Indifference

Abstract:

This article gives an overview about the exercise of the right to Freedom of Expression in Mexico. We hypothesize that three of the most important aspects that violate this law are the State speech that blames the drug dealers of attacks against journalists; the indifference, inaction and simulation of the Mexican State; and the state of crisis in public safety. The comparison of Mexico with a similar case suffered by Colombia, as well as data submitted by national or international organizations are alarming. It is warned that the Academy is one of the suitable areas for finding solutions to this conflict. Research and publication of it become a tool in the absense of policies, plan sor programs that limit and prevent the violation of this right.


Resumen:

Este artículo presenta un panorama acerca del ejercicio del derecho a la Libertad de Expresión en México. Se postula que tres de los aspectos más importantes que vulneran este derecho son el discurso del Estado que culpa al narcotráfico de agresiones contra periodistas; la indiferencia, inacción y simulación del Estado mexicano; y un estado de crisis en materia de seguridad pública. La comparación de México con el caso similar sufrido por Colombia, así como cifras presentadas por organismos nacionales o internacionales, resultan alarmantes. Se advierte que la Academia es uno de los espacios idóneos para encontrar soluciones a este conflicto. La investigación y divulgación del mismo se convierten en una herramienta ante la falta de políticas, planes o programas que limiten, e impidan, la vulneración de este derecho.

Recently the political philosophy of agonism has been applied by urban theorists to model inter-cultural urban encounters in so-called 'micro-publics', such as the workplace or the classroom. The paper examines to what extent agonism offers a viable model for dealing with urban diversity in these mundane, social encounters. I will argue that, applied to these lower-level social contexts, agonism takes the vulnerability of citizens with regard to their ethnic, cultural or religious attachments insufficiently into account. The resulting injuries will most likely be counter-productive to the goal of living with diversity. By way of a contrast, I will offer two less demanding, more practicable types of intercultural civility.

Au vu de l’intensité des passions que l’indifférence semble pouvoir réveiller chez ceux qui sont engagés dans une cause, je propose d’examiner brièvement la question de l’indifférence citoyenne, particulièrement à une époque où l’appel à l’indignation citoyenne ne cesse de se répandre. Cette indignation ne concerne bien entendu pas seulement l’antagoniste politique: elle atteint aussi très souvent celui qui reste indifférent envers un nombre d’enjeux dits urgents.

RIASSUNTO Nel testo della Convenzione Onu sui Diritti delle persone con disabilità (2007) l'espressione "accomodamento ra-gionevole" è decisiva. Se lo scopo è quello di promuovere «il pieno e uguale godimento di tutti i diritti umani e di tutte le libertà fondamentali da parte delle persone con disabilità» (così l'art. 1), la categoria di "accomodamento ragionevole" emerge sin da subito come il mezzo riflessivo di tale finalità. Scopo del presente saggio è riflettere sul significato etico dell'accomodamento ragionevole, alla luce di una riflessione sul rapporto tra uguaglianza e diffe-renza umane. L'uguaglianza come equità, infatti, non ha nulla a che vedere con l'egualitarismo. L'ideale morale dell'uguaglianza richiede, al contrario, un'etica che sappia valutare il tema delle differenze, andando oltre il tema della sola diversità di genere (maschile/femminile), per pensare direttamente i temi della disabilità. Ne deriva la possibilità di rispondere a quell'indifferenza che nell'epoca delle tecno-scienze tende a diventare, da semplice fatto, una vera e propria cultura antitetica alle logiche della giustizia sociale e dell'amore. Abstract Differently. For a reasonable accommodation ethics. "Reasonable accommodation" is a fundamental term for The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2007). If the aim is to promote "the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities" (Article 1), the category of "reasonable accommodation" emerges immediately as the reflective means of this purpose. The aim of the present article is to reflect on the ethical meaning of reasonable accommodation, in the light of a reflection around the relationship between equality and human difference. In fact, equality as fairness, has nothing to do with egalitarianism. The moral ideal of equality requires, on the contrary , an ethic able to evaluate the topic of differences, going beyond the theme of gender diversity (male/female), in order to think directly about the issues of disability. The result is the possibility of responding to the indifference that in the age of techno-sciences tends to become, from a simple fact, a true antithetical culture to the logic of social justice and love. Parole chiave: accomodamento ragionevole, disabilità, etica, uguaglianza, indifferenza.

