Papers by Patrick Roney
Philosophical Inquiries, 2017
The aim of this paper is to show how Hannah Arendt develops her concept of the banality of evil t... more The aim of this paper is to show how Hannah Arendt develops her concept of the banality of evil through a phenomenological appropriation of Kant’s theory of judgment and of the principle of sensus communis in particular. Even though Arendt initially defined the banality of evil as a form of thoughtlessness grounded upon her understanding of thinking as an inner dialogue with one’s ‘other’ self, I argue that she develops the concept much more extensively in relation to Kant’s doctrine of reflective judgment and the possibility of a sensus communis as a pre-conceptual model of unforced consensus for the public space. I further argue that her reading of Kant is carried out together with both an existential-ontological re-appraisal of appearances and its relation to the transcendental imagination. Through the emphasis on the sensus communis , the banality of evil can then be re-defined as a refusal of the same.
The aim of this essay is to reflect on the implications of the thought of the death of God with a... more The aim of this essay is to reflect on the implications of the thought of the death of God with a view to two related themes. The first has to do with the a-teleological interpretation of Being and the world as a result of the collapse of the transcendent realm which heretofore had given a meaning to life. The death of God implies that no finality can be ascribed to either the world or human action. The investigation of this theme necessitates examining one of Nietzsche’s central doctrines, the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. It has long been considered to be the most puzzling idea in Nietzsche’s corpus, to which he himself offered no thorough explanation but simply referred to it obliquely as his “most abysmal thought.” The second theme to be discussed is the nature and the task of thinking after the death of God and its relation to suffering. The a-teoleological interpretation of life implies that reason and the good no longer guarantee one another, and that thinking cannot justif...
Bu calismanin amaci Tanri’nin olumu dusuncesinin iki tema cercevesinde incelenmesidir. Ilk tema s... more Bu calismanin amaci Tanri’nin olumu dusuncesinin iki tema cercevesinde incelenmesidir. Ilk tema simdiye kadar hayata anlamini veren askinlik alaninin cokmesi sonucu varligin ve dunyanin teleolojik yorumlanmasi ile ilgili. Tanri’nin olumu ne dunyaya ne de insan eylemine bir sonuc yuklenemeyecegini ima eder. Bu temanin arastirilmasi Nietzsche’nin ana doktrinlerinlerinden biri olan Ayninin Bengi Donusu’nun incelenmesini gerektirir. Bu kavram, uzun sureden beri Nietzsche’nin eserleri icinde anlasilmasi en zor olanlardan biri olarak degerlendirilir. Nietzsche de kavramin detayli bir analizini vermemis sadece “en dipsiz dusunce” olduguna deginmistir. Tartisilacak ikinci tema ise Tanri’nin olumunden sonra dusuncenin dogasi ve odevi ile bunun izdirap cekme ile iliskisi olacak. Hayatin teleolojik yorumu akil ve iyinin artik birbirinin teminati olmadigini ima eder. Ayrica dusunce artik daha yuce iyi ugruna izdirap cekmeyi temellendiremez. Yasam ve izdirap cekme arasindaki iliski ve buna bagli...
Angelaki, 2021
This essay attempts to interrogate the distinct character of Peter Sloterdijk’s declaration of th... more This essay attempts to interrogate the distinct character of Peter Sloterdijk’s declaration of the absolute imperative that concludes his work, You Must Change Your Life, by contextualizing it within the development of his notion of anthropotechnics. In particular, the essays examine the claim that his is a new and unprecedented form of the absolute imperative that is alone able to address, in an effective way, the contemporary global crises that are confronting us now. The first sections trace out the ways in which this new imperative differs from previous forms of the imperative, including the categorical, the aesthetic, and the existential-ontological. The latter sections then discuss how the new form of the imperative is connected to Sloterdijk’s radical attempt at a rethinking of the essence of the human as always already technological, which is the very project of anthropotechnics. This leads finally to a discussion of Sloterdijk’s polemical engagement with Heidegger’s questio...
Americans of African descent are often perceived as a homogeneous group, but in fact are diversif... more Americans of African descent are often perceived as a homogeneous group, but in fact are diversified according to their degree of assimilation into the mainstream society. Their diversity reflects the rich cultural differences of customs, beliefs, countries of origin, and ...
