Lunchtime Talk with Yasemin Sari
An Arendtian Recognitive Politics: “The Right to Have Rights” as a Performance of Visibility
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Arendt Center
This event occurred on:
Tue. October 28
The Arendt Center will host a lunchtime talk by Yasemin Sari on Tuesday, Oct. 28th. Yasemin will be discussing her work exploring Arendt's conception of the rights to have rights. The abstract is as follows:
In this paper, I deepen the discourse enframing Arendt's thinking about human rights by elucidating a two-tiered theory of recognition, or an Arendtian ‘recognitive politics,’ which is based on the condition of ‘artificial equality’ understood in its spatial aspect. I argue that Arendt's conception of the right to have rights can only be understood as a performance of visibility. After a preliminary investigation of Marx's critique of the demand for ‘universal equality’ in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1793, in which it emerges as problematic, I show there are similar grounds in Arendt's argument pertaining to her doublesided critique of ‘human rights’ in The Origins of Totalitarianism. In order to overcome this problematic, I develop a conception of ‘artificial equality,’ which becomes the condition of my two-tiered theory of recognition that comprises of two levels, where i) the performance of visibility in relation to the recognition of one's social identity is what in turn allows for ii) the possibility of recognizing one's political identity in the political space.
R.s.v.p. at [email protected] Lunch and cookies will be provided.
The Arendt Center will host a lunchtime talk by Yasemin Sari on Tuesday, Oct. 28th. Yasemin will be discussing her work exploring Arendt's conception of the rights to have rights. The abstract is as follows:
In this paper, I deepen the discourse enframing Arendt's thinking about human rights by elucidating a two-tiered theory of recognition, or an Arendtian ‘recognitive politics,’ which is based on the condition of ‘artificial equality’ understood in its spatial aspect. I argue that Arendt's conception of the right to have rights can only be understood as a performance of visibility. After a preliminary investigation of Marx's critique of the demand for ‘universal equality’ in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1793, in which it emerges as problematic, I show there are similar grounds in Arendt's argument pertaining to her doublesided critique of ‘human rights’ in The Origins of Totalitarianism. In order to overcome this problematic, I develop a conception of ‘artificial equality,’ which becomes the condition of my two-tiered theory of recognition that comprises of two levels, where i) the performance of visibility in relation to the recognition of one's social identity is what in turn allows for ii) the possibility of recognizing one's political identity in the political space.
R.s.v.p. at [email protected] Lunch and cookies will be provided.