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Philosophy Speakers Series - J Barry (Indiana University Southeast)

Date:
-
Location:
228 Student Center

"The Birth of Arendt’s Social Realm and the Rise of the State of Modern Poverty" 

Abstract

In this paper I argue that in order to understand Arendt’s account of the rise of the social realm we must understand how the modern age is opened up by the event of modern poverty, both by a curious liberation of poverty as well as by the state which arises as a response to the appearance of modern poverty.  In short, it is the initial appearance of the modern poor as an ambiguous population and the corresponding formation of the nation-state as a security apparatus to address the problems posed by the appearance of the poor as the first mass phenomenon that will ultimately define the new metabolic society, the society committed to securing the life process above all else.