A series of edited collections forging new connections between contemporary critical theorists and a wide range of research areas, such as critical and cultural theory, gender studies, film, literature, music, philosophy and politics.
Series Editors
This article explores the relation between biological life and political life, placing it in the context of the ancient Greek distinction between the life of the home (the oikos) and the realm of politics (the polis). In contrast with the oikos, the life of the polis was characterized by attempts to exclude from its sphere both the constraints of necessity that oblige human action to conform to the exigencies of survival as well as the violence that accompanies this pursuit. Although this exclusion has never been successful, the question of how to achieve it lies at the heart of the oldest philosophical reflections on politics and, in a more concealed fashion, remains central to our political concerns today. Invoking the work of Giorgio Agamben, this article explores the earliest discussions concerning the question "what is political life?" to show why so much depends upon how we answer this question.
The purpose of this study is threefold. First, as my title anticipates, I wish to examine Hegel's discussion of classical sculpture and, in particular, the importance he attributes to the Greek profile. To do this it will be necessary to familiarize ourselves with the sources Hegel invokes in his discussion of Greek sculpture, sources which, though largely obscure to modern readers, were widely known at the beginning of the nineteenth century and served to condition Hegel's treatment of classical beauty. As Hegel's discussion of these sources does not only appear in the Vorlesungen über die Äesthetik (1835), but also occupies a substantial number of pages in the Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807), it is necessary to investigate these pages as well, particularly the section entitled "The Certainty and Truth of Reason." In this section, not only is it revealed that reason is the highest expression of spirit, but it is also here that Hegel evaluates the claims of two pseudo-sciences: physiognomy and phrenology.In what follows, I argue that Hegel's understanding of physiognomy is more nuanced than commentators have generally maintained. What commentators have failed to address in their often detailed discussions of Hegel's critique of physiognomy in the Phänomenologie is that the topic of physiognomy makes a subsequent appearance in the Äesthetik where Hegel actually employs the methods of physiognomy in his discussion of the sculptural formation of the Greek profile. 1 The articles that concentrate on Hegel's treatment of physiognomy focus
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