12. (Pathologies of) Recognition in Schelling´s Thought on Evil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20919/sspt.25.2015.36Abstract
This paper departs from the observation that there is on several levels a growing antagonism in our society between two opposite mentalities: a liberal, universalistic mentality that trusts in rationality (termed ‘McWorld’ by political theorist Benjamin Barber in Barber, 1992), and a conservative mentality that relies on the weight of tradition (Barber’s term for this is ‘Jihad’). The argument in this paper is that these mentalities are not absolutely incompatible, but that the hostility between them results largely from fundamental internal inconsistencies that are suppressed and projected onto the other. In explicating this argument, the paper uses F.W.J. Schelling’s (1992 [1809]) metaphysical theory of evil, as a theory of recognition, where great emphasis is put on self-recognition as a condition for proper recognition of the other.
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