Aus der Antike treten unter dem Begriff der hexis zwei Anwendungsfälle zum Vorschein, die noch heute das Nachdenken über Haltung informieren können. Der erste betrifft die (moralische) Beurteilbarkeit von Personen, der andere den Umgang mit der eigenen Affektivität, das heißt den aktiven Vollzug dieser Affektivität. Beide sind, was nicht überraschen dürfte, miteinander verknüpft: Der Umgang mit den Affekten selbst ist es, der als Haltung in der Antike zum Kohärenzkriterium des moralischen Charakters wird.  Indifferenz und Einsamkeit werden hier als Versuch verstanden, sich dieser Kohärenz subversiv zu entziehen.

As the analysis of historical intergroup conflicts has shown, support for unequal policies was not conveyed just by an uncritical obedience to authorities but also by an indifference towards other social groups. Indifference for others may indeed have a role of complicity in supporting discriminatory policies and arousing intergroup conflicts on par with the obedience to authority identified by the banality-of-evil thesis. In the present manuscript, the aim is to define such indifference and to consider which socio-psychological variables foster its rise, the consequences for intergroup dynamics, as well as the factors that contrast it and support tolerant and constructive intergroup relationships. In particular, indifferent people are characterized by conservative values, less blatant forms of submission to authority and subtle prejudicial attitudes. On the other side, the assumption of social responsibility, an inclusive morality and a more critical and constructive relationship with authority are all relevant factors in contrasting such intergroup indifference.

Amid Myanmar's fraught democratic transition, some local Pentecostals took up new opportunities to publicly evangelize to Buddhists, efforts that were met mostly with indifference. This article explores the role of indifference in mediating encounters across difference. Drawing together scholarship on recognition and sincerity, it argues that these evangelists were occupied not just with the challenges of hailing an audience in a tentatively more open public sphere, albeit one shot through with heightened tension around religious belonging; they were also concerned with what I call the performance of publicity: the ways in which publicity is itself publicized, celebrated, circulated, and received — especially online.

La philosophie, selon Theodor Adorno, devrait être la prise de conscience par laquelle on en vient à savoir « pourquoi le monde qui pourrait être le paradis hic et nunc peut demain devenir l’enfer » (« À quoi sert encore la philosophie »). C’est dans cette optique que le présent mémoire explore en quoi le phénomène de l’indifférence, entendu comme une posture découlant d’un détachement médiatisé du monde et qui se manifeste notamment par l’apathie, l’impuissance et la froideur des individus envers les autres et envers l’ordre social, peut contribuer à expliquer pourquoi les possibilités d’un avenir meilleur semblent bloquées. Pour ce faire, nous limitons notre analyse à deux concepts qui ont fortement influencé Adorno et qui fournissent de précieuses indications quant aux causes de ce détachement indifférent : la réification (Verdinglichung) et l’aliénation (Entfremdung). Nous partons de l’hypothèse que l’indifférence est essentielle à la reproduction de la logique du capitalisme. Dans le premier chapitre, nous nous penchons d’abord sur l’essai de Georg Lukács « Réification et conscience de classe » de 1923 afin d’étudier notamment ce que ses idées d’attitude « contemplative » et d’« indifférence de la forme à l’égard du contenu » sont à même de nous enseigner sur ce détachement indifférent. Nous complétons ce premier chapitre en examinant ce que la figure d’Ulysse, dans La dialectique de la Raison (1947) de Theodor Adorno et de Max Horkheimer, peut nous apprendre sur l’ambiguïté fondamentale du détachement indifférent qui, en tant que constitutif de la pensée, peut engendrer le pire tout en étant porteur d’une promesse de justice. Le second chapitre est consacrée aux Manuscrits économico-philosophiques de 1844 de Karl Marx et à sa notion de travail aliéné. Nous exposons en quoi cette aliénation du travail contribue à la reproduction de ce détachement du monde qui enraye la possibilité d’une réelle action collective. Cette analyse du travail esquisse néanmoins certaines pistes de réflexion quant à la possibilité de lutter contre cette indifférence à l’avenir.
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Philosophy, according to Theodor Adorno, should be the knowledge of the reasons “why the world—which could be paradise here and now—can become hell itself tomorrow” (“Why Still Philosophy”). It is in this perspective that this master’s thesis explores how the phenomenon of indifference, understood as a posture that ensues from a mediated detachment from the world and which manifests itself notably through apathy, powerlessness and the coldness of individuals toward others and the social order, can help to explain why possibilities for a better future appear blocked. To this end, we limit our analysis to two concepts that have greatly influenced Adorno and that provide precious indications with respect to the causes of this indifferent detachment: reification (Verdinglichung) and alienation (Entfremdung). We start from the hypothesis that this indifference is essential to the reproduction of the logic of capitalism. In the first chapter, we begin by studying Georg Lukács’ 1923 essay “Reification and Class Consciousness” in order to learn what his ideas of “contemplative attitude” and of “indifference of form towards content” may teach us about this indifferent detachment. We complete this first chapter by examining what the figure of Odysseus, as analyzed in Theodor W. Adorno’s and Max Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), tells us about the fundamental ambiguity of indifferent detachment which, as constitutive of thought itself, is capable of engendering the worst, while also holding a promise of justice. The second chapter is dedicated to Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and to his notion of alienated labor. We show how alienated labor contributes to the reproduction of this detachment from the world which, in turn, tends to block the possibility of real collective action. This analysis of labor nevertheless hints toward ways to fight back against this indifférence à l’avenir.