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2013
African American Review, 2003
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
African American Review, 2003
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Research in Phenomenology, 2009
Edited Volumes by Patrick Roney
Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities , 2021
This special issue intends to explore, problematize and expand on Peter Sloterdijk’s theorization... more This special issue intends to explore, problematize and expand on Peter Sloterdijk’s theorization of anthropotechnics (and the cognate concepts of the autoplastic, asceticism, acrobatics, the practicing life), which he has employed in a number of his writings starting from the 1990s, and most notably in You must change your life. Broadly understood as the study of the ensemble of cultural, spiritual, philosophical, religious and technical ‘tools’ that, throughout history, individuals and groups have used to form and transcend themselves, Sloterdijk’s anthropotechnics aims to lay the foundations for a philosophical anthropology suited to the age of the completion (Vollendung) of metaphysics. Within the context of contemporary research on the technological aspects of subject-formation (e.g. Simondon, Stiegler, Malabou, Braidotti) and on the genealogy of ‘practices of the self’ (e.g. Foucault, Hadot), Sloterdijk’s unique contribution lies in its interrogation of what ‘the practicing life’ has or could become in our secular and technologically-infused present. After the collapse of the diverse transcendental horizons that used to animate asceticism in the past (God, nature, reason, spirit), the question of anthropotechnics arguably calls for new formulations.
This special issue focuses on the philosophical, political and ethical ramifications of this question. Whereas in the English-speaking world a few studies have engaged with Sloterdijk’s work on anthropotechnics, as of yet there has been no systematic attempt to address the wide-ranging philosophical issues to which it gives rise. To address this absence, our proposed volume will gather essays revolving around three broad (and interrelated) thematic areas.
1) Anthropos – techne. Papers in this section address the philosophical horizons, potentialities and aporias of Sloterdijk’s general theory of anthropotechnics. Through an engagement with those thinkers with whom Sloterdijk conducts a sustained dialogue (Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Emerson), the essays investigate the degree to which his re-inscription of subjectivity as praxis measures up to the challenges facing the anthropos in the age of technology.
2) The ascetic imperative. Papers in this area analyse the meaning and form of the ethical maxim ‘You must change your life’, which resounds throughout Sloterdijk’s writings on anthropotechnics. Regarding man as the artificial product of reiterated practices of (self-)fashioning impels us to reconsider what norms, if any, could ground our duty to self-transformation. Does the demand to change one’s life correspond to a moral imperative, or is it also and perhaps at the same time an aesthetic and political imperative? Furthermore, is it actually possible to view it as an imperative or a binding prescription in the traditional sense of these terms? If not, where might its authority be said to reside?
3) Politics and Autoplastics. A third set of questions that this special issue addresses concerns the political consequences of Sloterdijk’s anthropotechnical turn. His notion of autoplastics might appear to reduplicate or even sublimate some of the values promoted by neoliberal governmentality, such as adaptability, flexibility, continuous learning, self-entrepreneurship, etc. Are these similarities substantial or merely terminological? Does Sloterdijk adhere to a politics founded on individual self-elevation that is essentially neoliberal and because of that, intrinsically oppressive, or does his work offer an illuminating perspective on neo-liberalism as a historically specific way of governing human plasticity, one that equally calls for its overcoming?
Translations by Patrick Roney
Kaygı, 20, 2013
Bu çalışmanın amacı Tanrı'nın ölümü düşüncesinin iki tema çerçevesinde incelenmesidir. İlk tema ş... more Bu çalışmanın amacı Tanrı'nın ölümü düşüncesinin iki tema çerçevesinde incelenmesidir. İlk tema şimdiye kadar hayata anlamını veren aşkınlık alanının çökmesi sonucu varlığın ve dünyanın teleolojik yorumlanması ile ilgili. Tanrı'nın ölümü ne dünyaya ne de insan eylemine bir sonuç yüklenemeyeceğini ima eder. Bu temanın araştırılması Nietzsche'nin ana doktrinlerinlerinden biri olan Aynının Bengi Dönüşü'nün incelenmesini gerektirir. Bu kavram, uzun süreden beri Nietzsche'nin eserleri içinde anlaşılması en zor olanlardan biri olarak değerlendirilir. Nietzsche de kavramın detaylı bir analizini vermemiş sadece "en dipsiz düşünce" olduğuna değinmiştir. Tartışılacak ikinci tema ise Tanrı'nın ölümünden sonra düşüncenin doğası ve ödevi ile bunun ızdırap çekme ile ilişkisi olacak. Hayatın teleolojik yorumu akıl ve iyinin artık birbirinin teminatı olmadığını ima eder. Ayrıca düşünce artık daha yüce iyi uğruna ızdırap çekmeyi temellendiremez. Yaşam ve ızdırap çekme arasındaki ilişki ve buna bağlı olarak ızdırap çekmenin değeri yeniden değerlendirilmelidir. Nietzsche'nin iddiası iki yönlüdür; talep ettiği dönüşüm ızdırabı ortadan kaldırmak yerine onaylar ama düşünmek ızdırap çekmektir.
