Agonism

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Agonism (from Greek ἀγών agon : competition, competition) is a political theory that emphasizes the fundamental and potentially positive aspects of political conflict. It assumes a permanent democratic arena for social conflicts in which opposing groups compete for political hegemony . This school of thought is also known as agonistic pluralism or, for specific application in practice, with the related term agonistic. The theoretical approaches overlap between cultural studies, philosophy, sociology and political science.

Ancient understanding

The characterization that the hero Achilles experiences in Homer's Iliad describes the originally aristocratic claim from the mythical-heroic times, "always to be the best and excellent above all others". In the course of the democratic efforts, this ideal of attitudes becomes the self- image of the Polis citizen. “ To constantly strive for excellence ( arētē ) in order to get recognition and honor ( timē ) was the ideal and goal of the Greek aristocrats and free citizens. This ambition ( philotimia ) also led to the fact that one always wanted to measure oneself with fellow citizens and aristocratic competitors and wanted to gain more honor than them. " This adversarial relationship is not understood as a state of war, for which the term “polemos” is used in the state's external relationship and the term “stasis” is used internally. The term agon not only describes the major athletic competitions, but also theater competitions and litigation speeches by parties to the dispute in court hearings.

The aim is to upgrade the collective identity through the performance of individual noble excellence ("kalokagathia"). “Agonism implies a deep respect for the other; in fact, the agon of the Greeks relates most directly to an athletic competition that is not aimed only at victory or defeat, but emphasizes the importance of the fight itself - a fight that cannot exist without the adversary. Victory by failure or over an unworthy opponent is worth less in comparison than a defeat by a worthy opponent who still brings honor. An agonistic discourse will therefore not only be shaped by conflicts, but above all by mutual admiration ”. The long-term goal for the agonistic polis community is by no means a final resolution of the conflict relationships, but rather a stabilization of the conditions of competition and the constant challenge from opponents, in order to be able to always achieve new highs.

Basic research in cultural studies

Johann Heinrich Krause published his first philologically and historically well-founded basic work on the Agon of Antiquity in 1840. He defined agonistics as that sphere of the initially aristocratic competitive culture that grew out of gymnastics as physical training and led to the athleticism of the Panhellenic competitions. In 1856 Ernst Curtius extended the understanding of agonistics to other social contexts of Greek culture and politics. Building on this source material, Jacob Burckhardt developed the term “agonal man” in 1872 as a cross-generational personality structure of the ancient Greeks, as well as the “agonal” as a form of communalization and reference variable of the community for its internal political binding force and its claim to validity in the external relationship.

Georg Scheibelreiter sees an agonal attitude as a typical characteristic of the history of mentality of the Germanic elites of the 5th – 8th centuries. Century, an expression of a feeling of existence of constant danger, which led to brutal and insidious crimes, especially among the Merovingians , in order to gain short-term advantages or to physically eliminate potential opponents from competing aristocratic groups on mere suspicion. Both secular and ecclesiastical officials would not differentiate between the exercise of office and personal interests. This development also reached the “civilized”, urban Gallo-Roman area. Scheibelrieder cites the lack of measure and rationality, the ups and downs in behavior, unpredictability and greed, unlimited opportunism, renunciation of balance of interests, willingness to break oaths as characteristics of this “ barbaric ” attitude in contrast to the lifestyle of the “civilized” people of late antiquity and contracts, for violent self-assertion and for unrestricted enforcement by means of extreme means of violence. This constant willingness to take advantage of (even a minor) advantage (the "opportunity of the moment") is often at the expense of pursuing one's own long-term goals. The constant disposition to fight and its successful success is also an important source of self-affirmation and ensures loyalty This view calls into question the thesis of the rapid assimilation of the Germanic elite, which has converted to Christianity, into the Romansh world.

