Vita
1977-1980: Undergraduate Studies of Philosophy and German, University of Heidelberg
1980-1983: Graduate Studies of Philosophy and German, University of Konstanz
PhD 1987: University of Konstanz, Philosophy
„Habilitation“ 1995: Freie Universität Berlin, Philosophy
1997-99: Associate Professor, New School for Social Research, New York
1999-2008: Professor, University of Potsdam, Department of Philosophy
2008- : Professor, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Department of Philosophy and Research Cluster "The Formation of Normative Orders"
Dated from 2018
Fields of research
Political Philosophy
Philosophy of Law
Theory of Subjectivity
Aesthetics
IKKM Research Project
I am interested in the operational couple of year 2017/8 – Showing/Causing – in the context of the “procedure” that, following Badiou, defines the (being of) the subject, i.e. in the context of the process of subjectivization. This procedure is marked by the agonistic – which means precisely not dialectical – interaction between two movements or drives: habituation (in German: Gewöhnung, as in Gewohnheit) and liberation. The procedure of the subject consists in nothing but this double movement, in the enactment of their contrary logic, the unfolding of their antagonism. The hypothesis is that the operational couple Showing/Causing might play a decisive role at the point, and time, where these two movements meet or clash. Or, more precisely, Showing/Causing - causing through showing - plays a decisive role in the passage from the movement of habituation to the movement of liberation; in other words: from (second) nature to history. From this perspective, Showing/Causing could be said to be the beginning of history or of liberation (for history is the history of freedom or liberation). This hypothesis will be tested by the examination of paradigmatic narratives of liberation.
Recent publications
Kraft. Ein Grundbegriff ästhetischer Anthropologie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2008; 2017 (paperback); English transl.: New York: Fordham University Press 2012
Recht und Gewalt, Berlin: August Verlag 2011; Engl. transl.: Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press 2017 (forthcoming)
Estética y negatividad, ed. Gustavo Leyva, Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica 2011
Die Kraft der Kunst, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2013
Kritik der Rechte, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2015; Engl. transl.: Polity Press (in preparation; 2018)