Pyropolitics Fire and the Political Michael Marder, Slavoj Žižek

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marder, Michael, Author.

Contributor:

Žižek, Slavoj, Author of introduction, etc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pyropolitics.

Philosophy.

Politics.

Politische Philosophie.

Philosophie.

Politik.

Geopolitik.

Local Subjects:

Pyropolitics.

Philosophy.

Politics.

Politische Philosophie.

Philosophie.

Politik.

Geopolitik.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Hannover ibidem 2025

Biography/History:

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz. His work spans the fields of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory, and phenomenology.

Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist, and public intellectual, is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School and senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana.

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz. His work spans the fields of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory, and phenomenology. The author of the foreword: Slavoj Žižek Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist, and public intellectual, is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School and senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana.

Summary:

From the books and heretics burnt on the pyres of the Inquisition to self-immolations at protest rallies, from the massive burning of oil on the global scale to inflammatory speech, from the imagery of revolutionary sparks ready to ignite the spirits of the oppressed to car bombings in the Middle East, —fire proves to be an indispensable element of the political. To account for this elemental source of heat and light, Pyropolitics delineates a semantico-discursive field, replete with the literal and metaphorical mentions and uses of fires, flames, sparks, immolations, incinerations, and burning in political theory and practices. Relying on classical political thought, literature, theology, contemporary philosophy, and an analysis of current events, Michael Marder argues that geo-politics, or the politics of the Earth, has always had an unstable, at once shadowy and blinding, underside―pyropolitics, or the politics of fire. If this obscure double of geopolitics is, increasingly, dictating the rules of the game today, then it is crucial to learn to speak its language, to discern its manifestations, and to project where our world ablaze is heading.

“With this subtle, smart, and well-documented book, Michael Marder authoritatively weighs in on an old discussion about the role that fundamental elements (water, air, earth, fire) play in the construction and destruction of societies. This is a brilliant contribution to political metaphorology, useful for understanding the logic behind the combustible world in which we live.” —Daniel Innerarity, Director of Globernance: Institute for Democratic Governance, San Sebastián, Spain

“In a highly suggestive scenario, Michael Marder captures the unfounded relationship between politics and fire. More than earth, water, and air, it is fire that best represents the political turning point that characterizes hypermodernity. At the heart of a secularization that has not erased political theology, fire constitutes the incandescent element that envelops, as a risk and an extreme possibility, the language and practice of politics.” —Roberto Esposito, professor of theoretical philosophy, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

“This is a staggeringly original and provocative piece of writing. Many other adjectives could be applied—scintillating, dazzling, brilliant, illuminating, scorching, explosive, absolutely burning in its urgency—, but it’s hard to use any of these terms innocently any longer after reading this fascinating, lucid, rigorous meditation, which strikes to the heart of the contemporary epoch.“ —Rebecca Comay, Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto

“In Pyropolitics: Fire and the Political, Michael Marder breaks the silence that envelops the atavistic and igneous element by proposing an original and compelling reinterpretation of the centrality of fire in our political and philosophical life … Through the ingenious pyropolitical lenses offered by this book, global politics becomes what one might call theoretical pointillism, the most appropriate graphic metaphor to describe the distinctive types of violence that characterize our age, from the recent attacks in Paris to the targeted killings carried out by the Obama administration.“ —Antonio Cerella, Nottingham Trent University

“Scintillating!“ —Jay M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, New School for Social Research

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword A Hologram of Our Present

Preface Pyropolitics Reborn

Kindling The World on Fire

Chapter 1. The ABC of Pyropolitics, or the 'Elemental Regimes' of Carl Schmitt

1.1. The Idea of Elemental Politics

1.2. The Elements, Nomos and Anomie

1.3. Through Air to Fire

1.4. Pyropolitics and Spatial Imaginary

1.5. Toward a Pyropolitical Phenomenology

1.6. The Risk of Pyropolitics

Chapter 2. Light without Heat, Heat without Light, and the Problem of Evil

2.1. The Cold Light of the Enlightenment

2.2. The Two "Powers" of Fire

2.3. Dark Heat, or Evil from the Perspective of the Enlightenment

2.4. The Substance, of Which Evil Is Made

2.5. Absolute Separation and Evil

2.6. A New Synthesis of Light and Heat?

Chapter 3. Pyropolitical Theology I: The Fires of Revolution

3.1. Flying Sparks

3.2. A Flaming Ideal

3.3. The Inflammations of Revolutionary Spirit

3.4. Hegel on Fire

3.5. Revolutionary Alchemy

3.6. Catching Fire, or How Revolutions Spread

Chapter 4. Pyropolitical Theology II: The Politics of Sacrifice

4.1. A Theology of Burnt Offerings

4.2. Self-Immolation and Sovereignty

4.3. An Interlude: Extremist Politics

4.4. On Holocausts, or Burnt Offerings at the Extreme

4.5. The Burning Question of the Inquisition

4.6. Global Energy Production, or 'What Do They Salvage from the Great Fire of Life?'

Chapter 5. The End of Heliotropic Utopias: When the Sun Sets on the City upon the Hill

5.1. Around the Sun(s)

5.2. Heliocentric Unity and Its Discontents

5.3. The Solar Fetish of the Empire

5.4. A Shining City upon a Hill: The Pyropolitical Sublime

5.5. Westernisation, Nihilism, and the Setting Sun

5.6. Coda: Politics of Fire and Sexual Difference

Chapter 6. Around the Hearth: Politics in the Kitchen.

6.1. The Power of the Hearth, or the Domestication of Politics

6.2. The Inner Fire of the 'Kitchen Cabinet'

6.3. What's Cooking in the Melting Pot?

6.4. In Search of Perfection: The Arts of Cooking and Politics

6.5. Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Political Kitchens

6.6. Consuming Ourselves: Pyropolitical Cannibalism

Extinguishing The Politics of Ashes

Appendix

Fiery Words: Against the Literal / Metaphorical Divide

A Shadow Sun

Burning Ourselves to Death

The Implosion of History

Kant's Fire

A New Shape of Pyropolitics

Notes.

ISBN:

9783838279725

3838279727

OCLC:

1503844131

Publisher Number:

9783838279725