Milenko Bodin

The paper starts from the “new poverty of philosophy” and the dominance of ontological (critical) constructivism in security studies, which reduces thinking to mere construction and erases the difference between philosophy and ideology. In contrast, the author develops a humanologically motivated philosophy of security as an attempt to restore the security of thought and regain an authentic understanding of freedom of thought beyond a purely negative concept of freedom. Through a hermeneutical reading of Hobbes’s model of the state of nature and legitimation, the thesis is derived that security is a fundamental, existential interest of the human being, from which both the social state and the concept of a security entity arise. On that basis an entological theory of security is formulated, in which identity, integrity, and sovereignty are the key criteria for the fulfillment of the security interest and the basis for the development of security culture and strategic security culture. In a broader context, the humanological approach allows linking the philosophy of human security with democracy as a communicative community that avoids both the universalist totalitarianism of ideologies and the technocratic governance of people. The philosophy of security thus proves to be an applied philosophy that establishes a feedback loop between theoretical and practical knowledge and offers an integral model for the study of contemporary security phenomena.

Questions related to the politics and practice of multiculturalism remain hotly debated, even though it is unclear what generally is meant by the term “multiculturalism” and how multiculturalism fits into the politics of liberalism. To many proponents of identity politics movements, ‘normative multiculturalism’ represents an unquestioned good, and collective identities are seen as a primary subject of democratic deliberation and national policy. Liberal activists, however, may be justifiably concerned that this interpretation of multiculturalism impinges on the foundations of liberalism itself, including the core value of perfect equality between autonomous rights-bearing subjects.We respond to these concerns by interrogating the philosophical nature of liberalism and multiculturalism, respectively, and fleshing out the complex relationship that exists between these concepts. Using discourse analysis we find that the discourse of normative multiculturalism corresponds to the broader concept of liberalism – neoliberalism. We argue that the discourse of neoliberalism integrates the model and empirical sense of the classical concept of liberalism and that the goal – normative neutrality towards cultural and other identities – is more efficiently achieved..