Secularism and Cosmopolitanism
Critical Hypotheses on Religion and Politics
-
- $28.99
-
- $28.99
Publisher Description
What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and secularism—the worldwide and the worldly? While cosmopolitan politics may seem inherently secular, existing forms of secularism risk undermining the universality of cosmopolitanism because they privilege the European tradition over all others and transform particular historical norms into enunciations of truth, valid for all cultures and all epochs. In this book, the noted philosopher Étienne Balibar explores the tensions lurking at this troubled nexus in order to advance a truly democratic and emancipatory cosmopolitanism, which requires a secularization of secularism itself.
Balibar argues for the idea of the universal against its particular dominant institutions. He questions the assumptions that underlie popular ideas of secularism and religion and outlines the importance of a new critique for the contemporary world. Balibar holds that conflicts between religious and secular discourses need to be reframed from a point of view that takes into account the cultural hybridization, migration and mobility, and transformation of borders that have reshaped the postcolonial age. Among the topics discussed are the uses and misuses of the category of religion and the religious, the paradoxical genealogy of monotheism, French laïcité’s identitarian turn, and the implications of the responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks for an extended definition of free speech. Going beyond circumscribed notions of religion and the public sphere, Secularism and Cosmopolitanism is a profound rethinking of identity and difference that seeks to make room for a renewed political imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher Balibar (Violence and Civility) undercuts the liberal faith in secularism as a solution to political problems in this dense, precise work. He opens with a complex and subtle essay about the inherent paradox of secularism and cosmopolitanism. Although robust democracy and intellectual debate require exposure to differences, Balibar argues, proponents of secularism attempt to flatten out human variety. Religion, in his mind, will continue to survive and morph into new forms, and requires a new secularism that can turn its own critique of subjugating ideologies on itself. In the pieces that follow, Balibar further develops his argument that Western thought obscures the "hegemonic overtones of terms" to perpetuate the power of the ruling classes. "Monotheism" is a surprisingly recent creation deployed to defend political structures, he writes, and "secularism" purports to be universal despite arising from a very specific time and place. Balibar's less detailed (though no less demanding) essays critique responses to the Charlie Hebdo and Nice terrorist attacks, including an incisive breakdown of the issue of free speech and blasphemy. Not for general readers, Baliber's writing on religion and politics contains remarkable insights for scholars working on secular ethics and contemporary religious quarrels.