Agonality as a concept of philosophy

The argument as a means of finding knowledge was already developed in the philosophy of the pre-Socratics as dialectic , with the sophists as eristics and with Plato finally as Platonic dialogue . At the same time, there were already warnings against merely tactical and instrumental agonistics, for example in rhetoric. Already Plato's early dialogue Euthydemus shows both the critical self-reflection of agonistic truth and the connection to the style of Greek comedy. In doing so, the philosopher probably also follows an individual striving for victory: B. Plato's dialogues are of particular artistic importance, is usually the result of a competition with the art of the speakers, the sophists, the dramatists of his time, invented for the purpose of finally being able to say: ´See, I can do that also what my big rivals can do; yes, i can do better than her. No Protagoras wrote such beautiful myths as I did, no dramatist wrote such a lively and captivating whole as the symposium, no speaker wrote such a speech as I put it in the Gorgias - and now I am rejecting all of this and condemning all reproductive art! Only the competition made me a poet, a sophist, a speaker! ´ “. The political purpose that agonity had for the city-states is described by the comedy-like dialogue “Anarchasis” by Lucian of Samosata as “the freedom of the individual and the common freedom of the whole fatherland, and prosperity, and fame, and the local festivities, and of relatives security ”. Friedrich Nietzsche developed his understanding of agonality while teaching with Jacob Burckhardt in Basel . Based on a few verses by Hesiod about the dual nature of Eris - negative, resentful envy as well as positive, competitive will to perform - Nietzsche understands agonality as a political, ethical and pedagogical basic structure of the Greek spiritual world, as an eternal “competition of forces” - “a thought which is hostile to the ´exclusivity´ of genius in the modern sense, but presupposes that, in a natural order of things, there are always several geniuses who stimulate each other to act, just as they keep each other within limits . That is the core of the Hellenic idea of ​​competition: it abhores sole rule and fears its dangers, it desires as a means of protection against genius - a second genius. Every talent has to develop in a fighting manner, so the Hellenic folk education dictates ”. This principle of "agonal education" appears explicitly and implicitly in various later works by Nietzsche, for example in the genius concept of the superman , the will to power or in his elaborations on eristics, criticism of religion and social competition.

Agonistics

The field of social struggle and competition also deals with various issues with the philosophy of the 20th century. Karl Jaspers , for example, differentiates between positive mental agon and negative agonal disposition, “a first model of how a concept of non-rival competition with an emphasis on diversity and plurality can emerge from the strictly comparative term agonal.” The agonal becomes the subject of political theory also on various occasions with Hannah Arendt . She describes social action as a “phenomenon of self-disclosure” out of an agonal spirit: “Measure yourself against others, which in turn gave the concept of the political in the city-states its actual content.” Individuality that stands out becomes identity, it is evident in the contrast between the self and the other and measures the space of the political as a pluralistic speech contest in public. Jean-Francois Lyotard also developed a similar discursive model , who, thinking from Wittgenstein's “language games”, defined agonistics on primarily competitive and success-oriented speech acts.

Agonism in Political Science

As a result of the Poststrukturalismus and PostMarxism the element reached the struggle for power Hegemonies into focus again by means of differential concepts policy. The idea of ​​agonism nevertheless stands as a counter-position to the antagonistically defined materialism in Marxist concepts of politics. Social divisions tend to be viewed more as cultural differences. William E. Connolly , James Tully and Chantal Mouffe , for example, develop models of such a differential agonism or an agonistic democracy .

Antagonistic concepts

With Marx begins a conception of history that refers to material antagonisms: "The history of all society that has existed up to now is the history of class struggles". He sees the inevitable causes of conflict as the property relations in capitalist society. Only with their destruction and replacement by communism would the antagonisms come to an end. From the perspective of critical theory, agonism is considered to be part of the established social order in which society “produces and reproduces itself, precisely from the combination of the antagonistic interests of its members”. For Adorno , agonism is also about the “ theodicy of Conflict "in which the opponents" want to destroy each other ... to enter the agon, each one of each other's mortal enemy ".

In clear opposition to Marxism, however, is the antagonistic concept of Carl Schmitt , who sees the “concept of the political” characterized by a fundamental friend-foe criterion. His rejection of liberalism also extends to its understanding of competition. Correspondingly, Schmitt also argues against “the agonal”, because it represents a competition on a common basis and mere opposition does not reach the intensity of the hostile relationships that are assumed to be fundamental.

