Former Fellow

Andrew Norris

Associate Professor of Political Science and Affiliated Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara

Research project:
Ordinary Language and Second Nature: Returning to Ourselves in Hegel and Cavell

At the Cluster of Excellence, Andrew Norris is pursuing a research project that examines the social mode of being of normative orders in relation to Hegel and Cavell. Hegel and Cavell share the idea that normative orders do not exist primarily in the form of ought, i.e. not in the form of demands or regulations, but as rules that constitute social practices. At the same time, according to Hegel and Cavell, social practices essentially include a moment of the unconscious, the pre-reflective, the inert. Against this background, the question arises as to how subjects can simultaneously relate to the practices of which they are a part in such a way that they can assert their normative content against its merely lived-in, customary and seemingly self-evident social form.
Norris’ thesis is that Hegel clearly posed this problem, but did not solve it convincingly. And in Cavell’s repeated attempts to think a free relationship to the ordinary, he seeks potentials for a convincing theorization of successful processes of subjectivation, on which the transformation of normative content from its merely habitual everydayness into a free, reflexive and thus also critical form depends.

Events:

October 23 to 25, 2014
International Conference of the Cluster of Excellence The Receptivity of Judgement
Receiving Autonomy: On Cavell’s Perfectionism
Location: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, “Normative Orders” building

November 5, 2014, 6 p.m.
Lecture
Skepticism as Practical Philosophy in the Work of Stanley Cavell
Location: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, “Normative Orders” building

December 2, 2014, 2:30 p.m.
Paper Presentation
Location: Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

  • Biografische Angaben

    Andrew Norris teaches political science and philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the editor of The Claim to Community (Stanford University Press 2006), Politics, Metaphysics, and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben's "Homo Sacer" (Duke University Press 2005), and co-editor of Truth and Democracy (University of Pennsylvania Press 2012). He is currently working on a monograph on Stanley Cavell's contributions to practical philosophy.
  • Publikationen

    Andrew Norris, „On Public Action: Rhetoric, Opinion, and Glory in Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition“, Critical Horizons 14:2 (2013), S. 200-224. Andrew Norris, „‚How Can It Not Know What It Is?‘ Self and Other in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner“, Film-Philosophy 17:1 (2013), S. 19-50. Andrew Norris, „The Disappearance of the French Revolution in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit“, The Owl of Minerva 44:1/2 (2013), S. 37-66. Andrew Norris/Jeremy Elkins (Hg.), Truth and Democracy, University of Pennsylvania Press 2012. Andrew Norris, „Das Politische als das Metaphysische und das Alltägliche“, in: G. Gebauer/F. Goppelsröder/J. Volbers (Hg.), Wittgenstein: Philosophie als ‚Arbeit an Einem selbst’, München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag 2009. Andrew Norris, „Sovereignty, Exception, and Norm“, Journal of Law and Society 34:1 (2007), S. 31-45. Andrew Norris (Hg.), The Claim to Community: Essays on Stanley Cavell and Political Philosophy, Stanford University Press 2006.

News from the research center

Event
13.11.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

When Design Gets Political

Exhibition, Conference, Panel Discussion, Lecture, Workshop

Der dritte Tag der Design Policy Days an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt richtet sich an alle, die Design als politische Kraft denken. Gemeinsam mit dem Deutschen Designtag und der World Design Capital 2026 widmet er sich in Roundtables, Projektpräsentationen, Workshops und Ausstellungen der institutionellen Politik: Wie lässt sich Design methodisch, strukturell und normativ in politische Entscheidungsprozesse integrieren – und wie kann Politik selbst als Gestaltungsfeld verstanden werden?

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Event
20.10.2026 | Frankfurt

Dr. h.c. Gerhard Wiese – Wirken als Ankläger im Auschwitz Prozess

Movie, Panel Discussion

Der Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess von 1963 bis 1965 gilt als ein zentraler Wendepunkt in der juristischen und öffentlichen Auseinandersetzung mit den nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Dr. h.c. Gerhard Wiese, der als junger Staatsanwalt zum Anklägerteam des Prozesses gehörte, berichtet aus seiner Perspektive auf die damaligen Ermittlungen und die Hauptverhandlung. Im Gespräch mit der Historikerin Dr. Katharina Rauschenberger (Fritz Bauer Institut) wird die Bedeutung des Prozesses für die strafrechtliche Aufarbeitung der NS-Verbrechen in den Blick genommen.

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Publication
21.09.2026 | Working Paper

Dimensionen wehrhafter Demokratie in unsicheren Zeiten

Abich, Leon; Adams, Cosima; Biebricher, Thomas; Britz, Gabriele; Daase, Christopher; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Dönges, Jan; Krause, Leon; Nitzschner, Patrick; Siebert, Hannes; Siefert, Julian; Stephanblome, Isabelle (2026): "Dimensionen wehrhafter Demokratie in unsicheren Zeiten". DemoReg Working Paper 3.1.

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Event
10.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

Shifting Visions of Peace and Security

Panel Discussion, Lecture Series

Podiumsdiskussion im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times” mit Lisbeth Zimmermann (Goethe University/Normative Orders), Antonia Witt (PRIF), Siddarth Tripathi (University of Erfurt). Moderation: Jonas Wolff (Goethe University/PRIF/Normative Orders).

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Event
03.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

AI, War, and Big Tech

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Ingvild Bode (University of Southern Denmark)im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
16.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

International arms control in a world of uncertainties

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Malte Göttsche (TU Darmstadt/PRIF) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
02.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Enabling Authoritarianism: UN Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Sarah von Billerbeck (University of Reading) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
25.11.2026 | Frankfurt

Deterrence in “Post-Liberal Times“

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Maria Mälksoo (Copenhagen University) (Goethe-Universität/PRIF/Normative Orders) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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Event
18.11.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

The Case for (Neo)colonialism: Neotrusteeship in International Relations as the ‘Imperial Mind’ of the ‘Colonial Present’

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Nick Lemay-Hébert (Manchester University) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

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