L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti

This article compares the anthropological and political discourse of Canetti with that of the authors who belong to the tradition of «philosophical anthropology», as defined by Joachim Fischer. With these authors (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen), Canetti shares an approach to politics that could be descr...

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Autore principale: Agard, Olivier
Natura: Article ou chapitre numérique
Lingua:Français
Pubblicazione: Teoria politica 2020
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Accesso online:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:tp_570 fr https://journals.openedition.org/tp/570 2020-05-26T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/lh8x All rights reserved L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti Teoria politica Rosenberg & Sellier info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1972-5477 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0394-1248 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/tp Agard, Olivier Crowds and Power Philosophical Anthropology Political Theory Canetti (Elias) Plessner (Helmuth) This article compares the anthropological and political discourse of Canetti with that of the authors who belong to the tradition of «philosophical anthropology», as defined by Joachim Fischer. With these authors (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen), Canetti shares an approach to politics that could be described as existential and vital, and that is what makes his interest for contemporary political thought. For Canetti, as for the authors of philosophical anthropology, Man must be resituated in the continuum of life, but at the same time, Man introduces a rupture in this continuum. Man appears in Canetti as an open and unstable creature without an own identity, which explains his taste for the metamorphosis which prolongs and reproduces the creativity of life itself. Politics is for Canetti determined by irrational forces: mass instinct and metamorphic capacity. The Problem of politics is to control this anarchic archaic fluidity. Politics must set itself the task of mastering these instincts, although it needs their energy and instrumentalizes it. Stabilization is necessary, but it is clear that for Canetti, Western modernity has gone too far in the direction of the prohibition of metamorphosis and the channeling of archaic fluidity. Canetti obviously does not believe in the utopia of a humanity fully emancipated from any binding political authority, but in his view, there are political regimes that are preferable to others, which are those who, while not ignoring the dynamics of the mass, do not use death as a political tool. This is the case with English parliamentary democracy. However, if Canetti is an eminently political thinker, he does not place himself exclusively on this political terrain. In reality, Canetti’s solution to the antinomies of mass and power is also metapolitical or ethical. For Canetti, literature practices metamorphosis and elaborates an ethic alternative to the logic of power.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Français
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
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topic Crowds and Power
Philosophical Anthropology
Political Theory
Canetti (Elias)
Plessner (Helmuth)
spellingShingle Crowds and Power
Philosophical Anthropology
Political Theory
Canetti (Elias)
Plessner (Helmuth)
Agard, Olivier
L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
description This article compares the anthropological and political discourse of Canetti with that of the authors who belong to the tradition of «philosophical anthropology», as defined by Joachim Fischer. With these authors (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen), Canetti shares an approach to politics that could be described as existential and vital, and that is what makes his interest for contemporary political thought. For Canetti, as for the authors of philosophical anthropology, Man must be resituated in the continuum of life, but at the same time, Man introduces a rupture in this continuum. Man appears in Canetti as an open and unstable creature without an own identity, which explains his taste for the metamorphosis which prolongs and reproduces the creativity of life itself. Politics is for Canetti determined by irrational forces: mass instinct and metamorphic capacity. The Problem of politics is to control this anarchic archaic fluidity. Politics must set itself the task of mastering these instincts, although it needs their energy and instrumentalizes it. Stabilization is necessary, but it is clear that for Canetti, Western modernity has gone too far in the direction of the prohibition of metamorphosis and the channeling of archaic fluidity. Canetti obviously does not believe in the utopia of a humanity fully emancipated from any binding political authority, but in his view, there are political regimes that are preferable to others, which are those who, while not ignoring the dynamics of the mass, do not use death as a political tool. This is the case with English parliamentary democracy. However, if Canetti is an eminently political thinker, he does not place himself exclusively on this political terrain. In reality, Canetti’s solution to the antinomies of mass and power is also metapolitical or ethical. For Canetti, literature practices metamorphosis and elaborates an ethic alternative to the logic of power.
author Agard, Olivier
author_facet Agard, Olivier
author_sort Agard, Olivier
title L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
title_short L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
title_full L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
title_fullStr L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
title_full_unstemmed L’anthropologie politique d’Elias Canetti
title_sort l’anthropologie politique d’elias canetti
publisher Teoria politica
publishDate 2020
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/tp
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/tp/570
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