•  3191
    The End of Action: An Arendtian Critique of Aristotle’s Concept of praxis
    Hannah Arendt: Practice, Thought and Judgement. 2010.
    The article re-examines the Aristotelian backdrop of Arendt’s notion of action. On the one hand, Backman takes up Arendt’s critique of the hierarchy of human activities in Aristotle, according to which Aristotle subordinates action (praxis) to production (poiesis) and contemplation (theoria). Backman argues that this is not the case since Aristotle conceives theoria as the most perfect form of praxis. On the other hand, Backman stresses that Arendt’s notion of action is in fact very different fr…Read more
  •  2266
    Being Itself and the Being of Beings: Reading Aristotle's Critique of Parmenides (Physics 1.3) after Metaphysics
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (2): 271-291. 2018.
    The essay studies Aristotle’s critique of Parmenides in the light of the Heideggerian account of Platonic-Aristotelian metaphysics as an approach to being in terms of beings. Aristotle’s critique focuses on the presuppositions of the Parmenidean thesis of the unity of being. It is argued that a close study of the presuppositions of Aristotle’s own critique reveals an important difference between the Aristotelian metaphysical framework and the Parmenidean “protometaphysical” approach. The Parmeni…Read more
  •  2246
    A Russian Radical Conservative Challenge to the Liberal Global Order: Aleksandr Dugin
    In Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen & Jukka Jouhki (eds.), Contestations of Liberal Order: The West in Crisis?, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 289-314. 2019.
    The chapter examines Russian political theorist Aleksandr Dugin’s (b. 1962) challenge to the Western liberal order. Even though Dugin’s project is in many ways a theoretical epitome of Russia’s contemporary attempt to profile itself as a regional great power with a political and cultural identity distinct from the liberal West, Dugin can also be read in a wider context as one of the currently most prominent representatives of the culturally and intellectually oriented international New Right. Th…Read more
  •  1680
    The paper studies, within the framework of Martin Heidegger's narrative of the history of metaphysics, two perspectives on the unity of being: the "protometaphysical" perspective of Parmenides, the thinker of the "first beginning" of Western philosophy, and the postmetaphysical perspective of Heidegger, situated in the ongoing transition from the Hegelian and Nietzschean end of metaphysics to a forthcoming "other beginning" of Western thought. Both perspectives involve a certain "crisis", in the…Read more
  •  1300
    All of a Sudden: Heidegger and Plato’s Parmenides
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (2): 393-408. 2007.
    The paper will study an unpublished 1930–31 seminar where Heidegger reads Plato’s Parmenides, showing that in spite of his much-criticized habit of dismissing Plato as the progenitor of “idealist” metaphysics, Heidegger was quite aware of the radical potential of his later dialogues. Through a temporal account of the notion of oneness (to hen), the Parmenides attempts to reconcile the plurality of beings with the unity of Being. In Heidegger’s reading, the dialogue culminates in the notion of th…Read more
  •  1090
    The paper studies Heidegger's reading of the poet Stefan George (1868-1933), particularly of his poem "Das Wort" (1928), in the context of Heidegger's narrative of the history of metaphysics. Heidegger reads George's poem as expressing certain experiences with language: first, the constitutive role of language, of naming and discursive determination, in granting things stable identities; second, the unnameable and indeterminable character of language itself as a constitutive process and the conc…Read more
  •  855
    Abstract Derrida's deconstructive strategy of reading texts can be understood as a way of highlighting the irreducible plurality of discursive meaning that undermines the traditional Western “logocentric“ desire for an absolute point of reference. While his notion of logocentrism was modeled on Heidegger's articulation of the traditional ontotheological framework of Aristotelian metaphysics, Derrida detects a logocentric remnant in Heidegger's own interpretation of gathering ( Versammlung ) as t…Read more
  •  801
    The End of the World after the End of Finitude: On a Recently Prominent Speculative Tone in Philosophy
    In Marcia Cavalcante Schuback & Susanna Lindberg (eds.), The End of the World: Contemporary Philosophy and Art, Rowman and Littlefield International. pp. 105-123. 2017.
    The chapter studies the speculative realist critique of the notion of finitude and its implications for the theme of the "end of the world" as a teleological and eschatological idea. It is first explained how Quentin Meillassoux proposes to overcome both Kantian and Heideggerian "correlationist" approaches with his speculative thesis of absolute contingency. It is then shown that Meillassoux's speculative materialism also dismantles the close link forged by Kant between the teleological ends of …Read more
  •  738
    Relativism and Radical Conservatism
    with Timo Pankakoski
    In Martin Kusch (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism, Routledge. pp. 219-227. 2019.
