Professorship of the Cluster of Excellence – Practical Philosophy with a focus on Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Law

Prof. Dr. Christoph Menke

The research activities of the professorship, which are directly related to the research project “Normativity and Subjectivity. 1. nature – 2. nature – spirit”, were primarily concerned with clarifying the relationship between spirit and (first, especially inner) nature in connection with the dialectics of the concept of form. The premise here is that the general dialectic of form and substance or matter can shed light on how the normative orders of the spirit are related to pre-spiritual, natural orders and contexts of forces.

The question of the dialectic of form and matter is a contribution to clarifying the status of normative orders, which are considered here in relation to the non-normative and pre-normative. These studies are interdisciplinary in nature, because they develop a concept of modern law (and in particular the form of subjective rights) in a debate with legal theory.

In the question of the logic of form or formation, the professorship’s research into normative theory of form (the norm, the concept) is linked to questions of aesthetic theory. This is because modern art in particular is a practice of formation that unfolds the aforementioned dialectic of form and substance. From here, analogous form processes can also be observed in other areas. This has been investigated above all for the legal form, or more precisely: the self-reflexive form of modern law (the “law of rights”). In addition, numerous doctoral and post-doctoral projects have been supervised, dealing with topics of autonomy, subject theory and legal theory.

In addition to the aforementioned results on the concept of form in art theory (see above), Thomas Khurana’s habilitation “The Life of Freedom: Form and Reality of Autonomy according to Kant and Hegel” gained a deeper understanding of practical autonomy by reconstructing a philosophical concept of life that was developed by Kant and systematically elaborated by Hegel. Dirk Quadflieg’s habilitation “Vom Geist der Sache. On the Critique of Reification” has shown, based on Hegel and in discussion with ethnological theories, how it is possible to understand that normative, intellectual orders essentially include the moment of their materiality and exteriority. The dissertations of Judith Mohrmann and Felix Trautmann examined the consequences of the dialectic of norm and nature, spirit and life for the constitution of political orders.

The most important publications of this professorship of the Cluster of Excellence:

Menke, Christoph: The Power of Art, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013 (Spanish translation: Santiago de Chile: Metales Pesados, 2017).

Khurana, Thomas: The life of freedom. The form and reality of autonomy, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2017.

Mohrmann, Judith: Affect and revolution. Political action according to Arendt and Kant, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus Verlag, 2015.

Quadflieg, Dirk: On the spirit of the matter. On the critique of reification, Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus Verlag, 2017 (in preparation)

Sheplyakova, Tatjana: “Das Recht der Klage aus demokratietheoretischer Perspektive”, in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 64 (2016) 1, pp. 45-67.

Trautmann, Felix: The imaginary of democracy. Political liberation and the enigma of voluntary servitude, Paderborn: Konstanz University Press, 2017 (in preparation).

The most important events of this professorship of the Cluster of Excellence:

“The Force of Aesthetics: Power, Imagination, Affects: An International Conference”, New School for Social Research, New York, USA, April 28-29, 2014.

“Other Natures. Norm and Nature II.”, Workshop, Université de Montréal, Département de Philosophie, April 30-May 1, 2014.

“The receptivity of judgment. Norm and Nature III.” Workshop, Goethe University Frankfurt, May 23-25, 2014.

“Proceduralization of the law.” International Workshop, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, organized by Tatjana Sheplyakova in the context of her project funded by the DFG, additionally funded by the Goethe University and in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, May 3, 2015.

“The art of second nature.” Workshop, Goethe University. July 1-2, 2016.