Books by Joshua Dienstag
Papers by Joshua Dienstag
Cinema Pessimism, 2019
Blade Runner is concerned to humanize our social and political relationships, which are in danger... more Blade Runner is concerned to humanize our social and political relationships, which are in danger of falling into the affective trap that Rousseau outlined in his Letter to D’Alembert. Rousseau described citizens who mistake a theatrical experience for an equal, reciprocal human experience. To understand the problem, we must learn to differentiate, as the characters of Blade Runner do, between mutual surveillance and mutual regard. Surveillance can create in us the illusion of power and freedom that we mistake for real autonomy. Regard for others, which can be interrupted by representation, needs to be sustained for human society to flourish. If we must use representation to have a democracy, we must insure that its tendency toward inequality and surveillance does not come to dominate us.
Political Theory, 2020
In the past few decades, political theorists have attempted to articulate a nontheological basis ... more In the past few decades, political theorists have attempted to articulate a nontheological basis for a special human place in the moral universe. These attempts, I argue, generally fall into two groups, one centered around the concept of “dignity” and the other around ideas of “difference.” Both of these attempts ultimately fail, I maintain, but their failures are instructive and help us along a path toward a better kind of relationship with nature and the earth as well as one another. In the face of increased scientific knowledge about the environment, animals, and our own species, we have every reason to recalibrate our stance toward nature as a whole. But in doing so we must acknowledge that the human relationship with nature is ultimately a representative one that can therefore never achieve the kind of reciprocity available in human society. Whatever form our respect for nature takes, it will always be distinct from the relationships we have with those we consider co-citizens.
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2011
This article describes the postmodern approach to the history of political thought that has evolv... more This article describes the postmodern approach to the history of political thought that has evolved through the practices of a variety of theorists in both Europe and the United States since the 1950s. It maintains that Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy is the originating point of this movement, although neither he nor any of the other theorists it mentions left any canonical statements of methods to compare with the works of Quentin Skinner or Leo Strauss. Terms such as “deconstruction,” “genealogy,” and “radical hermeneutics” are often used to describe these methods. At the broadest level, the postmodern approach displays an acute sensitivity to the role of language in politics, and in political theory itself, that originates in the work of Nietzsche. While postmodernism is nothing if not a congeries of method, this article argues that these diverse approaches have, if not a unity, than at least common sources and overlapping themes.
Polity, 1998
Page 1. Wittgenstein Among the Savages: Language, Action and Political Theory* Joshua Foa Diensta... more Page 1. Wittgenstein Among the Savages: Language, Action and Political Theory* Joshua Foa Dienstag University of Virginia In his attempt to understand matters of the spirit, most notably in the "Remarks on Frazer's Golden ...
Political Theory, 2012
A variety of theorists have emphasized the paradox at the center of democratic legal authority, v... more A variety of theorists have emphasized the paradox at the center of democratic legal authority, viz., that it cannot be self-derived but must ultimately rest on some extra-legal phenomenon, usually an act of exclusion. John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance examines precisely this paradoxical situation and, I argue, actually suggests a novel response that has escaped theorists who have considered the problem in the past. The film’s best-known line (“print the legend”) in fact represents the opposite of its perspective—which is to carefully deconstruct and reveal (without debunking) the complicated interrelation of law and power in the formation of any state. Rather than undermining democratic authority, we can be strengthened, if sobered, by the revelation that law is not self-sustaining. By setting the facts alongside the legend, the film perpetuates the fortuitous moment of state formation. What constitutes the state, then, is neither law nor power, but rather the matrix of ...
Contemporary Political Theory, 2014
Many have pointed to Blade Runner's humanization of its 'replicants' as a compelling statement ag... more Many have pointed to Blade Runner's humanization of its 'replicants' as a compelling statement against exploitation and domination. I argue, however, that the film has another kind of agenda: a Rousseauvian concern about the dangers of representation, about confusing the imitation with the real and confusing the consumption of images with political action. Rather than humanizing the other, Blade Runner's central concern is to humanize our own social and political relationships, which are in danger of falling into the same trap Rousseau outlined in his Letter to D'Alembert. To do so, we must learn to appreciate the difference between mutual surveillance and mutual regard. To live freely in any regime, we must understand the dangers of representation, even if, in a large state, we must continue to make use of it.