    The chapter tackles the complex, tension-ridden, and often paradoxical relationship between relativism and conservatism. We focus particularly on radical conservatism, an early twentieth-century German movement that arguably constitutes the climax of conservatism’s problematic relationship with relativism. We trace the shared genealogy of conservatism and historicism in nineteenth-century Counter-Enlightenment thought and interpret radical conservatism’s ambivalent relation to relativism as refl…Read more
  •  736
    Bir, bir şey değildir: post-metafizik düşüncede birlik ve çokluğun akıbeti
    Sabah Ülkesi: Üç Aylık Kültürsanat Ve Felsefe Dergisi (51): 16-19. 2017.
    Translated into Turkish by Mustafa Yalçınkaya.
  •  731
    Hermeneutics as we understand it today is an essentially modern phenomenon. The chapter presents observations that illustrate some of the central ways in which the modern and late modern phenomena of philosophical hermeneutics relate to the ancient philosophical legacy. First, the roots of hermeneutics are traced to ancient views on linguistic, textual, and sacral interpretation. The chapter then looks at certain fundamentally unhermeneutic elements of the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Augustinian…Read more
  •  713
    The paper outlines a tentative genealogy of the Platonic metaphysics of sight by thematizing pre-Platonic thought, particularly Heraclitus and Parmenides. By “metaphysics of sight” it understands the features of Platonic-Aristotelian metaphysics expressed with the help of visual metaphors. It is argued that the Platonic metaphysics of sight can be regarded as the result of a synthesis of the Heraclitean and Parmenidean approaches. In pre-Platonic thought, the visual paradigm is still marginal. F…Read more
  •  597
    Spekülatif materyalizmde hümanizm ve post-hümanizm
    Sabah Ülkesi: Üç Aylık Kültür-Sanat Ve Felsefe Dergisi (57): 20-25. 2018.
    Translated into Turkish by Mustafa Yalçınkaya.
  •  540
    Transcendental Idealism and Strong Correlationism: Meillassoux and the End of Heideggerian Finitude
    In Sara Heinämaa, Mirja Hartimo & Timo Miettinen (eds.), Phenomenology and the Transcendental, Routledge. pp. 276-294. 2014.
    The chapter discusses Quentin Meillassoux's recent interpretation and critique of Heidegger's philosophical position, which he describes as "strong correlationism." It emphasizes the fact that Meillassoux situates Heidegger in the post-Kantian tradition of transcendental idealism that he defines in terms of a focus on the correlation between being and thinking. It is argued that Meillassoux's "speculative" attempt to overcome the Kantian philosophical framework in the name of absolute contingenc…Read more
  •  533
    Mitä oleva on? Omaisuus ja elämä pureutuu tähän filosofian peruskysymykseen seuraten kahta länsimaisen filosofian jättiläistä, Aristotelestä ja Heideggeria. Siinä missä Aristoteles kysyy olevaa substantiivina ja tilana, etsii Heidegger olemisen mieltä verbinä ja tapahtumana. Nämä kaksi merkitystä löytyvät myös suomen olla-verbistä: "omistaa jotakin" ja "olla olemassa, elossa". Omaisuus ja elämä antavat peruslähtökohdat olevan tulkitsemiselle. Kirja vie lukijansa filosofian kreikkalaisille juuril…Read more
  •  529
    The paper analyzes Quentin Meillassoux’s conception of the fideistic approach to religious faith intrinsic to the “strong correlationism” that he considers pervasive in contemporary thought. Backman presents the basic elements of Meillassoux’s speculative materialism and especially the thesis according to which strong correlationism involves a “fideistic” approach to religiosity. In doing so, Backman critically examines Meillassoux’s notions of post-metaphysical faith, religious absolutes, and c…Read more
  •  501
    Divine and Mortal Motivation: On the Movement of Life in Aristotle and Heidegger
    Continental Philosophy Review 38 (3-4): 241-261. 2005.
    The paper discusses Heidegger's early notion of the “movedness of life” (Lebensbewegtheit) and its intimate connection with Aristotle's concept of movement (kinēsis). Heidegger's aim in the period of Being and Time was to “overcome” the Greek ideal of being as ousia – constant and complete presence and availability – by showing that the background for all meaningful presence is Dasein, the ecstatically temporal context of human being. Life as the event of finitude is characterized by an essentia…Read more
  •  501
    Aristotle (in Agamben's Philosophical Lineage)
    In Adam Kotsko & Carlo Salzani (eds.), Agamben's Philosophical Lineage, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 15-26. 2017.
    This chapter is an overview of Giorgio Agamben's engagement, in the Homo Sacer series (1995–2014), with Aristotelian philosophy. It specifically studies Agamben's attempt to deconstruct two Aristotelian conceptual oppositions fundamental for the Western tradition of political thought: (1) that between the bare fact of being alive and "qualified" living (associated by Agamben with an alleged distinction between zōē and bios) and (2) that between potentiality (dynamis) and actuality (energeia). Ag…Read more
  •  443
    Modernity in Antiquity: Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy in Heidegger and Arendt
    Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 24 (2): 5-29. 2020.
