The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment - Softcover

Martel, James

 
9780472052301: The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0472052306 ISBN 13: 9780472052301
Verlag: University of Michigan Press, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Walter Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence,” widely considered his final word on law, proposes that all manifestations of law are false stand-ins for divine principles of truth and justice that are no longer available to human beings. However, he also suggests that we must have law—we are held under a divine sanction that does not allow us to escape our responsibilities. James R. Martel argues that this paradox is resolved by considering that, for Benjamin, there is only one law that we must obey absolutely—the Second Commandment against idolatry. What remains of law when its false bases of authority are undermined would be a form of legal and political anarchism, quite unlike the current system of law based on consistency and precedent.

Martel engages with the ideas of key authors including Alain Badiou, Immanuel Kant, and H.L.A. Hart in order to revisit common contemporary assumptions about law. He reveals how, when treated in constellation with these authors, Benjamin offers a way for human beings to become responsible for their own law, thereby avoiding the false appearance of a secular legal practice that remains bound by occult theologies and fetishisms.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

James R. Martel is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He is author of Textual Conspiracies: Walter Benjamin, Idolatry, and Political Theory(University of Michigan Press).


James R. Martel is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He is author of Textual Conspiracies: Walter Benjamin, Idolatry, and Political Theory(University of Michigan Press).

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Verlag
University of Michigan Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2014
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0472052306
ISBN 13 
9780472052301
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
262
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780472072309: The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0472072307 ISBN 13:  9780472072309
Verlag: The University of Michigan Press, 2014
Hardcover