All the tragedies which we can imagine return in the end to the one and only tragedy: the passage... more All the tragedies which we can imagine return in the end to the one and only tragedy: the passage of time.-Simone Weil W ho today would claim the label of pessimist for themselves? We employ the word "pessimism" today largely to name an unhealthy psychological disposition. Like a mysterious tropical disease, pessimism is something we fear to catch without quite knowing what its symptoms are. While tragedy and its history have been the subject of intense academic scrutiny for more than a century, pessimism and its history have languished in obscurity. Indeed, it still needs pointing out today that pessimism has a history, and a complicated one at that. In fact, pessimism is a philosophy-a philosophy at the heart of the debate, both aesthetic and political, about tragedy. Today, "pessimistic" is also a predicate that we are eager to attach to those views we find objectionable. But when Friedrich Nietzsche reissued The Birth of Tragedy in 1886, he added the subtitle Hellenism and Pessimism and emphasized, in the new introduction, that what he still approved of in the book was its examination of "the good severe will of the older Greeks to pessimism, to the tragic myth." 1 Since that time, the link between pessimism and tragedy, the claim that tragedy is "the art form of pessimism" (BT 17), has been the object of a kind of sub-rosa debate in the scholarship on tragedy. It has often been equated (quite wrongly, I think) with the idea that tragedy is distinctly and purely an ancient Greek form of aesthetic activity. And this has been the dividing line between those who have sought to impose strict boundaries on the genre of tragedy and those who have urged a more expansive view. The terms of this debate have, in many ways, changed very little since George Steiner and Raymond Williams set out opposing positions on these questions in the early 1960s. And yet much of this debate has taken place in ignorance of the pessimistic tradition, or even of the distinctive way in which Nietzsche
The American Political Science Review, 1996
This paper seeks to revive the old theory of a “Lockean consensus” in early American political th... more This paper seeks to revive the old theory of a “Lockean consensus” in early American political thought against the prevailing “republican” view. The language of “virtue” and “slavery,” which was pervasive at the time of the founding, and which many have been eager to take as evidence for the influence of civic humanism, in fact has a perfectly plain Lockean provenance. This is established first through a reexamination of Locke that links his account of virtue to a Christian asceticism (i.e., the Protestant Ethic) rather than republican philosophy. That the founders understood virtue in this way is then established through an exploration of Adams and Jefferson. In both cases, it was a Lockean slavery which they feared and a Lockean virtue which they sought. A Lockean sympathy did exist among the founders; in order to understand it, however, it must be distinguished from modern liberalism, with which it has only tenuous connections.
Political Theory, 2020
In the past few decades, political theorists have attempted to articulate a
nontheological basis ... more In the past few decades, political theorists have attempted to articulate a
nontheological basis for a special human place in the moral universe. These attempts, I argue, generally fall into two groups, one centered around the concept of “dignity” and the other around ideas of “difference.” Both of these
attempts ultimately fail, I maintain, but their failures are instructive and help
us along a path toward a better kind of relationship with nature and the earth
as well as one another. In the face of increased scientific knowledge about the
environment, animals, and our own species, we have every reason to recalibrate
our stance toward nature as a whole. But in doing so we must acknowledge
that the human relationship with nature is ultimately a representative one that
can therefore never achieve the kind of reciprocity available in human society.
Whatever form our respect for nature takes, it will always be distinct from
the relationships we have with those we consider co-citizens.
Hannah Arendt’s well-known dictum that truth and politics
are on permanently bad terms with one a... more Hannah Arendt’s well-known dictum that truth and politics
are on permanently bad terms with one another presents a
special problem for political theory. How to write truthfully
about a landscape that is replete with falsehoods and fictions and yet
have the writing count for something in that very environment? In dealing
with this problem, history and examples have had a special place, or
rather a series of places, as the field has tacked back and forth between
abstraction and deep historicity. Modern political theory has wavered
between description and prescription as it vacillated between inserting
itself into politics and maintaining a critical distance from its subject.
In its likewise wavering attitude toward examples we can read the field’s
understanding of its own modernity and, perhaps, the ending of that
period and the beginning of something new.
