The Philosophy of Claude Lefort: Interpreting the Political

Index

Action Française, 207 Adorno, Theodor, 102 Advent and event, 44, 64–65, 74, 115, 139, 242 Alexander Severus, Roman emperor, 28 Algerian Revolution, 198, 199, 229 Alienation, 87–89, 147 American Revolution, 153 Anarchy, 46, 48, 107, 230, 231–32, 238 Ancien régime, 118, 150, 152, 168, 243; breakdown of, 167; French Revolution, 134, 139, 244; human rights, 227; king’s body, xxiv–xxv, 115–16, 131 Animality, 24, 41, 88, 161 Anthropology, 22, 83–90 passim, 94, 123, 154, 162, 220 Aquinas, St. Thomas, xiii, 107, 109 Arendt, Hannah, xx, 24, 33, 36, 53, 101, 152–58 passim, 207, 228; production metaphor, 32, 87; and “rise of the social ,” xiv, xxviii, xxix, 208; and terror, 137, 201, 214, 257–58; and totalitarianism , xxi, xxvi–xxix, 155 —works: The Human Condition, 214; The Origins of Totalitarianism, xvii, 195, 233, 252–54, 256–63, 265–66 Aristocracy, 46, 47, 51; birth of, 48 Aristotle, xiv, 7, 22, 37, 70, 155; Lefort critiques , 121; Machiavelli diverges from, 15, 29, 41; quoted, 169–70, 180, 247, 250 —works: Poetics, 106; Politics, 27, 37, 46, 106; The Rhetoric, 23 Aron, Raymond, xxi Atheism, 122, 139, 147 Augustine, Saint, 106, 107 Austin, J. L., 31 Bacon, Francis, 247 Balinese society, 85, 259 Index 279 Bateson, Gregory, 90; “The Value System of a Steady State,” 85 Baudelaire, Charles, xvi Being, 134, 156, 162, 191, 215, 222, 262; over Appearance, xvi, 114–15, 123; as “Great Object,” 149; history of, 142–44; indeterminacy/determinacy of, 64; man’s relationship to, 60, 120, 121, (prince’s) 38; modern experience of, 155; in primitive societies, 86; wild, 68 Berdiaev, Nikolai, 236 Bergson, Henri, xiv Beria, Lavrenti, 266 Besançon, Alain, 236 Bible, the, 13, 107, 123, 169 Bigot, M.: Marxisme et Humanisme, 87 Blind spot, 34, 69, 70, 208, 209 Body politic, xxiii–xxvi, 33, 110, 114, 214, 219. See also “People-as-One” Bolshevism, 209, 238, 241–46 passim, 253, 259, 265; French Revolution and, 132, 242, 244; and World War I, 250–51 Boniface VII, pope, 108 Borges, Jorge Luis: “Pierre Manard, Author of Don Quixote,” 78, 271 Borgia, Cesare, 14, 45 Brecht, Bertolt, 15; Measures Taken, 200 Brezhnev, Leonid, 266 Brown, Peter: Augustine of Hippo, 107 Buddhism, 100 Bukharin, Nikolai, 197 Callicles, 119 Capitalism, 89, 165, 187, 201–2, 251; critiqued, 207; rise of, 87 Caracalla, Roman emperor, 28 Cassirer, Ernst, 59 Castoriadis, Cornelius, xxi, 195 Cathar heresy, 107 Catherine de Medici, 77 Causality, concept of, 90–91 Cervantes, Miguel de: Don Quixote, 78, 271 Chambers, Whittaker, 237 Chateaubriand, François, 153, 155 Chile, 180 China, 186, 217–18, 220, 222, 266; Tiananmen Square, 179, 180, 197, 273; trade unions in, 272, 273 Christ, 110, 115, 116, 123, 141; birth of, 170; divinity of, 105, 113, 117; as historical person, 106; secularization of body of, xxiv, 108–9, 166, 215 Christianity, xvii, 13, 77, 100, 108, 142; democracy and, 225; doctrine of, 8, (Hegel on) 122, 123, 139; and Jesus as Son of God, 113; Lefort’s view, 98, 105, 110, 118; Machiavelli’s view, 12, 20, 21, 41; old Church, 116–17; premodern, 83, 89, 114, 139; prophetic, 106–7; and rights of man, 165; totalitarianism and, 217, 218; and virtue of poverty, 18. See also God; Religion CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 197 Cicero, 24, 41 Civil rights crisis (U.S.). See United States Class struggle. See Social conflict Clastres, Pierre, 83, 94–98, 260 —works: The Gualaki Indians, 94; Society Against the State, 94–95 Cold War, 26, 207 Commodus, Roman emperor, 28 Common good. See Good, desire for Communist Party/Communism, 186, 196, 204, 218, 222, 252; birth and novelty of, 241, 244; and Christianity, 217; “Communist idea,” 246, 249, 250, 253; Communist illusion (Furet), 240, 251– 53; vs. democracy/liberalism, 245–47; failure of, (“Columbus mistake”), 126, 249, 256, 266, 267–68; Fascism identified with, xxvi–xxvii, 207; French, 197, 226, 234, 239, 252; Italian, founded, xxi–xxii; “laws” of, xxviii, 258–59; regime of, 254, 264–65; and terror, 250, 258 (see also Terror); 20th Congress of, 199, 202; in U.S., 219, 238–39; values espoused by, 249–50 Communitarianism, 271, 272 Comte, Auguste, xiv Conflict. See Social conflict Corruption, 27, 28, 53–54, 57, 229 Council of Trent, 77 Cows, in Nuer society, 88–89, 103–4, 125 Croce, Benedetto: What is Living and What is Dead in the Philosophy of Hegel?, 75 Cuba, 214, 229 Cyrus II (the Great), king of Persia, 12 Czechoslovakia, Soviet invasion...