On the Shores of Politics

On the Shores of Politics - Radical Thinkers

Paperback (14 Dec 2006)

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Publisher's Synopsis

It is frequently said that we are living through the end of politics, the end of social upheavals, the end of utopian folly. Consensual realism is the order of the day. But political realists, remarks Jacques Ranciere, are always several steps behind reality, and the only thing which may come to an end with their dominance is democracy. 'We could', he suggests, 'merely smile at the duplicity of the conclusion/suppression of politics which is simultaneously a suppression/conclusion of philosophy.' This is precisely the task which Ranciere undertakes in these subtle and perceptive essays. He argues persuasively that since Plato and Aristotle politics has always constructed itself as the art of ending politics, that realism is itself utopian, and that what has succeeded the polemical forms of class struggle is not the wisdom of a new millennium but the return of old fears, criminality and chaos. Whether he is discussing the confrontation between Mitterrand and Chirac, French working-class discourse after the 1830 revolution, or the ideology of recent student mobilizations, his aim is to restore philosophy to politics and give politics back its original and necessary meaning: the organization of dissent.

About the Publisher

Verso

Verso

Verso Books is the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world, publishing one hundred books a year.

Book information

ISBN: 9781844675777
Publisher: Verso
Imprint: Verso
Pub date:
DEWEY: 321.8
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 107
Weight: 144g
Height: 197mm
Width: 129mm
Spine width: 10mm