{"id":44,"date":"2018-08-08T19:36:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T23:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2022-05-24T09:51:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T13:51:16","slug":"welcome-to-praxis-13-13","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Praxis 13\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h_YAASxDk3o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/book-forum\/\">Open Access eBook Project: <\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/book-forum\/\">Read <em>An Answer to the Question: &#8220;What is to be done?&#8221;<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">~~~<\/h1>\n<p>We live in critical times. With the rise of extreme-right populist movements, the impact of neoliberal government policies, and the fallout of the global war on terror, we face today an acute time of crisis. These times urgently call for critical analyses of our contemporary crises and for critical insights into <i>praxis<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>We are fortunate to have inherited a rich set of critical theories to help us parse through our contemporary crises and pierce the veils of illusion. But we remain somewhat impoverished today when it comes to critically thinking through critical <em>praxis<\/em>. We remain disarmed before the most critical question of all: What is to be done?<\/p>\n<p>Our predicament is the product of centuries, no, millennia of privileging philosophical inquiry, contemplation, and reason over what the Greeks referred to as\u00a0\u03c0\u03c1\u1fb6\u03be\u03b9\u03c2\u2014\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>, or practice, the ethical and political form of being. The former,\u00a0<em>theoria<\/em>, involved predominantly understanding and comprehension\u2014in essence, knowing\u2014and it was oriented towards wisdom. The latter,\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>, revolved around activity, action, performance\u2014in essence, doing\u2014and it was oriented towards proper behavior in ethical and political life.<\/p>\n<p>For the ancients, these were two importantly different modes of engaging the world\u2014two among others,\u00a0<em>poiesis\u00a0<\/em>being another\u2014and these categories shaped human experience ever since. The early Christian writers would draw on them in their struggle to square contemplative faith with actions of charity. Medieval scholastics pushed further toward the idea of the \u201cpractical application\u201d of theoretical knowledge. With Enlightenment philosophy, from Descartes through Kant to the German Idealists, the privilege of reason would tilt the field further toward the mind, away from\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Many critical thinkers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries struggled to correct the imbalance\u2014Marx, the first among them, as so strikingly encapsulated in his posthumously published\u00a0<em>Theses on Feuerbach<\/em>. The second: \u201cThe question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a\u00a0<em>practical\u00a0<\/em>question.&#8221; The eighth: \u201cSocial life is essentially\u00a0<em>practical.<\/em>\u201d And, of course, the eleventh.<\/p>\n<p>And Marx was by no means alone in this project to elevate\u00a0<em>praxis\u00a0<\/em>and infuse it with\u00a0<em>theoria<\/em>\u2014many critical thinkers would follow in his footsteps. Hannah Arendt would privilege the\u00a0<em>vita activa\u00a0<\/em>before turning, in her later years, to the contemplative realm in\u00a0<em>The Life of the Mind<\/em>. Michel Foucault would extricate critical theory from the dominant Platonic path\u2014<em>gn<\/em><em>\u014d<\/em><em>thi seauton<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cknow thyself\u201d\u2014and take the one less travelled: techniques of the self, practices of the self, or what he called \u201ccare of self.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tension recurred throughout the twentieth century\u2014fueled by the liberal myth of the invisible hand and the centuries-long struggle between the contemplative and active orders. Under different rubrics\u2014dirty hands, applied ethics\u2014the tension persisted. But every time we came even close to\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>\u2014from antiquity to the present\u2014we, critical theorists, we found a way to divert the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Socrates got close in a few dialogues, in the first\u00a0<em>Alcibiades\u00a0<\/em>or the\u00a0<em>Statesman<\/em>: confronting young men who wanted to live the life of\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>, rather than contemplation, Socrates made them realize that they didn\u2019t really know much about justice or about governing, and that they needed first to gain knowledge. So he convinced them to know themselves first\u2014to gain knowledge. He convinced them that doing politics is a skill, requires\u00a0<em>techne<\/em>. Like being the captain of a ship, or shepherd of a flock, there is skill and knowledge to be had. So it all requires wisdom first. Knowledge. Contemplation. And that then pushes everything back to philosophy. It pushes us back to the\u00a0<em>Republic\u00a0<\/em>and definitions of justice, and the just person. And one never really got back to the original question: how to act politically.