This essay examines Ariston of Chios' doctrine of indifference in light of his comparison of the Stoic sage to an actor who can play any role (πρόσωπον, persona) equally well. For Ariston, it is the non-identification of actor and persona that is the demonstration of Stoic virtue. Contrary to Cicero's criticism, this "impersonal" ethical stance does not make deliberation impossible, but it does devalue moral action in favor of the cultivation of virtue as pure capacity or hexis. Ariston can thus be considered as the first expression of a particularly radical form of Stoic thought that finds echoes in later thinkers such as Epictetus.

This paper attempts to engage with the Rohingya crisis, visually explained as the boat people. The  attempt is to transcend the immediate context of a stranded people and explore the larger world of
reference, compelling the people to take suicidal voyage. In absolute definiteness, their lives unfold a  reality of endless hatred, abuses, rights violation and continuous persecution inside Myanmar. These
unjust acts in epistemic way unfold conspicuous intention of categorical indifference to the existence  of the group. The displacement and refugee crisis is but half reality of a naked truth of state sponsored
dehumanizing efforts. However, it would be more appropriate to state the case as one of domestic as  well as global injustice fundamentally embodied in abandonment, the extreme form of indifference.

Although largely neglected in Schelling scholarship, the concept of bliss (Seligkeit) assumes central importance throughout Schelling’s oeuvre. Focusing on his 1810-11 texts, the Stuttgart Seminars and the beginning of the Ages of the World, this paper traces the logic of bliss, in its connection with other key concepts such as indifference, the world or the system, at a crucial point in Schelling’s thinking. Bliss is shown, at once, to mark the zero point of the developmental narrative that Schelling constructs here (from God before creation, via the natural, historical, and spiritual world, to the fully actualized, ‘true pantheism’) and to interrupt it at every step. As a result, bliss emerges here in its real utopian force but also its all-too-real ambivalence, indifference, and even violence, despite Schelling’s best efforts to theorize it as ‘love’; and Schelling himself emerges, in these texts, as one of modernity’s foremost thinkers not just of nature or freedom, but also of bliss in its modern afterlives. At stake in Schelling’s conception of bliss, I argue, is the very relationship between history and eternity, the not-yet and the already-here, the present and the eschatological - as well as between Spinozian immanence and the Christian temporality of salvation, so important for modernity (with what is often called its process of ‘secularization’) - not to mention the complex entanglement of indifference, violence, and love or the ideas of totality, nonproductivity, and nonrelation that Schellingian bliss involves.

