Share this page!

Zohar Atkins Profile picture
Twitter logo
7 Feb, 6 tweets, 2 min read
There's another Straussian critique of Schmitt worth considering: Schmitt thinks the problem with liberalism is that it places morality above politics, or at least thinks morality and politics are separable domains...
But Schmitt is the pot calling the kettle black b/c the argument that we should choose a life devoted to politicizing everything (and agitating against enemies) is a moral argument about how we ought to live.
Robert Howse argues that Schmitt can defend his view of the supremacy of politics over morality only by appealing to faith and theology.
But ironically, the view of faith and Biblical theology that Schmitt espouses is that of Machiavelli and Spinoza, i.e. it is a modern view (that assumes human authorship of the Bible)
Schmitt isn't really a theologian for whom God mandates a political life. He's an ultra-modern who needs a revisionist concept of God to underwrite his fundamentalist commitment to political strife as an end in itself.
giving credit where credit is due, I thoroughly enjoyed this article by @howserob. Bravo.

law.nyu.edu/sites/default/…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Zohar Atkins

Zohar Atkins Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ZoharAtkins

Zohar Atkins Profile picture
8 Feb
Time for a @threadapalooza about Hannah Arendt, a versatile contrarian, public intellectual, original mind, child prodigy, and postwar refugee, equally at home in the study of the Classics and in the contemplation of 20th century totalitarianism.
Arendt is a great in her own right, but also responsible for the transportation of the thought of Heidegger and Walter Benjamin to the U.S. (and the anglophone world). She was responsible for defending Heidegger (her former teacher and "lover") in the era of de-Nazification. 2
She was celebrated for her cold-war liberal classic, Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she explains Sovietism and Nazism & scorned for her coverage of the trial of Adolph Eichmann for the New Yorker, but her first work was a study of Love in St. Augustine. 3
Read 101 tweets
Zohar Atkins Profile picture
24 Jan
Leo Strauss was one of the greatest and most influential thinkers of the 20th century and deserves a @threadapalooza. His thought is both controversial and poorly understood. He argued for the critical relevance of ancient ideas and great books.
Like many greats, there's a lot in Strauss to highlight and a lot to de-emphasize, meaning that each person will have their own different version of him. The word "Straussian" gets thrown around a lot, but it's probably impossible to be a Straussian. 2
For me, Strauss is best appreciated as one of a handful of diverse thinkers (including Heidegger, Benjamin, Gadamer, Derrida, Freud) who understood that texts don't say what they seem to. They say both more and less than what meets the casual glance. 3
Read 101 tweets
Zohar Atkins Profile picture
24 Jan
Some thoughts on the unbearable dullness of academic writing, inspired by a recent advice column in @DailyNousEditor.

Did you know there was a State Supreme Court Justice who wrote opinions in rhyme?

Why is Academic Writing Boring? by @ZoharAtkins whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/p/why-is-acade…
To be clear, not all academic writing is dull, but most is. The issue is, in great part, incentives.

At best, writing in an entertaining manner is a bonus.
At worst, it raises eyebrows.

Using @robinhanson's work on signaling we might suggest that the dullness is the point:
It's a way of showing one's loyalty to one's discipline and profession by sacrificing any hope of being positively received by the outside world (similar to religious observance). 3
Read 5 tweets
Zohar Atkins Profile picture
11 Jan
Charged by the reception of my Heidegger thread, I've decided to go for a @threadapalooza on Walter Benjamin, another thinker whose influence is far-reaching, despite being quirky, esoteric, and, in his own life-time, deeply unlucky.
Arendt, who along with Adorno, introduced Benjamin to the English speaking world, wrote about Benjamin's bad luck as a hallmark of his life. WB killed himself on the Spanish-French border, fleeing the Nazis (but had he not freaked out, would have made it to safety) 2/
One reason Benjamin is a (tragic) hero of mine is that he failed his dissertation (the Origin of the German Mourning Play); the work was too weird to land him a job, but is now a primary text in its own right. His intro is a meditation on the concept of "origins." 3/
Read 101 tweets
Zohar Atkins Profile picture
22 Dec 20
Here goes my @threadapalooza on Heidegger, the greatest thinker of the modern era, a social, political, and cultural conservative (who briefly flirted with fascism and Nazism), a mystic, a contemplative, a contrarian, and a thinker whose influence extends far beyond academia...
What was Heidegger's main thesis?

He's hard to pin down & scholars fight about what it means to be "Heideggerian." But Heidegger himself said that his best readers should not be Heideggerian, i.e., followers, but should instead take up his thought in their own original way. 2/
Being a Heideggerian is a performative contradiction--follow Heidegger or reduce him to a thesis and you've missed the forest for the trees. To write about Heidegger as an academic is to be at odds with Heidegger's spirit. 3/
Read 99 tweets
Zohar Atkins Profile picture
10 Dec 20
Here's a weird theological syllogism or thought experiment (thread)
Is God simple or complex? 2/
If complex, then God has many parts of each of which is co-responsible for God being God--but that's not sounding so monotheistic...(it does sound Kabbalistic, but that's for another thread). 3/
Read 23 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @ZoharAtkins has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @ZoharAtkins!

Read all threads by @ZoharAtkins