea. En años recientes, de hecho, un “giro ontológico” en esta disciplina ha proclamado una distinción analítica entre “la política” —ámbito referido a las prácticas y expresiones empíricas de las relaciones de poder y toma de decisiones— y “lo político” —es decir, el modo en el que la sociedad es instituida. Paradójicamente, Heidegger fue entendido como el precursor teórico de esta maniobra, también denominada “diferencia política”. Esta problemática re-apropriación de la “diferencia ontológica” heideggeriana indica que “la política” refiere al nivel de los entes, mientras que “lo político” tiene estricta relación con el ámbito ...
Extraordinary Matters: The Political After Martin Heidegger examines why a return to ontology bec... more Extraordinary Matters: The Political After Martin Heidegger examines why a return to ontology became a vital source for conceptualizing political beginnings in contemporary continental thought. Martin Heidegger was exemplary of this trend. His ontological view of political foundation, I contend, reveal a philosophical desire to challenge everyday life and denounce quotidian monotony and repetition. My research rereads this period in Heidegger’s work in order to propose a radical rethinking of current accounts of political beginnings. I argue, in particular, that his theoretical unification of politics and ontology epitomizes a pervasive philosophical enmity toward ordinariness. Such an enmity has since become widespread in continental thought, influencing thinkers from Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe to Jean-Luc Nancy to Ernesto Laclau. Breaking with such readings of Heidegger that see political novelty as part of the realm of “the extraordinary,” my work instead reassesses the ordinary enactment of what I call “the common” as constituting the very core of political beginnings. The first chapter of my dissertation uses archival material to reconstruct the understudied encounter between Heidegger and Carl Schmitt in the 1930s. Analyzing the dispute between the two thinkers and its broader context, I argue that this encounter catalyzed Heidegger’s ontologization of politics. Heidegger rejected liberal and communist versions of “life in common” both politically and philosophically, replacing these conceptions with what I describe as “exceptionalism”—an ontological account of “the political” [das Politische] based on extraordinariness. In the remaining chapters of the dissertation, I scrutinize the variations on exceptionalism as they appear in a number of postwar works of continental philosophy influenced by Heidegger. In the second chapter, I begin with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, and their Centre de recherches philosophiques sur le politique, to illustrate the impact of the notion of “the political” on French deconstruction and the problem of “the common.” Through a theoretical reading of archival material, this chapter raises questions about the ontological distinction between “politics” [la politique] and “the political” [le politique]—a distinction that has become prominent in contemporary critical theory. In its stead, I argue for a politics of the common that radicalizes what Lacoue-Labarthe terms a “déconstruction active du politique.” The final chapter further questions the collapse of politics and ontology by examining “the populist moment” in political thought. This chapter considers plural and ordinary enactments of “the many” at work in political beginnings, eschewing essentialist theories of the political body found in texts such as Ernesto Laclau’s On Populist Reason. Challenging prevalent conceptions of contemporary continental thought, especially the idea that exceptional moments or the actions of “great men” might account fully for political beginnings, I turn to the role played by “the many,” that is, those who manifest what I claim is an an-archic principle of democratic politics.2022-12-3
Over the course of two decades, from 1995 to 2015, Giorgio Agamben published a series of nine boo... more Over the course of two decades, from 1995 to 2015, Giorgio Agamben published a series of nine books, not in sequence but conceived from the beginning as parts of a project sharing the title of its first volume, <em>Homo sacer</em>. These nine books have now been collected into a single volume edition in French (2016), English (2017), and Italian (2018), rendering visible the extent to which the project as a whole amounts to a radical revision of Western philosophy yet also enacted a painstaking self-revision in its course. With the entire trajectory of <i>Homo sacer </i>now evident in its completed arch and rearranged order, the symposium sets out to explore crucial concepts and issues at stake in the project and the new contours they reveal within the larger framework, while also interrogating the hidden spots in the work, unresolved points from which new researches will depart, as Agamben himself has incessantly done with his ever-growing meshwork of refere...
Confronted with an arguably incomplete critique of the notion and history of sovereignty, contemp... more Confronted with an arguably incomplete critique of the notion and history of sovereignty, contemporary lines of thinking have forcefully returned to the inquiry into political foundations. These theoretical approaches in philosophy and the humanities at large have attempted to find possibilities of dialogue concerning the critique of sovereign structures of power, the undoing of systemic violence, as well as the development of ideas of community and mutual aid. The conference 'Anarchē' aims to investigate the contemporary philosophical attempts at questioning traditional concepts of political foundations in order to rethink the central notion of ground or <i>archē</i>.
This essay restages Arendt’s Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger regarding ‘political beginnings’. ... more This essay restages Arendt’s Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger regarding ‘political beginnings’. Sketching Heidegger’s exceptionalist account of ‘new beginnings’ and Arendt’s dispute with him in relation to the tension between the spheres of ‘philosophy’ and ‘politics’, I trace her position about ‘political founding’. I claim that Arendt invites us to recognize the ‘principle of an-archy’ innate to ‘political beginnings’, which cannot be absorbed by exceptionalist invocations of the ‘history of […]
espanolLa tematizacion que Martin Heidegger realizo sobre la nocion de “lo politico” fue siempre ... more espanolLa tematizacion que Martin Heidegger realizo sobre la nocion de “lo politico” fue siempre subsidiaria respecto de la primacia que el autor de Sein und Zeit le asigno a la de πόλις, entendida como el sitio esencial en el que la historia se despliega. Contra Heidegger, sin embargo, la referencia a “lo politico” se multiplica en la filosofia politica contemporanea. En anos recientes, de hecho, un “giro ontologico” en esta disciplina ha proclamado una distincion analitica entre “la politica” —ambito referido a las practicas y expresiones empiricas de las relaciones de poder y toma de decisiones— y “lo politico” —es decir, el modo en el que la sociedad es instituida. Paradojicamente, Heidegger fue entendido como el precursor teorico de esta maniobra, tambien denominada “diferencia politica”. Esta problematica re-apropriacion de la “diferencia ontologica” heideggeriana indica que “la politica” refiere al nivel de los entes, mientras que “lo politico” tiene estricta relacion con el ...