This chapter takes as its starting point the sustained and rigorous critique to which the category of ‘religion’ has been subjected in recent decades, in combination with contributions from contemporary studies of non-religion’ and ‘secularity’. Whether understood at an individual, institutional or societal level, constituencies that have remarkably little investment in the concept of ‘religion’, or who explicitly articulate stances of ‘indifference’, clearly have much to say to the theorisation and critique of both ‘religion’ and ‘non-religion’. In this chapter I discuss prevalent academic understandings of ‘indifference’, and outline my reservations surrounding conceptualising it in an ideal-typical manner, and as a form of ‘non-religion’. I then introduce a discursive approach as a possible alternative before providing empirical examples from my ongoing research examining discourses on religion in the Southside of Edinburgh, which both address my critique and conceptualise instances of ‘indifference’ as contextually meaningful discursive acts.

“To Become Purposeless: A Failure.” In Phono-Fictions and Other Felt Thoughts—Catalyst: Eldritch Priest. Ed. David Cecchetto. Noxious Sector Press. 2016. 15-35.

The purpose of this essay is to shed purpose by commenting on a statement which was given by Meher Baba on October 13, 1960 and published three years later in The Everything and the Nothing under the heading “Purposelessness in Infinite Existence."

If monuments are most visible at the moments of their creation, contestation or removal, what characterizes them between these events? We often assume that they are invisible to or forgotten by the public, but the reading of Anu Pennanen’s short film Friendship (2006) offered in this essay distinguishes indifference from invisibility or forgetting. Set in Tallinn, Estonia, just before the controversial removal of the Soviet era, so-called “Bronze Soldier” statue, the film follows two groups of friends (one ethno-linguistically Estonian and the other Russian) as they move between the city’s abandoned communist monuments and its new Viru Centre shopping mall. Despite the historical and ideological distinctions between the monumental sites, the teenagers in the film use them almost identically. Their indifference to these places functions as a critical strategy for resisting the ethnically divisive historical narratives inscribed on the urban landscape. Friendship helps us to understand indifference as a response to public art, reframing debates on whether or not to preserve or remove Soviet era monuments. It also draws attention to the role of film within contemporary public art practices.

By studying the violent intergroup conflicts that occurred in the last century, some sociopsychological studies have underlined the relevant role of passive bystanders in nonobstructing and in some ways supporting these conflicts. The complicit role of bystanders and indifferent people in supporting human rights restrictions may be recognized in more contemporary societies as well. The aim of the present research is to analyze the effect of indifference on prejudicial attitudes, punitiveness, and values of equality. In particular, the relevant contribution of indifference in explaining prejudicial attitudes toward the out-group beyond the effects of authoritarianism and social dominance orientation is investigated. Results confirm the hypotheses. Higher levels of intergroup indifference are associated with higher levels of prejudice, punitiveness, and lower importance attached to values of equality. Moreover, after the inclusion of the effects of indifference, if authoritarian aggression remains a robust predictor of these variables, SDO decreases its predictive power. Public Significance Statement This study suggests the relevance to consider the complicit role of indifferent people in supporting human rights restrictions. This is particularly useful in the current crisis of intergroup relationships fostered by the economic recession, by which people tend to pursue just one's own group interests. Education to tolerance should start from the recognition of the others' rights through an active engagement against the adoption of restrictive policies against any groups.

This paper analyses the so-called "reactionary" and "progressive" attitudes towards vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic and poses the question as to how a hitherto apolitical phenomenon, such as vaccination could be articulated as a manifestation and field of performance for polarized worldviews. It claims an uncertainty of belonging in the middle-class and approaches both attitudes as a symptom of that. The development of the logic of capital in circulation of commodity exchange from "equivalization" to "indifferentiation" is stated as to what allows this uncertainty to render apolitical phenomena as a field of clashing worldviews.
Indifference of commodities leads to the extra-economic gaining primacy over the economical and heating up the competition of self-distinguishment. Both attitudes are revealed then as varying means to win the competition, vis-à-vis the fact that none of them counts more than the other.

