Saul Newman

Saul Newman 2009

Saul Abraham Newman (born March 22, 1972 ) is an Australian political scientist who has stood out particularly through his work on updating anarchist theory .

Newman coined the term postanarchism for an even auszuarbeitende political theory which originating from the 19th century, mainly due to Mikhail Bakunin , Pierre-Joseph Proudhon or / and Pyotr Kropotkin critical rezipiert attributable anarchist theories and means developed in the 20th century culture of philosophical concepts brings a stand that is able to establish anarchist practice here and now. The title of his first book From Bakunin to Lacan (2001) signals which direction of modern theory he considers suitable for the modernization of anarchism: that of French post-structuralism in general .

In this book, Newman referred to the still unexplored role that Max Stirner's book The Single and His Property (1845) could play in post-anarchist theory formation. It is often counted among the anarchist basic texts, but was only accepted to a very limited extent by the anarchists themselves, if not clearly rejected. Neither of the post-structuralists counts Stirner among his spiritual ancestors. That is why Newman wrote a series of articles in the following years, in which he explained the previously misunderstood importance of Stirner for both schools of thought. He sees in Stirner a key figure for the development of a post-anarchist theory which - according to the historical capitulations of the earlier critical social theories - should be able to subject contemporary Western society to a radical criticism.

Newman calls Stirner a proto-poststructuralist who on the one hand fundamentally anticipated the modern poststructuralists such as Michel Foucault , Jacques Lacan , Gilles Deleuze and others; On the other hand, he even transcended them in principle a century and a half ago. Stirner had, which none of the post-structuralists succeeded in doing, laid the basis for a “non-essentialist” - the only thinkable - ideological criticism of the present liberal capitalist society.

Newman's obviously very ambitious theory is not yet complete.

Fonts

Article (selection)

• Specters of Stirner: a Contemporary Critique of Ideology. In: Journal of Political Ideologies , 6,3 (2001), pp. 309-330
• Max Stirner and the Politics of Post-Humanism. In: Contemporary Political Theory , 1,2 (2002), pp. 221-238
• Stirner and Foucault. Towards a Post-Kantian Freedom. In: Postmodern Culture , 13.2 (2003), sp (e-journal)
• Empiricism, Pluralism, and Politics in Deleuze and Stirner. In: Idealistic Studies , 33.1 (2003), pp. 9–24
• Voluntary Servitude Reconsidered: Radical Politics and the Problem of Self-Domination . In: Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies (ADSC), No. 1, 2010, pp. 31–49

Books

• From Bakunin to Lacan. Anti-authoritarianism and the dislocation of power. Lexington Books, Lanham MD 2001, ISBN 0-7391-0240-0
• Power and Politics in Poststructuralist Thought. New theories of the political. Routledge, London 2005, ISBN 0-415-36456-6
• Unstable Universalities: Postmodernity and Radical Politics. Manchester University Press, 2007, Manchester ISBN 978-0-7190-7128-7
• (ed.): Max Stirner. Houndmills, Basingstoke / Hampshire UK / Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-230-28335-0