Sometimes political theorists like to imagine that they are lonely humanists misplaced in social ... more Sometimes political theorists like to imagine that they are lonely humanists misplaced in social science departments. In fact, political theory was created as part of a political science composed of both humanistic and social-scientific elements. Rather than trying to locate political theory somewhere between the humanities and the social sciences, we should instead dismantle the boundary between the two and create a unified discipline of questioning that embraces both kinds of inquiry.
History and Memory, 1996
Page 1. Joshua Foa Dienstag "The Pozsgay Affair": Historical Memory and Political Legit... more Page 1. Joshua Foa Dienstag "The Pozsgay Affair": Historical Memory and Political Legitimacy* Introduction Sometimes, even the addition of a single syllable to public debate can have an explosiveeffect. In January 1989, Imre ...
American Political Science Review, 2001
Page 1. American Political Science Review Vol. 95, No. 4 December 2001 Nietzsche's Dionysian... more Page 1. American Political Science Review Vol. 95, No. 4 December 2001 Nietzsche's Dionysian Pessimism JOSHUA FOA DIENSTAG University of Virginia As a system of thought, pessimism is often assumed to be too deterministic ...
We should understand political theory as a practice that tacks back and forth between the winds o... more We should understand political theory as a practice that tacks back and forth between the winds of the humanities and those of social science, ideally taking energy from both.
Lars von Trier’s films have continuously explored the problem of evil. In this essay, focused on ... more Lars von Trier’s films have continuously explored the problem of evil. In this essay, focused on Europa and Melancholia, I argue that his response to this problem and his cinematic style have evolved along with his views on representation. Once committed to the rejection of all cinematic illusion, his later films make use of it, not because he has changed his mind about the dangers of illusion but because he has come to view an unnatural perspective as something necessary to reveal an evil to which we are ordinarily blind. I call this later style pessimistic realism.
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Books by Joshua Dienstag
Papers by Joshua Dienstag
nontheological basis for a special human place in the moral universe. These attempts, I argue, generally fall into two groups, one centered around the concept of “dignity” and the other around ideas of “difference.” Both of these
attempts ultimately fail, I maintain, but their failures are instructive and help
us along a path toward a better kind of relationship with nature and the earth
as well as one another. In the face of increased scientific knowledge about the
environment, animals, and our own species, we have every reason to recalibrate
our stance toward nature as a whole. But in doing so we must acknowledge
that the human relationship with nature is ultimately a representative one that
can therefore never achieve the kind of reciprocity available in human society.
Whatever form our respect for nature takes, it will always be distinct from
the relationships we have with those we consider co-citizens.
are on permanently bad terms with one another presents a
special problem for political theory. How to write truthfully
about a landscape that is replete with falsehoods and fictions and yet
have the writing count for something in that very environment? In dealing
with this problem, history and examples have had a special place, or
rather a series of places, as the field has tacked back and forth between
abstraction and deep historicity. Modern political theory has wavered
between description and prescription as it vacillated between inserting
itself into politics and maintaining a critical distance from its subject.
In its likewise wavering attitude toward examples we can read the field’s
understanding of its own modernity and, perhaps, the ending of that
period and the beginning of something new.
nontheological basis for a special human place in the moral universe. These attempts, I argue, generally fall into two groups, one centered around the concept of “dignity” and the other around ideas of “difference.” Both of these
attempts ultimately fail, I maintain, but their failures are instructive and help
us along a path toward a better kind of relationship with nature and the earth
as well as one another. In the face of increased scientific knowledge about the
environment, animals, and our own species, we have every reason to recalibrate
our stance toward nature as a whole. But in doing so we must acknowledge
that the human relationship with nature is ultimately a representative one that
can therefore never achieve the kind of reciprocity available in human society.
Whatever form our respect for nature takes, it will always be distinct from
the relationships we have with those we consider co-citizens.
are on permanently bad terms with one another presents a
special problem for political theory. How to write truthfully
about a landscape that is replete with falsehoods and fictions and yet
have the writing count for something in that very environment? In dealing
with this problem, history and examples have had a special place, or
rather a series of places, as the field has tacked back and forth between
abstraction and deep historicity. Modern political theory has wavered
between description and prescription as it vacillated between inserting
itself into politics and maintaining a critical distance from its subject.
In its likewise wavering attitude toward examples we can read the field’s
understanding of its own modernity and, perhaps, the ending of that
period and the beginning of something new.