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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260606T112942Z
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20130813T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20130813T183000
SUMMARY:Investigating Forms of Exception in 'Fear and Trembling' with Reference to Carl Schmitt
UID:20260612T013154Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-bd7db559-gt5qm
TZID:Australia/Melbourne
LOCATION:221 Burwood Highway\, Burwood\, Australia\, 3125
DESCRIPTION:<p>In this paper I investigate to what extent the concept of political &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; is found in <em>Fear and Trembling</em>. I do so in two parts.</p>\n<p>In the first part\, I investigate the concept of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in terms of Abraham and the parable of Agnes and the merman. I argue that the &lsquo\;demonic exception&rsquo\; of the merman is a critique of Abraham as a justified or &lsquo\;divine exception&rsquo\; in his willingness to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God&rsquo\;s command.I suggest that the presence of the second exception functions as a warning to the every present possibility of enacting or justifying the wrong kind of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\;\, framed as the (human) desire to <em>will</em> the exception for oneself. In this way the second form of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in <em>Fear and Trembling</em> provides a warning to the dangers inherent in the first form of &lsquo\;exception. In contrasting the two forms of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; I intend to show two different forms of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in <em>Fear and Trembling</em>: the &lsquo\;divine exception&rsquo\; and &lsquo\;demonic exception&rsquo\;\, and its attendant danger as the &lsquo\;exceptional individual&rsquo\;.</p>\n<p>In the second part of the paper\, I frame the question of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in a political context. I do so through a dialectic investigation between Carl Schmitt&rsquo\;s account of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in <em>Political Romanticism</em> and <em>Political Theology</em> and Kierkegaard&rsquo\;s two accounts of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in <em>Fear and Trembling</em>. I draw attention to the similarities and differences between Schmitt&rsquo\;s concept of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; as he understands it in terms of sovereignty\, decision and event\, and the <em>Fear and Trembling</em> account that frames exception in terms of the &lsquo\;divine&rsquo\; exception of Abraham and the &lsquo\;demonic&rsquo\; exception of the merman. I conclude that Carl Schmitt&rsquo\;s political concept of exception affirms the danger of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; that remains implicit in the two forms of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in <em>Fear and Trembling.</em></p>\n\n<p>Dr Petra Brown completed her PhD in philosophy at Deakin in 2012\, with a thesis titled: <em>Bonhoeffer as Kierkegaard&rsquo\;s &lsquo\;Single Individual&rsquo\; in a &lsquo\;State of Exception&rsquo\;</em>. The thesis questions the idea that violence can be justified as a &lsquo\;last resort&rsquo\; through investigating the concept of &lsquo\;exception&rsquo\; in the writing and action of the German theologian\, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in conjunction with the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Carl Schmitt. Petra is a contributor to the Springer publication\, <em>Secularisations and Their Debates</em> (2014)\, and her current research interest is in the various ways theological and religious ideas shape and influence contemporary &lsquo\;secular&rsquo\; society\, in particular political discourse.</p>
ORGANIZER;CN=Sean Bowden:
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