Amplifying the distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, Ernesto Laclau crowns his exam... more Amplifying the distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, Ernesto Laclau crowns his examination of the blind spots of the Marxist tradition with an encomium of populism. His project to re-centre ‘the political’ does not postulate a beginning marked by a great event. Instead, Laclau celebrates ontological foundation as the abyss of all politicity. This chapter critically assesses how Laclau invests the body of the populist leader with an extra-quotidian character. I will also show how the assumption that the body of the leader animates political beginnings and primordially channels them restrains Laclau’s previous ‘deepening of the materialist project’.
espanolLas universidades no han estado ajenas a las transformaciones del entorno. Las innovacione... more espanolLas universidades no han estado ajenas a las transformaciones del entorno. Las innovaciones tecnologicas, la globalizacion, la reduccion del Estado, la liberalizacion de los mercados, el incremento de la demanda, el aseguramiento de la calidad y las nuevas exigencias de especializacion laboral entre otros procesos, han implicado cuestionamientos a su tradicional funcionamiento. Chile vive un momento de crisis educativa observada diferencialmente por los actores tensionando y complejizando un debate que discute las estructuras universitarias. Emerge un cuestionamiento a los modelos de financiamiento, los mecanismos de acreditacion y las formas de gobierno universitario. La crisis coincide con las movilizaciones estudiantiles y se profundiza por las denuncias de corrupcion, problemas de eficiencia y eficacia, mientras la institucionalidad se deslegitima. La identificacion de tipos predominant es de orientacion frente a las posibilidades de cambio posibilita el analisis de escen...
ABSTRACT In contrast to the scenario depicted by Carl Schmitt, contemporary theory has contradict... more ABSTRACT In contrast to the scenario depicted by Carl Schmitt, contemporary theory has contradicted the “thesis of differentiation” between aesthetics and “the political.” Critical theorists claimed aesthetic analysis’ relevance for grasping aspects of the political realm. And political thought took an “aesthetic turn.” Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière have been influential figures in this turn. Their thought offers a clear response to the challenges to the aesthetico-political Schmitt poses. To approach Arendt and Rancière’s responses, this essay proceeds in three parts. The first section analyses Arendt’s reading of the connection between aesthetics and politics. Focusing on a major shift in her perspective on judgement, I argue that her account is influenced by the ungrounded character of politics. The second section thematises the role that the relationship of aesthetics and politics has in Rancière’s work. I claim that his writings might be read as a challenge to Arendt’s attempt to “stabilise” politics by distinguishing it from the social question. Finally, the third section explicitly contrasts Arendt and Rancière’s accounts of the aesthetic-political. I conclude by arguing that their projects are crucial resources for formulating a critical theory that should resist the exceptionalist temptation to conceive “the political” as an incontestable nature.
Abstract This article addresses Eric L. Santner’s claim that “there is more political theology in... more Abstract This article addresses Eric L. Santner’s claim that “there is more political theology in everyday life than we might have ever thought” by analyzing the “theologico-political problem” in the work of three prominent twentieth-century political thinkers—Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt. Schmitt, Strauss, and Arendt share a preoccupation with the crisis of modern political liberalism and confront the theologico-political problem in a similar spirit: although their responses differ dramatically, their individual accounts dwell on the absence of incontestable principles in modern society that can justify life-in-common and the persistence of the political order. Their writings thus engage with the question of the place of “the absolute” in the political realm. In particular, Arendt’s indirect approach to the theologico-political problem is crucial to understanding the radicality of a political world in which traditional certainties can no longer be re-established. The theoretical trajectory I present suggests that the dispersion of political theology in everyday life has a specific corollary: modern politics operates within the tragic and paradoxical nature of its unstable and common origins that cannot be incorporated in exceptionalist versions of the body politic.
Sheldon Wolin, one of the most influential contemporary political theorists, died in 2015 at the ... more Sheldon Wolin, one of the most influential contemporary political theorists, died in 2015 at the age of 93. His remarkable legacy within political thought includes written works such as Politics and Vision and lives on as well in a variety of his former students, for instance, Cornel West and Wendy Brown. Wolin's intellectual heritage is sure to persist, given that he "lived in the presence of time past, time present, and time future" 2 .This brief essay, however, does not seek an obituary tone 3. Rather, I will comment on particular topics inherent to Wolin's
Leo Strauss's critical engagement with Martin Heidegger's thought is widely recognized. Central t... more Leo Strauss's critical engagement with Martin Heidegger's thought is widely recognized. Central to Strauss's depiction of Heidegger's intellectual and political failures is the latter's disdain for political philosophy. For Strauss, in fact, Heidegger overlooked important inquiry into the good political order insofar as he replaced political philosophy with a belief in Dasein's finitude as key to attaining a virtuous life. However, Strauss's unfavorable rendition of Heidegger's mortalism, the article explains, neglects esoteric maneuvers-imbued with political inflections-advanced by the author of Sein und Zeit. By analyzing Heidegger's esotericism as well as his search for the permanence of the secret and inscrutable, the article shows how Strauss disregards Heideggerian sigetics (Sigetik) when foregrounding what he views as Heidegger's disdain for political philosophy. Through the theoretical trajectory proposed by this essay, in sum, we will see that Heidegger's exceptionalist esotericism is what Strauss ignored.
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