From Bakunin to Lacan
Encyclopedia
From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power is a book on political philosophy
by Saul Newman
, published in 2001. It investigates the essentialist
characteristics of anarchist theory, which holds that government and hierarchy are undesirable forms of social organisation. Newman seeks to move beyond the limitations these characteristics impose on classical anarchism
by using concepts from post-structuralist thought.
By applying post-structuralist theory to anarchism, Newman presents an account of post-anarchism
. His post-anarchism is more substantive than that of earlier thinkers, and has influenced later approaches to the philosophy. Released in a climate of an anarchist movement hostile to postmodern philosophy
, From Bakunin to Lacan was criticised for its poor understanding of and engagement with contemporary anarchism.
) and its supporters (notably Murray Bookchin
). Although sharply disagreeing on the merits of civilisation, technology and language, both Zerzan and Bookchin derided postmodernism
as disempowering the individual and reinforcing the existing order. Another significant factor in the intellectual climate of the book's release was the rediscovery in the 1990s of anarchist theory within academia.
Although foundational work had been done on the philosophy of postanarchism by radical theorists such as Andrew Koch and Todd May
, From Bakunin to Lacan introduced a slightly different and more substantive formulation of the theory.
Newman incorporates concepts from post-structuralist thought such as post-humanism and anti-essentialism
into classical anarchism
. Unlike May, whose post-anarchism
is a combination of the two, Newman attempts to move beyond both anarchism and post-structuralism. He proposes that "by using the poststructuralist critique one can theorize the possibility of political resistance without essentialist guarantees: a politics of postanarchism … by incorporating the moral principles of anarchism with the postructuralist critique of essentialism, it may be possible to arrive at an ethically workable, politically valid, and genuinely democratic notion of resistance to domination".
The book uses the work of French philosophers Michel Foucault
, Deleuze and Guattari
and Jacques Derrida
as well as classical anarchist thinkers such as Mikhail Bakunin
and Peter Kropotkin
, recognizing "proto-poststructuralist" Max Stirner
as an important forerunner of postanarchist thought. Newman focuses particularly on the work of Deleuze, Derrida and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan
.
#57 for its unsophisticated, cursory understanding of and engagement with anarchist theory. While praising that section of the book on post-structuralist philosophers, reviewer sasha k claimed that "Newman uses Kropotkin and Bakunin as his stand-ins for anarchism in general, and, in turn, only a few quotes from each to make his case". He questioned whether Newman's attribution of an essentialist conception of human nature
to modern anarchists was accurate, concluding that had the book taken "a less one-dimensional view of anarchism", it would have to give up "most of what makes postanarchism post-anarchism.
New Formulation reviewer Michael Glavin cited Newman's ignorance of the initiative of anarchists to decentralize power and of anarchist forms of organisation such as trade unions, federations and affinity groups as evidence that he failed to understand power and wrongly conflated it with domination.
Since the publication of From Bakunin to Lacan in 2001, there have been several attempts to develop an account of postanarchism that, while retaining many of Newman's specific conceptions of the anarchistic qualities of radical post-structuralist thought, would take postanarchist theory beyond academic discourse and into broader and more diverse environments, as the originator of postanarchism, Hakim Bey, had intended.
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
by Saul Newman
Saul Newman
Saul Newman is a political theorist and central post-anarchist thinker.Newman coined the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century anarchism through a post-structuralist lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book From Bakunin to Lacan...
, published in 2001. It investigates the essentialist
Essentialism
In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess. Therefore all things can be precisely defined or described...
characteristics of anarchist theory, which holds that government and hierarchy are undesirable forms of social organisation. Newman seeks to move beyond the limitations these characteristics impose on classical anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
by using concepts from post-structuralist thought.
By applying post-structuralist theory to anarchism, Newman presents an account of post-anarchism
Post-anarchism
Post-anarchism or postanarchism is the term used to represent anarchist philosophies developed since the 1980s using post-structuralist and postmodernist approaches. Some prefer to use the term post-structuralist anarchism, so as not to suggest having moved "past" anarchism...
. His post-anarchism is more substantive than that of earlier thinkers, and has influenced later approaches to the philosophy. Released in a climate of an anarchist movement hostile to postmodern philosophy
Postmodern philosophy
Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical direction which is critical of the foundational assumptions and structures of philosophy. Beginning as a critique of Continental philosophy, it was heavily influenced by phenomenology, structuralism and existentialism, including writings of Georg Wilhelm...
, From Bakunin to Lacan was criticised for its poor understanding of and engagement with contemporary anarchism.
Background
The book was released in the context of the dispute in the newly resurgent anarchist movement between critics of civilisation (primarily anarcho-primitivists exemplified by John ZerzanJohn Zerzan
John Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of prehistoric humans as an inspiration for what a free society should look like...
