Aesthetico-Political

Martín Plot is Research Professor of Political Theory at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET-IDAES/UNSAM, Argentina) and Research Fellow in Political Thought at the CalArts's Aesthetics and Politics Program. He is also the author of Indivisible (2011) and has edited, most recently, Claude Lefort. Thinker of the Political (2013.)

Martin Plot’s Latin American background, his experience teaching theory to American art school students, and his firm grasp of debates in contemporary political thought are brought together in this sweeping vision of an 'aesthetico-political' theory. Plot argues that normative political theory needs to learn what he calls 'theorizing from events.' Using theory to go beyond theory, his approach recalls what Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim museum, recently called for: 'not looking at but engaging with' our times.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction – The Advent of the Aesthetico-PoliticalThe Enigma of DemocracySchmitt, Lefort, and the Theologico-PoliticalThe Epistemological Regime of PoliticsConclusionChapter I – Our Element: Flesh and Democracy in Maurice Merleau-PontyDeus MortalisFlesh and DemocracyAn Entire PoliticsConclusionChapter II – The Law of the Earth: Hannah Arendt and the Aesthetic Regime of PoliticsDisagreement: Arendt and HabermasPolitical PhenomenologySpaces and Times of AppearanceConclusion: Political Kitsch and Ideology PoliticsChapter III – The (Re)Aestheticization of Politics: Jacques Rancière and the Question of DemocracyRancière, Lefort, and the PoliticalThe Question of Democracy—In AmericaRecapitulationBibliographic References