Agonistic pluralism

Michel Foucault, on the other hand, tends to associate his power theory with the term agonism: “Instead of an essential 'antagonism' it is better to speak of an 'agonism', a relationship that is both mutual incitement and struggle, less of a head-to-head opposition that they blocked from each other as a constant provocation “Other theoretical approaches try to make agonism compatible again for the left and liberalism. William E. Connolly describes the model of “agonistic democracy” as both respectful and militant liberalism in order to convert antagonisms of identity into agonisms of difference. With Bonnie Honig , agonity becomes a requirement for feminist practice, for striving for plurality and difference in order to overcome other concepts of gender categories through non-identity.

Chantal Mouffe developed a further draft with her model of agonistic pluralism, in which she went beyond (post) Marxist as well as deliberative liberalism and thus beyond authors such as Jürgen Habermas , Ulrich Beck or Anthony Giddens . She criticizes liberalism for ignoring the fundamental antagonistic forces in a society, that collective identities always contain differences and that a society beyond power structures and hegemony is not very realistic. Agonism is a "we-you relationship, in which the conflicting parties recognize the legitimacy of their opponents, even if they recognize that there is no rational solution to the conflict (...) The main task of democracy could be the transformation of antagonism into agonism look at". In the struggle for hegemony it is legitimate not only to assume competition, but also opposition. “The opponents fight each other - even bitterly - but they adhere to a common set of rules. Their viewpoints, although ultimately irreconcilable, are accepted as legitimate perspectives. "

literature

  • Arendt, Hannah. Vita activa . 1958
  • Burckhardt, Jacob. Greek cultural history . Basel 1872, published 1989–1902
  • Colaguori, Claudio. Agon Culture : Competition, Conflict and the Problem of Domination. de Sitter Publications, Whitby, Ontario. 2012
  • Curtius, Ernst. Greek history . Berlin 1/1857 - 3/1861; several editions, e.g. B. 5th edition Berlin 1878-1880.
  • Honey, Bonnie (1993). Political theory and the displacement of politics . Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1993. ISBN 978-0-8014-8072-0 .
  • Jaspers, Karl. Psychology of Weltanschauung after 1919
  • Krause, Johann Heinrich. The gymnastics and agonistics of the Hellenes from the written and pictorial works of antiquity . 1840.
  • Lukian. Anacharsis .
  • Mouffe, Chantal: On the Political . London: Routledge 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-30521-1 . German: About the Political . Against the cosmopolitan illusion. From the English by Niels Neumeier, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-12483-3 .
  • Mouffe, Chantal: Agonistics : Thinking The World Politically, London: Verso 2013, ISBN 978-1-78168-103-9 . German: Agonistics - Thinking the world politically. From the English by Richard Barth, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-12677-6 .
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich. Homer's competition f. In: Five prefaces to five unwritten books. 1872
  • Nullmeier, Frank. Political theory of the welfare state . Frankfurt 2000
  • Schmitt, Carl. The concept of the political . Hamburg 1933
  • Tuncel, Yunus. Agon in Nietzsche . 2013
  • Weber, Max. Economy and Society . 1922

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homer. Iliad XI, 784
  2. ↑ Alexander Meeus. “Always being the best”: The agonal culture of the Greeks. https://agon449.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/agonale-kultur-griechen/
  3. ↑ Samuel Chambers . Language and Politics. Agonistic Discourse in The West Wing [1]
  4. ^ Georg Scheibelreiter: The barbaric society. Darmstadt 1999, especially p. 215 ff., 233 ff.
  5. ↑ Scheibelreiter 1999, p. 240).
  6. ^ Friedrich Nietzsche. Homer's competition. Basel 1872
  7. ↑ ibid.
  8. ↑ Frank Nullmeier. Political Theory, page 162
  9. ↑ Hannah Ahrend. Vita activa
  10. ↑ Jean-Francois Lyotard. La condition postmoderne
  11. ^ Marx & Engels, Communist Party's Manifesto , 1848, Chapter 1 .
  12. ^ Theodor Adorno. Minima Moralia, 1974
  13. ↑ Michel Foucault. The subject and the power. 1994
  14. ↑ Frank Nullmeier. Political Theory, page 180
  15. ↑ Chantal Mouffe. On the Political, page 30
  16. ↑ Chantal Mouffe. Ibid., Page 30