A disturbance of vision on the Capitol: philosophy and the Far-Right – towards an interdisciplinary inquiry
Version 2 2024-06-19, 02:26Version 2 2024-06-19, 02:26
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journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-19, 02:26authored byM Sharpe
Philosophers raised in the liberal-democratic decades after World War 2 in the West have assumed that philosophers could have nothing to do with the kinds of Far Right ideologies and movements presently challenging for hegemony. Yet the Far Right involves a radically antibourgeois worldview, aiming at forging a new man and society, and implicating an eschatological conception of history. Historically, philosophers led by Nietzsche have been claimed by many Far Right movements, including those of today; and others, led by Heidegger and Schmitt, but also Gentile, have been enthusiasts for these regimes. The subject of philosophe's historical, present, and de jure links with Far Right regimes is however one that is yet to be made on a systematic basis, beyond groundbreaking studies on individual thinkers. This article examines the state of the field, including delineating 20 defensive topoi liberal scholars have used to try to deny any possible implication of philosophers in fascism, Nazism, and cognate forms of authoritarian ethnonationalist ideology and actions. It proposes a tentative research program to advance studies of this important field further.