Bulletin Philosophy and Society 2023-34/1
The first issue in 2023 of the journal Philosophy and Society (Philosophy and Society 34/1) brings forth two thematic sections: Education in Ancient Greece and Infrapolitics at Margins. Moreover, this issue contains original scientific papers about the Foucault Effect in the Sociology of Knowledge and Herbert Marcuse’s Trajectory to Socialism as well as a review of Slavoj Žižek’s latest book Surplus-enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-perplexed.
The thematic section Education in Ancient Greece is the result of the Laboratory for Educational Theories of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory which aims to explore the ancient Greek concept of education as well as its potential application in the present age.
“The Citizens’ Lifelong Learning in Plato’s Laws” by Aikaterini Lefka deals with the educational program in this late work of the celebrated philosopher of ancient Greece. Lefka uses a synthetic approach by connecting the educational aspect with the moral one. In other words, she tries to explain how education is useful for the moral development of each individual and polis.
Zoran Dimić in his paper entitled “The Role of Education in Aristotle’s Politics” points to the importance of the reasons for the creation of the polis as a springboard for Aristotle’s educational practice. This is related to the relationship between the polis and the constitution (politeia) which is of the greatest importance for the education of a politically capable citizen.
In her paper entitled “Women’s Education, Knowledge and Competence in Ancient Greece”, Lada Stevanović offers a comprehensive approach to the marginalized and often forgotten education of women in ancient Greece. Stevanović’s approach is quite unusual because it illuminates the neglected and less analyzed aspects of women’s education and their voices that were never appreciated in the public sphere of the time.
Finally, Tamara Plećaš portrays the concept of Stoic philosophical education in her paper entitled “The Roman Stoics on the Emancipatory Potential of the Philosophical Paideia”. Namely, Plećaš identifies specific Stoic ideas and educational practices and claims that they have emancipatory potential. According to her, for example, it is essential that the Roman Stoics believed that women and men were equally subjected to virtue and rationality and that they encouraged their students and protégés to speak and act freely as well as to not be afraid of authority figures. In addition, according to the author, the Stoics perceived philosophy as a discipline “that educates the mind” which is why philosophical education was also a path to happiness.
Infrapolitics on the Margins, the second thematic section in this issue of the journal, examines the notion of infrapolitics in the works of Alberto Moreiras. The section begins with Alberto Moreiras’ comment on infrapolitics as “an open region where freedom can still emerge.”
In her paper “Autography and Infrapolitics”, Madalena Cerato explores the connection between infrapolitics and autography in the work of Alberto Moreiras. In this way, the author provides a possible key for reading Moreiras’ new works.
Jaime Rodríguez Matos, in his paper entitled “Infrapolitics at the End of Aesthetics: On the Latest Work of Alberto Moreiras”, offers a reading of Alberto Moreiras’ recently published books, but in the context of his life’s work as a whole. After a brief review of the difference between time and history, namely, the author discusses Moreiras’ departure from Hegelianism in his more recent works.
In “Writings of Existence in Alberto Moreiras’ Recent Work”, Peter Baker approaches Alberto Moreiras’ recent work on infrapolitics as a self-conscious act of writing that thinks its own terms or its own contingent textual inscription. In this sense, Baker argues that we can read this work as informed by a question, even a preoccupation, with what form or style of writing is appropriate for announcing or rediscovering the existential dimensions suggested by the notion of infrapolitics.
The last two papers in this topic, Gareth Williams’ “Infrapolitical Necessity, Inconspicuous and Honorable: We Begin Again” and Esau Seguro Herrera’s “Gestures of Repetition: A Commentary on Infrapolitics, Instructions for Use”, finally, present brief reviews of Alberto Moreiras’ book Infrapolitics.
In their joint paper entitled “The Foucault Effect in the Sociology of Knowledge”, Dušan Ristić and Dušan Marinković argue that Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge and genealogy represent not only a significant turn in the philosophical and historical sense, but also when it comes to the research framework of the sociology of knowledge.
Finally, Maroje Višić elaborates on Herbert Marcuse’s path towards socialism in his “Forward, not giving up, towards the kingdom of beauty and love: Herbert Marcuse's path to socialism”. Searching for a socialist solution, Višić claims, Marcuse successfully avoided the trap of economism and turned to subjectivity. The transition to socialism is possible through the creation of a new anthropology expressed by the term “new sensibility” and the prototype of the new socialist man is the anti-superman.