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Papers by Patrick Roney
Edited Volumes by Patrick Roney
This special issue focuses on the philosophical, political and ethical ramifications of this question. Whereas in the English-speaking world a few studies have engaged with Sloterdijk’s work on anthropotechnics, as of yet there has been no systematic attempt to address the wide-ranging philosophical issues to which it gives rise. To address this absence, our proposed volume will gather essays revolving around three broad (and interrelated) thematic areas.
1) Anthropos – techne. Papers in this section address the philosophical horizons, potentialities and aporias of Sloterdijk’s general theory of anthropotechnics. Through an engagement with those thinkers with whom Sloterdijk conducts a sustained dialogue (Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Emerson), the essays investigate the degree to which his re-inscription of subjectivity as praxis measures up to the challenges facing the anthropos in the age of technology.
2) The ascetic imperative. Papers in this area analyse the meaning and form of the ethical maxim ‘You must change your life’, which resounds throughout Sloterdijk’s writings on anthropotechnics. Regarding man as the artificial product of reiterated practices of (self-)fashioning impels us to reconsider what norms, if any, could ground our duty to self-transformation. Does the demand to change one’s life correspond to a moral imperative, or is it also and perhaps at the same time an aesthetic and political imperative? Furthermore, is it actually possible to view it as an imperative or a binding prescription in the traditional sense of these terms? If not, where might its authority be said to reside?
3) Politics and Autoplastics. A third set of questions that this special issue addresses concerns the political consequences of Sloterdijk’s anthropotechnical turn. His notion of autoplastics might appear to reduplicate or even sublimate some of the values promoted by neoliberal governmentality, such as adaptability, flexibility, continuous learning, self-entrepreneurship, etc. Are these similarities substantial or merely terminological? Does Sloterdijk adhere to a politics founded on individual self-elevation that is essentially neoliberal and because of that, intrinsically oppressive, or does his work offer an illuminating perspective on neo-liberalism as a historically specific way of governing human plasticity, one that equally calls for its overcoming?
Translations by Patrick Roney
This special issue focuses on the philosophical, political and ethical ramifications of this question. Whereas in the English-speaking world a few studies have engaged with Sloterdijk’s work on anthropotechnics, as of yet there has been no systematic attempt to address the wide-ranging philosophical issues to which it gives rise. To address this absence, our proposed volume will gather essays revolving around three broad (and interrelated) thematic areas.
1) Anthropos – techne. Papers in this section address the philosophical horizons, potentialities and aporias of Sloterdijk’s general theory of anthropotechnics. Through an engagement with those thinkers with whom Sloterdijk conducts a sustained dialogue (Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Emerson), the essays investigate the degree to which his re-inscription of subjectivity as praxis measures up to the challenges facing the anthropos in the age of technology.
2) The ascetic imperative. Papers in this area analyse the meaning and form of the ethical maxim ‘You must change your life’, which resounds throughout Sloterdijk’s writings on anthropotechnics. Regarding man as the artificial product of reiterated practices of (self-)fashioning impels us to reconsider what norms, if any, could ground our duty to self-transformation. Does the demand to change one’s life correspond to a moral imperative, or is it also and perhaps at the same time an aesthetic and political imperative? Furthermore, is it actually possible to view it as an imperative or a binding prescription in the traditional sense of these terms? If not, where might its authority be said to reside?
3) Politics and Autoplastics. A third set of questions that this special issue addresses concerns the political consequences of Sloterdijk’s anthropotechnical turn. His notion of autoplastics might appear to reduplicate or even sublimate some of the values promoted by neoliberal governmentality, such as adaptability, flexibility, continuous learning, self-entrepreneurship, etc. Are these similarities substantial or merely terminological? Does Sloterdijk adhere to a politics founded on individual self-elevation that is essentially neoliberal and because of that, intrinsically oppressive, or does his work offer an illuminating perspective on neo-liberalism as a historically specific way of governing human plasticity, one that equally calls for its overcoming?