This paper investigates the Great War experience and social identities of the young Catholic priest from Austria-Hungary, Dr. Jozef Tiso. Born in 1887, Tiso became President of the Nazi-Germany-allied Slovakia in 1939-1945, and was executed by the Czechoslovak justice in 1947. This study mainly uses (and compares) Tiso’s diary, written during his service in the Habsburg army at the Austro-Russian front in 1914, and his 1946 affidavit to the Czechoslovak investigators. Exploring his many-folder identity, we challenge the two dominant views that, before 1918, Tiso felt himself either a Slovak nationalist or a Magyar nationalist. We conclude that the social identity of Jozef Tiso in WWI consisted of two main categories : Catholic priest and Austro-Hungarian patriot. These categories coexisted and intertwined with those of Slovak sympathizer and Hungarian citizen.


Un prêtre au front. Les identités sociales changeantes de Jozef Tiso pendant la Première Guerre mondiale

Cet article porte sur l’expérience de la Grande Guerre et les identités sociales du jeune prêtre austro-hongrois Jozef Tiso. Né en 1887, Jozef Tiso deviendra en 1939-1945 Président de la Slovaquie, alors alliée à l’Allemagne nazie, et sera exécuté par la justice tchécoslovaque en 1947. Cette étude mobilise et compare le journal intime de Tiso écrit pendant son service dans l’armée des Habsbourg sur le front austro-russe en 1914, et son affidavit de 1946 devant l’instruction tchécoslovaque. En explorant ses identités multiples, nous remettons en question les deux interprétations dominantes selon lesquelles, avant 1918, Tiso se considérait soit nationaliste slovaque soit nationaliste magyar. Nous concluons que l’identité sociale de Jozef Tiso pendant la Grande Guerre relevait de deux catégories principales : prêtre catholique et patriote austro-hongrois. Ces deux catégories coexistaient et interagissaient avec celles de sympathisant slovaque et citoyen hongrois.

Aliaksandr Piahanau. “A Priest at the Front. Jozef Tiso Changing Social Identities during the First World War”? in: Revue des études slaves 88/4 (2017): 721–741.

This paper explores why indifference towards religion shifts into a critique of religion. Using everyday life-definitions and based on interview data, it develops and tests the hypothesis that experiences with religious people and the way they treat and impact others is a primary factor in how the non-or irreligious evaluate religion, and whether they remain indifferent towards it or begin to criticize it. This calls for a situation-based approach, rather than a mere typology of responses toward religion or the classification of personality types. Furthermore, it sheds light upon a feature that is often overlooked: Religion—depending on its role in society—affects not only its adherents, but the lives of the irreligious, too. Therefore, the article calls for a new understanding of religion and an approach to the study of religion and irreligion which studies the two in relation to one another.

Le rôle de Pierre Coste, par rapport à Leibniz, contrairement à ce que l’on peut penser, ne s’est pas limité à fournir au philosophe de Leipzig les conditions de possibilité matérielle pour accéder à la philosophie lockienne sans toutes les difficultés liées à la compréhension d’une langue (l’anglais) encore peu connue en Europe. Du reste, l’intérêt de Leibniz envers la philosophie de Locke ne s’est pas borné à la lecture de la traduction française de l’Essay concerning Humane Understanding (1690: première édition; 1700: quatrième édition) de Locke faite par Coste et publiée en 1700. Depuis 1706 jusqu’en 1712, Coste et Leibniz ont engagé un dialogue épistolaire dont une partie a été dédiée à la question de la liberté du sujet et de l’indifférence, à l’occasion de la communication, par Coste, des corrections inédites de Locke à son Essai (en vue d’une deuxième édition française, qui paraîtra en 1729). Il s’agit donc d’examiner ce qui est, sous tous les aspects (comme le dit Coste), une «belle Dissertation sur la Liberté» et se présente comme la continuation idéale d’un des plus importants inédits leibniziens, les Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain. Encore une fois, la langue française est le “trait d’union” entre Leibniz et la philosophie anglaise en général.