    This article looks at the role of Hellenistic thought in the historical narratives of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. To a certain extent, both see—with G. W. F. Hegel, J. G. Droysen, and Eduard Zeller—Hellenistic and Roman philosophy as a “modernity in antiquity,” but with important differences. Heidegger is generally dismissive of Hellenistic thought and comes to see it as a decisive historical turning point at which a protomodern element of subjective willing and domination is injected in…Read more
  •  428
    Politics of the Idea: (Anti-)Platonic Politics in Arendt and Badiou
    Comparative and Continental Philosophy 12 (3): 168-181. 2020.
    This paper compares two influential but conflicting contemporary models of politics as an activity: those of Hannah Arendt and Alain Badiou. It discovers the fundamental difference between their approaches to politics in their opposing evaluations of the contemporary political significance of the legacy of Plato, Platonism, and the Platonic Idea. Karl Popper’s and Arendt’s analyses of the inherently ideological nature of totalitarianism are contrasted with Badiou’s vindication of an ideological …Read more
  •  400
    The chapter approaches the hermeneutic concept of experience introduced by Hans-Georg Gadamer in Truth and Method (1960) from the perspective of the conceptual history of experience in the Western philosophical tradition. Through an overview of the concept and the epistemological function of experience (empeiria, experientia, Erfahrung) in Aristotle, Francis Bacon, and Hegel, it is shown that the tradition has considered experience first and foremost in methodological terms, that is, as a pathwa…Read more
  •  395
    Editors' Introduction
    Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology 4 (2): 93-99. 2017.
    A brief overview of the current status of the scholarship on Heidegger and contemporary art and of the contributions included in the special issue.
  •  394
    Self-Care and Total Care: The Twofold Return of Care in Twentieth-Century Thought
    International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 81 (3): 275-291. 2020.
    The paper studies two fundamentally different forms in which the concept of care makes its comeback in twentieth-century thought. We make use of a distinction made by Peter Sloterdijk, who argues that the ancient and medieval ‘ascetic’ ideal of self-enhancement through practice has re-emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in the form of a rehabilitation of the Hellenistic notion of self-care (epimeleia heautou) in Michel Foucault’s late ethics. Sloterdijk contrasts this…Read more
  •  373
    The Absent Foundation: Heidegger on the Rationality of Being
    Philosophy Today 49 (5): 175-184. 2005.
    For Heidegger, the fundamental “rationality” of Western metaphysics lies in the fact that its “leading question” concerning beings as beings constantly refers back to the question concerning the ground (arche, ratio, Grund) of beings. Whereas metaphysics has sought to ground beings in ideal beingness, Heidegger attempts to think beingness as itself based on the withdrawing “background” dimension of no-thing-ness that grounds finite presence by differing from it. In Heidegger’s earlier work, the …Read more
  •  357
    Äärellisyyden kohtaaminen: kokemuksen filosofista käsitehistoriaa
    In Jarkko Toikkanen & Ira Virtanen (eds.), Kokemuksen tutkimus VI: Kokemuksen käsite ja käyttö, Lapland University Press. pp. 25-40. 2018.
    Väitetään, että nykypäivän populismi vetoaa tosiasioiden sijasta ”kokemukseen”. Mutta mitä on kokemus? Se ei ole vain ennakkoluuloihin nojautuvaa mutua eikä myöskään pelkkää empiirisen datan rekisteröintiä mutta liittyy molempiin. Artikkelin luoma tiivis katsaus kokemuksen käsitehistorian pääpiirteisiin osoittaa, että länsimaisen filosofian perinteessä kokemus on ymmärretty ohittamattomana vaiheena tiedon hankkimisessa ja koettelemisessa. Toisaalta kokemukseen on liitetty tiettyjä tiedollisia he…Read more
  •  351
    From the Ultimate God to the Virtual God: Post-Ontotheological Perspectives on the Divine in Heidegger, Badiou, and Meillassoux
    Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy 6 (Special): 113-142. 2014.
    peerReviewed.
  •  322
    The (Meta)politics of Thinking: On Arendt and the Greeks
    In Kristian Larsen & Pål Rykkja Gilbert (eds.), Phenomenological Interpretations of Ancient Philosophy, Brill. pp. 260-282. 2021.
    In this chapter, Jussi Backman approaches Hannah Arendt’s readings of ancient philosophy by setting out from her perspective on the intellectual, political, and moral crisis characterizing Western societies in the twentieth century, a crisis to which the rise of totalitarianism bears witness. To Arendt, the political catastrophes haunting the twentieth century have roots in a tradition of political philosophy reaching back to the Greek beginnings of philosophy. Two principal features of Arendt’s…Read more