0000000000992467
AUTHOR
Paul-erik Korvela
Widening the scope of comparative political theory
The Ancient Pedigree of Post-Factualism
Farewell to Anarchy : The Myth of International Anarchy and Birth of Anarcophilia in International Relations
This article scrutinizes the conceptual history of international anarchy. The argument purported here is that even though the idea of international anarchy is often seen as very central for the academic discipline of international relations, the concept is in fact not found from the forerunners or classics of the discipline. The assumption of international anarchy is commonly seen as a defining feature of a Realist school of international relations. Yet, the concept and especially its “Realist” implications are not to be found in the classics of Realism, from Thucydides, Machiavelli or Hobbes. The idea of “international anarchy” emerges quite tentatively during the First World War, in the w…
Sources of governmentality
The article scrutinizes Michel Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his famous lecture on governmentality. Foucault is slightly misguided in his search for the origins of governmentality, the article asserts. Foucault gives credit for the development of what he calls a new art of government to anti-Machiavellian treatises, but also follows those treatises in their distorted interpretation of Machiavelli. Consequently, Foucault’s analysis gets confused and regards as novel those arguments and developments that were essentially of ancient pedigree compared with Machiavelli’s ideas. The article discusses especially two points in Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli: Foucault’s insi…
The Horror, the Horror!
"The patron saint of atheists or the reception of Machiavelli"
Redescriptions : 2012/2013, vol. 16 yearbook of political thought, conceptual history and feminist theory
Contents Editorial, Paul-Erik Korvela, 5 Johan Strang, The rhetoric of analytic philosophy. The making of the analytic hegemony in Swedish 20th century philosophy, 11 Esther Abin, Political Realism, Contingency and Philosophy, 39 Annabel Herzog, Representing Political Subjectivity: Cameron’s Avatar and McCarthy’s The Road, 61 Benoît Godin, The Politics of Innovation:The Controversy on Republicanism in Seventeenth Century England, 77 Mika Ojakangas, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Liberty and Slavery of Conscience in the Context of Christian Political Theology, 106 Henk te Velde, Parliamentary Obstruction and the “Crisis” of European Parliamentary Politics around 1900, 125 REVIEW…
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Geopolitics of the Cosmopolis
Through an analysis of a speech held by Finnish Minister of Defence Jyri Hakamies at CSIS in Washington in 2007, the article scrutinizes the new emergence of “geopolitics” in international politics. Although its novelty is debatable, in this new geopolitical discourse the main focus is not related to the spatial borders of a nation state but instead to securing territory beyond these borders. It seems that “common values”, basically undefined but allegedly including such ideas like democracy, are related to this new form of “geopolitics”. In contrast to traditional geopolitics and identity politics, the global or cosmopolitical “us” defending common values seems to be a changing coalition a…
Kollektiivista kuohuntaa Durkheimin jalanjäljissä
Uskonto ja väkivalta : Durkheimin perilliset / Tiina Arppe. Helsinki : Tutkijaliitto, 2016.
The Machiavellian reformation : an essay in political theory
Uskonnon asema Niccolò Machiavellin (1469–1527) politiikan teoriassa on herättänyt laajaa keskustelua. Toisten mukaan Machiavelli oli harras katolilainen ja huolestunut siitä, että poliittisessa toiminnassa ei voi seurata kristillisiä ohjeita. Toisaalta on väitetty, että Machiavelli oli ateisti, jonka tarkoituksena oli erottaa politiikka ja moraali toisistaan ja hävittää uskonto kokonaan. Useimmiten Machiavelli nähdään uuspakanallisuuden kannattajana, sillä hän ihaili antiikin Roomaa ja sen uskonnollisia käytäntöjä.Machiavellin ”reformaatiota” väitöstyössään tutkinut Paul-Erik Korvela esittää, että kaikki nämä näkemykset ovat harhaanjohtavia.Renessanssin aikainen kirkko ja erityisesti sen y…