Description
Book SynopsisMathias Thaler articulates a novel perspective on the study of violence that demonstrates why the imagination matters for political theory. He explores how narrative art, thought experiments, and historical events can challenge and enlarge our existing ways of thinking about violence.
Trade ReviewAll naming of extreme violence–genocide, torture, terrorism–conveys a political judgment. Exploring the politics of naming, Mathias Thaler questions the binary of moralism and unreconstructed realism and brilliantly shows how storytelling, thought experiments, and genealogies nourish our imagination and thereby contribute to better orient our reflective judgments. A remarkably original contribution to a judgment-based approach to politics. -- Alessandro Ferrara, University of Rome Tor Vergata, author of
The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of JudgmentIn
Naming Violence, Mathias Thaler asks how we can get beyond a stalemate between moralist and realist approaches in the political theory of violence, with an emphasis particularly on the critique of 'ideal,' definitional approaches. He argues that the imagination is key to an alternative way of approaching violence as a political theorist. This book makes both a very strong contribution to the literature within political theory on political violence and a broader contribution to metatheoretical debates about how to do political theory. -- Kimberly Hutchings, Queen Mary University of London, author of
International Political Theory: Rethinking Ethics in a Global EraForcefully arguing against realists and moralists, Thaler rescues the category of imagination as a way of providing critical tools to show us how things could have been different and develops a new understanding of how cruelty and suffering have to be re-described to meet each historical moment. This is, indeed, a brave way to face the urgent problem of the violence of our times. -- María Pía Lara, author of
The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of SecularizationAlthough a ubiquitous political phenomenon, violence is notoriously difficult to conceptualize. Dominant paradigms in political theory are flawed; moralism sanitizes violence while realism shies away from crucial matters of evaluation. Thaler’s impressive and insightful 'politics of naming' demonstrates how historically grounded appreciation of violence’s protean character may be linked to an orienting normativity. He sheds light not just on the problem of violence but also on fundamental issues such as the role that imagination plays in reasoning and the nature of political judgment. This is a brilliant, thought-provoking, and timely study and a much-needed exemplar of engaged political theorizing. -- Lois McNay, Oxford University, author of
The Misguided Search for the PoliticalIn a world replete with acts of violence that are deeply contested and difficult to respond to evaluatively, Mathias Thaler's
Naming Violence proposes a form of political theorizing that allows us to respond to such acts while acknowledging the messiness and complexity of our judgments alongside a defense of the need to judge. Avoiding moralism and unreflective realism, Thaler's writing
exemplifies the power of imaginative judgment with exceptional clarity. Engaging with film, thought experiments, and genealogy,
Naming Violence provides us with a powerful toolbox to support thinking and theorizing as democratic practice. -- Aletta Norval, Anglia Ruskin University, author of
Aversive Democracy: Inheritance and Originality in the Democratic TraditionA thought-provoking revision of accepted certainties on both sides of the realist/moralist divide, and a critical contribution to political theorizations of violence. -- Jessica Whyte, University of New South Wales * Political Theory *
[A] brilliant new book... -- Christopher Finlay, Durham University * Contemporary Political Theory *
A compelling and novel framework to further understand the interdependence between language and our collective conceptualization of political violence. * H-War *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
1. Political Theory Between Moralism and Realism
2. Telling Stories: On Art’s Role in Dispelling Genocide Blindness
3. How to Do Things with Hypotheticals: Assessing Thought Experiments About Torture
4. Genealogy as Critique: Problematizing Definitions of Terrorism
5. The Conceptual Tapestry of Political Violence
Notes
Bibliography
Index
