The Agonistic Condition - by Dimitris Vardoulakis (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines the philosophical background to theories of conflict in political theory and their sources in philosophy.

Book Synopsis

Political theory influenced by philosophy examines the political as the sphere of human interaction that is distinct from politics, the sphere of political institutions and parties. The political is usually described in conflictual terms, such as Marx's class struggle, Heidegger's polemos, Rancière's dissensus, or the discourse of agonistic democracy.

This book challenges the premise of such constructions of agonism, namely, that the political is essentially distinct from means and ends calculations. He argues that this premise is derived from the critique of instrumental reason, which assumes that utilitarianism is correct that instrumental ends are measurable. This forgets an ancient tradition that describes phronesis as the primary ethical and political virtue because it calculates the good, which is however impossible to measure with any certainty.

The Agonistic Condition shows that a new consideration of phronesis can help political philosophy and theory to develop more robust conceptions of power that better describe the world we live in.

Review Quotes

The Agonistic Condition rehabilitates a kind of instrumental thinking and acting that has been the target of attack of much political and ethical theory. In this text, Vardoulakis presents a convincing argument about the way in which ends-directed action opens a space for contestation that is central to any democratic condition.--Richard A. Lee, Jr., DePaul University

With The Agonistic Condition Dimitris Vardoulakis adds a third volume to his extensive and brilliant rethinking of the phronetic tradition. Against the common-sense view that agonistic thinking is opposed to instrumental action, Vardoulakis unearths a forgotten Aristotelian and Epicurean inheritance of phronesis that is the foundation of agonistic politics beyond what he calls "the ineffectual." Counterintuitive, incisive, learned, and simply stunning: Vardoulakis's philosophical erudition is a pinnacle of contemporary political theorizing.--Davide Panagia, Professor and Chair of Political Science, UCLA

In The Agonistic Condition Dimitris Vardoulakis offers a deep and powerful critique of what he calls "ineffectualism," the idea, promoted by many left leaning philosophers, of the value of non-instrumentality. For Vardoulakis, this allows for a return of metaphysics, a disengagement with the actual world as such that leads to various forms of domination and control. By fundamentally accepting the Nietzschean concept of the death of God, Vardoulakis calls for a radical affirmation of instrumentality, not in terms (once again) of domination, but precisely for the opposite reason. Vardoulakis claims--very convincingly--that we must embrace instrumentality as being the basis for a human centered form of judgment that has no truck with the transcendental. This is the basis for the agonistic--i.e. human--condition itself. This book should be on the shelf of every scholar who is interested in having a radical rethinking of the entire basis of leftist anti metaphysics and the politics that result from it.--James Martel, San Francisco State University