Towards a Post-Modern Understanding of the Political

Download or read book Towards a Post-Modern Understanding of the Political written by A. Bielskis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2005-08-19 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While claiming that liberalism is the dominant political theory and practice of modernity, this book provides two alternative post-modern theoretical approaches to the political. Concentrating on Nietzsche's and Foucault's work it offers a novel interpretation of their genealogical projects. It argues that genealogy can be applied to analyze different forms of cultural kitsch vis-à-vis the dominant political institutions of consumer capitalism. The problem with consumer capitalism is not so much that it exploits individuals, but that it fosters cheap human existence saturated with the artefacts of kitsch. Contrasting genealogy with hermeneutic philosophy, it calls for a renewal of hermeneutics within the Thomistic tradition.