Something Must Be Done

Key Points

The concept of crisis is deeply intertwined with the historical dialectic of European modernity, separating morality from politics.
Crisis provides a lens through which actions reveal truths about situations and open pathways to new futures.
Understanding crisis through Kierkegaard’s framework allows a rethinking of responses beyond conventional norms.
The dialectic invites innovative thinking and action, necessary for addressing complex socio-political realities.

Abstract

Taking its starting point in Carl Schmitt’s “state of exception” and Reinhart Koselleck’s various intellectual histories of the term crisis, this essay argues that the idea of crisis is best approached in terms of the historical dialectic especially as it is manifested in the separation of morality from politics that is characteristic of European modernity. The dialectic of crisis invites us to think and, above all, to act otherwise whereby an action in response to any given situation is what reveals the truth of that situation only insofar as it is open to a new future.

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Cite This Study

Robert Bernasconi (Mon,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/68d6eec28b2b6861e4c42288 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5840/ecoethica202582068