<\/p>\n<p>Foucault got even closer in\u00a0<em>The Hermeneutics of the Subject\u00a0<\/em>and his final volumes of\u00a0<em>The History of Sexuality<\/em>. We\u2019ve spent too much time on Socrates\u2019 know-thyself, Foucault argued there, there is a whole other tradition of\u00a0<em>practice\u00a0<\/em>that we\u2019ve ignored. Foucault returned to Plato\u2019s first\u00a0<em>Alcibiades\u00a0<\/em>as a vehicle to discuss those practices. He interpreted the Socratic move as a move toward practices of the self, toward care of the self, rather than simply knowledge of self\u2014but then pivoted to the permanent practices of the self in the Stoics and Epicureans: and from there on in, it was practically exclusively about practices of the self. The dimension of subjectivity dominated the analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Truth-telling, parrhesia, and the courage of truth are of course essential elements to engaging politics. Speaking out and denouncing injustice is central. Emile Zola\u2019s\u00a0<em>J\u2019accuse\u00a0<\/em>is perhaps the most classic example, for which he was convicted of libel and had to flee France. Foucault\u2019s taking of positions in editorials and signed statements, on so many occasions, is another example. But notice the model: the influential intellectual, even as a specific intellectual, taking an individualist stance against the state in a truth-telling way\u2014at personal risk, to be sure, but often alone standing against authority. That may be important, that may be necessary\u2014but surely, it cannot capture\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>. And yet it seems to, practically always.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow,\u00a0<em>praxis\u00a0<\/em>invariably took a second seat to theory. \u201cPractice,\u201d \u201cpractical knowledge,\u201d \u201cpractical activities\u201d became the handmaid of theoretical knowledge\u2014whether in philosophy, physics, law, engineering, or government. To the point where, today, in our domain, we laud critical theory, but cannot even identify properly critical\u00a0<em>praxis<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>No more. It is time to take stock and begin to chart new directions for critical practice. In times like these, there is a burning need for a new vision and renewed critical practices for the twenty-first century. What does or should political action look like from a critical perspective today, especially when the underlying theoretical structure of the dialectical imagination has become so fractured? This, I would argue, should be the main task of critique for the next decade.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s 13\/13 seminar series will take this problem as its task: to buck centuries of contemplative complacency and return\u00a0<em>praxis\u00a0<\/em>to its proper place in the order of things. In doing so, the seminar will strive to address the most critical question today: What is to be done? And what exactly is critical <em>praxis\u00a0<\/em>today?<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Praxis 13\/13.<\/p>\n<p>Bernard E. Harcourt, Director of the CCCCT<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Welcome to Praxis 13\/13<\/h1>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">A CCCCT series continuing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/\">Foucault 13\/13<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/nietzsche1313\/\">Nietzsche 13\/13<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/uprising1313\/1-13\/\">Uprising 13\/13<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/welcome-to-praxis-13-13\/img_1126-2\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3893\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3893\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/IMG_1126-1-e1536930469523.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"658\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/IMG_1126-1-e1536930469523.jpg 3991w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/IMG_1126-1-e1536930469523-300x142.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/IMG_1126-1-e1536930469523-768x365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/IMG_1126-1-e1536930469523-1024x486.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/h2>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">This series is run in conjunction with Professors Bernard E. Harcourt&#8217;s seminar on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.columbia.edu\/courses\/sections\/23326\">Contemporary Critical Thought<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">The 13\/13 seminars will be open to all. If you are interested in attending, please inform us\u00a0by sending an email to Ghislaine Pages at <a href=\"mailto:gmp2142@columbia.edu\">gmp2142@columbia.edu<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/totalwebcasting.com\/view\/?id=praxis1313\">Live webcasts<\/a> will play on the individual 13\/13 seminar session pages.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Visit the page for <a href=\"https:\/\/totalwebcasting.com\/view\/?id=praxis1313\">Praxis 13\/13<\/a> at Total Webcast.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open Access eBook Project: Read An Answer to the Question: &#8220;What is to be done?&#8221; ~~~ We live in critical times. With the rise of extreme-right populist movements, the impact of neoliberal government policies, and the fallout of the global&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1603,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-44","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}