) and its supporters (notably Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
). Although sharply disagreeing on the merits of civilisation, technology and language, both Zerzan and Bookchin derided postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
as disempowering the individual and reinforcing the existing order. Another significant factor in the intellectual climate of the book's release was the rediscovery in the 1990s of anarchist theory within academia.
Although foundational work had been done on the philosophy of postanarchism by radical theorists such as Andrew Koch and Todd May
Todd May
Todd May is a political philosopher notable for his role in developing, alongside Saul Newman and Lewis Call, the theory of post-structuralist anarchism. He is currently Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University and contributes to CounterPunch...
, From Bakunin to Lacan introduced a slightly different and more substantive formulation of the theory.
Content
Philosophy professor Todd May asserts that the overall purpose of the book is "to offer a critique of the way power, and specifically political power, is commonly conceived". Newman persistently questions how anarchism can refrain from reproducing the forms of oppression that it strives to overcome.Newman incorporates concepts from post-structuralist thought such as post-humanism and anti-essentialism
Essentialism
In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess. Therefore all things can be precisely defined or described...
into classical anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. Unlike May, whose post-anarchism
Post-anarchism
Post-anarchism or postanarchism is the term used to represent anarchist philosophies developed since the 1980s using post-structuralist and postmodernist approaches. Some prefer to use the term post-structuralist anarchism, so as not to suggest having moved "past" anarchism...
is a combination of the two, Newman attempts to move beyond both anarchism and post-structuralism. He proposes that "by using the poststructuralist critique one can theorize the possibility of political resistance without essentialist guarantees: a politics of postanarchism … by incorporating the moral principles of anarchism with the postructuralist critique of essentialism, it may be possible to arrive at an ethically workable, politically valid, and genuinely democratic notion of resistance to domination".
The book uses the work of French philosophers Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, Deleuze and Guattari
Deleuze and Guattari
Deleuze and Guattari refers to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, two French philosophers who wrote a number of works together. The most notable of these is the two volume Capitalism and Schizophrenia, consisting of Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus...
and Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
as well as classical anarchist thinkers such as Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
and Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
, recognizing "proto-poststructuralist" Max Stirner
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
as an important forerunner of postanarchist thought. Newman focuses particularly on the work of Deleuze, Derrida and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
.
Reception
Aimed at an academic rather than anarchist audience, the book was criticised in Anarchy: A Journal of Desire ArmedAnarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed is a North American anarchist magazine, and is one of the most popular anarchist publications in North America. It could be described as a general interest and critical, non-ideological anarchist journal...
#57 for its unsophisticated, cursory understanding of and engagement with anarchist theory. While praising that section of the book on post-structuralist philosophers, reviewer sasha k claimed that "Newman uses Kropotkin and Bakunin as his stand-ins for anarchism in general, and, in turn, only a few quotes from each to make his case". He questioned whether Newman's attribution of an essentialist conception of human nature
Human nature
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
to modern anarchists was accurate, concluding that had the book taken "a less one-dimensional view of anarchism", it would have to give up "most of what makes postanarchism post-anarchism.
New Formulation reviewer Michael Glavin cited Newman's ignorance of the initiative of anarchists to decentralize power and of anarchist forms of organisation such as trade unions, federations and affinity groups as evidence that he failed to understand power and wrongly conflated it with domination.
Since the publication of From Bakunin to Lacan in 2001, there have been several attempts to develop an account of postanarchism that, while retaining many of Newman's specific conceptions of the anarchistic qualities of radical post-structuralist thought, would take postanarchist theory beyond academic discourse and into broader and more diverse environments, as the originator of postanarchism, Hakim Bey, had intended.
See also
- Counter-EnlightenmentCounter-Enlightenment"Counter-Enlightenment" is a term used to refer to a movement that arose in the late-18th and early-19th centuries in opposition to the 18th century Enlightenment...
- Lewis CallLewis CallLewis Call is an American academic notable for being a central post-anarchist thinker. He is best known for his 2002 book Postmodern Anarchism, which develops an account of postmodern anarchism through philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunk writers such as William Gibson and Bruce...
- Post-Left AnarchyPost-left anarchyPost-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism's relationship to traditional leftism. Some post-leftists seek to escape the confines of ideology in general also presenting a critique of organizations and morality...
- Post-MarxismPost-MarxismPost-Marxism has two related, but different uses: the socio-economic circumstances of Eastern Europe, especially in the ex-soviet republics after the Soviet Union's end; and the extrapolations of the philosophers and social theorists basing their postulations upon Karl Marx's writings and Marxism...
External links
- "From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-authoritarianism and the dislocation of power", Newman's PhD thesis at R.A. Forum.
- "Review: From Bakunin to Lacan", from Lines of Sight
- "Postanarchism is not what you think" by Saint Schmidt (A defense of Newman's brand of Postanarchism)