Politics and Particularity from Kant to Heidegger

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Modern political communities constantly face the problem of how to reconcile universal principles with particular identities. The theme of APSA’s 2019 conference is concerned with the rise of populism and the related worries that the particularities of political communities have recently been ignored. This panel takes up this problem by examining the works of the arch-universalist Immanuel Kant and the arch-historical particularist Martin Heidegger, the two often regarded as the beginning and the end point of the classical German philosophical tradition, the high point of rationalism and its destruction. This panel complicates this received account. Richard Velkley highlights the irreducibly particularist elements in Kant’s Perpetual Peace, while Susan Shell focuses on the essential role of history in his political theory. Paul Wilford examines the ideal of the philosopher and the prophet in Heidegger’s politics, while Michael Gillespie analyzes his enduring influence in America. Kant and Heidegger are not often juxtaposed in this way, and we believe that in doing so, each thinker can provide insights about this perennial problem of the universal and particular, and how to address it in our age.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 1: Political Thought and Philosophy: Historical Approaches

Individual Presentations

• The Permanence of Particularist Politics in Kant’s Project of Perpetual Peace - Richard L. Velkley, Tulane University

• Poetry, Prophecy, and Philosophy: Awaiting New Gods in Heidegger’s Thought - Paul T. Wilford, Boston College

• Martin Heidegger Comes to America - Michael Allen Gillespie, Duke University

• Kant on Politics and History: The Later View - Susan Meld Shell, Boston College

Chair

• Jeffrey Church University of Houston

Discussants

• Alexander Duff University of North Texas

• Jeffrey Church University of Houston