M. Ertan Kardeş

Bu metin Paul Ricœur’ün ortaya koyduğu politik paradoksları inceleme amacını taşımaktadır. Fransız filozof politik paradokslar düşüncesini ilk olarak Budapeşte Olayı üzerine geliştirmiştir. Sonrası dönemde ise paradoksları etik, ahlak ve politika arasındaki kesişimi göstermek açısından değerlendirmiştir. Paradokslar ilk evrede politik kötülüğü ve devletin aşırı-politikleştirme düzeylerini dile getirmektedir. Son dönem metinlerinde ise mesele politik paradokstan, otoritenin, politik olanın, teolojik-politik olanın, tarihsel eylemin paradoksuna doğru genişlemiştir. Son kertede mesele, ahlaktan adil olana doğru evrilmektedir. Mevcut yazı sınırını adalet sorusunun açılması olarak belirlemiştir. Aynı şekilde yöntem olarak Ricœur’ün politik düşüncelerinin sistematik bir şekilde anlaşılmasından çok, düşüncelerini ürettiği paradoksların anlaşılması meselesi öne çıkarılmıştır. Böylelikle politik felsefenin, düşünme imkanını kendisini ancak paradokslarla ve aporialarla açtığı sonucuna ulaşılmaktadır. Ricœur, yataylık odaklı Aristoteles ve Rousseau gibi politik felsefeler ile dikeylik odaklı Platon ve Marx gibi politik felsefeler arasında bir tercih yapmak yerine ikisinin birlikte düşünülmesinin temel görev olduğu düşüncesindedir. Dikey ilişkinin aşırı politizasyonuna da yatay ilişkinin yurttaşlar alanını post-politikleştirmesine de karşı çıkmaktadır. Politik felsefe metin, olay, kavram döngüsünün ancak paradoksal bir biçimde kavranmasıyla eleştirellik görevini yerine getirebilir. Bu bağlamda bir politik felsefe metni, politik olayı yorumlarken kavramlarının yarattığı aşırı güvenceye dair daimî bir huzursuzluk hissetmelidir. Politik felsefenin olay karşısında tavrı ve görevi, olayı tüketilebilir bir nesneye dönüştürmek değil aksine olaydaki muammayı kavramaya dair çoğul dinamikleri yakalamaktır.

A city forms the core of all political and philosophical projects. On one hand, a city is a place of human aspirations and pursuits; on the other, it represents a space of tension and anxiety. This dual and often paradoxical character of the city compels philosophers to constantly cogitate its current status. Philosophy is often defined as the child of the city (polis); it is thus the product of urban life. As a medium of social space and political unity, the city has become a stipulation for philosophical activity. In this sense, philosophy is not deprived of its conditions; alternatively, it is an activity that reveals itself within its prerequisite environment. The book reveals varied philosophical reflections on the city, focusing primarily on the urban crisis and debates on rights to the city. The book also attends to the city-philosophy connection in terms of language, borders, art, architecture, and meta-philosophy. The body of research on the city cannot be reduced to the sum of discourses of technical experts. Beyond this boundary, the city stands in its entirety at the heart of debates on equality, freedom, and liberation, surpassing all types of pragmatic discussion. Max Weber cites the proverb, “Stadtluft macht frei” (the urban air frees), serving as a reminder that a city is also a place of domination and freedom. In this respect, the city is the arena of all types of conflict.

The purpose of this article is to indicate the dimensions of Walter Benjamin’s conception of "technique". It is argued that the only way to understand his problematic technique is by considering the concepts of experience and political action. The present article emphasizes the philosopher’s transitivity of technical understanding through a wide range of reflections including Benjamin’s thoughts on Scheerbarts to "second technique" (zweite Technik), from his idea of collective corpus (Leib) to his understanding of experience (Erfahrung), and from the canonic feature of architecture in modern time to revolutionary action. We focused on the common issues in the texts of Benjamin entitled "Experience and Poverty", "Capitalism as Religion" and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproducibility". At the same time, we stress why the technical question and technicality are central issues in order to understand other Benjamin texts. We use the thematic continuity and differentiation thesis as a method instead of disengagement in his writings. Our essential thesis in this article is that according to Benjamin, a true political organization is an action which puts an end to the domination of the first technique over the second technique. In other words, Benjamin's conception of technique implies on the one hand a radical criticism of the existing order and on the other hand a political moment where all the phantasmagorias of the masses dissolve. In this context, the phantasmagorias, made visible through urban space, are at the same time possibilities for a revolutionary action in order to actualize the hidden forces of humanity.

This article focuses on two aspects of contemporary political philosophy. The first one is political philosophy as a philosophy strategy. The second one is political philosophy as an activity that considers the politicity of philosophy and what is political. Our basic claim is the impossibility of separating these two meanings of political philosophy. Rather than maintaining the distinction between the empirical and the speculative in terms of political philosophy, the basic attitude is to look at what is happening within the polis, whether the police remain without polites or whether the polis allow the political community to recognize it. The discovery of the politicity of philosophy is undoubtedly not something new, however, it has become a more evident focus of philosophy after World War II. Many different trends in contemporary philosophy have brought new ideas within this perspective: from Carl Schmitt to Leo Strauss, from Frankfurt School thinkers to many important figures of contemporary French philosophy, such as Claude Lefort and Cornelius Castoriadis; they all have developed critical, contemporary and radical philosophical thoughts. It can be easily claimed that this movement in political philosophy comes with a conjuncture in which the crisis has become more evident in the context of political praxis and concept. In the first phase, the fading of ideologies forced the return from 'theory' to philosophy. Secondly, the hopelessness and failures created by the actual communisms forced them to consider different praxis. Thirdly, structural crises and transformations in the world political order have also prepared the crisis of liberal political philosophies seeking answers to the existing crisis with their own concepts. It was no coincidence that after the pursuit of pure philosophy in the Belle Époque period, it was recollected as philosophy's politics. A singular, constituent praxis, and an orientation that desires emancipation, is the sole possibility of the idea of the universal. In this context, political philosophy is not only an abstraction practice on political things, but on the contrary, an activity on the establishment or disruption of the logic of political things. The togetherness of the necessity of understanding political things and research faithful to the idea of truth; reveals the vitality of plurality of political organizations against violence.