Starting from a NASA infographic which inadvertently highlights how we often understand cosmic objects solely in comparison to Earth and its occupants, this essay foregrounds the idea of human insignificance as one often associated with thoughts about the scale of the universe. Indeed, when looking up, scale seems to go on forever: planet, solar system, galaxy, and on eternally, etcetera. In order to examine this issue, the present argument takes the seemingly oblique route of looking at poetry, specifically Don Paterson's 'Scale of Intensity', so as to expound three issues: (i) whether 'scale' and its hierarchies are best understood epistemologically or ontologically; (ii) how certain literary and philosophical works (particularly in terms of nihilism and eliminative ontologies) address the conjoint problems of scale and insignificance, this mostly through a rumination of the philosophical term 'sub specie aeternitatis'; (iii) and, finally, whether feelings of insignificance necessarily entail ones of indifference. In its concluding movement, this essay looks to Sextus Empiricus's particular reading of indifference, ultimately turning also to Albert Camus's 'The Myth of Sisyphus', which is here understood as offering a rejoinder to the seemingly incommensurable arguments on whether the human race ultimately matters, or not.

In understanding the dynamics that lead to the restriction of human rights, social psychology research has mainly focused on the concept of the banality of evil and of obedience to destructive and immoral orders. However, some authors have also underlined the relevant role of by standing and, in general, of indifference in supporting authoritarian policies on a par with the obedience to authority. The aim of this research was to study the notion of intergroup indifference, defined as being uninterested in problems affecting other social groups. The hypothesis was that indifferent people should be characterized by subtle modalities of obedience to authority and prejudicial attitudes, by exclusive attitudes and by conformist and traditional positions. Results showed that participants who respond with an indifferent stance to some parliamentary bills related to arbitrary policies towards minorities appear to be characterized by similar scores on subtle prejudice, submission to authority, conventionalism, willingness to protest, conservative values and moral exclusion attitudes to those people who openly support such policies. Instead, these two groups differ as concerns more overt hostile attitudes. These data suggest that indifferent people have a role in supporting arbitrary policies. As a theoretical implication, future research should consider that intergroup dynamics do not involve just people who obey or disobey authority. People who apparently do not take up any stance before an authority's policies should be considered as well.

Ultimately, the combination of forms and their seemingly competing associations are so strange that the object stands alien and unfamiliar.  It is not a didactic work, it does not lecture or preach.  In fact it does not care about you. Understanding is your job. It is your job to approach the artwork, to recognize it.  It is a subject that stands apart, that refuses to respond to the hail of authority, to the profiling of “hey you there”, and, thus, remains completely an object.

Hoy el tema de la discapacidad es, de hecho, un problema ineludible para la calidad de las políticas sociales y de salud. Si, por un lado, hay una hospitalización generalizada de muchas fases de la vida, por el otro, se percibe una demanda global constante de asistencia, de inclusión y de participación. A la misma, se enfrentan los Estados a partir de sus diferentes sistemas políticos y de su desigual disponibilidad de fondos.

Much recent scholarship in the social sciences has recognised the importance of grasping the significance of non-human forces in both social and natural life. Still, we remain faced with the task of reconceptualising some of our more classically humanist problems in other than human terms. This paper undertakes to refigure one such problem, an issue that in moral and political discourse in particular has presented itself as a pressing, and sometimes intractable, problem; namely, what does it mean to be indifferent? The idea of political indifference, for example, evokes an attitude of neutrality or apathy deemed inappropriate to the sphere of political action. The assumption here is that indifference is a subjective quality, a characteristic inhering in those individuals or groups who are insufficiently motivated to exercise their capacity for free and deliberative action. This paper reexamines the common sense understanding of indifference, which, I argue, is bound to a moral purview and rests on an essentially confused view of human freedom. I suggest that rethinking the problem of indifference requires an 'ontological renaturalisation', in order to better understand the forces that condition human action. In pursuing this argument, I contribute to a growing body of scholarship that recognises the role of the aesthetic in opening our frameworks of thinking beyond their more humanist limitations. I argue that an aesthetic, as opposed to moral, framework, can re-conceptualise indifference as an ambiguous and potentially productive process, rather than a deficient state or subjective failing.

Hoy el tema de la discapacidad es, de hecho, un problema ineludible para la calidad de las políticas sociales y de salud. Si, por un lado, hay una hospitalización generalizada de muchas fases de la vida, por el otro, se percibe una demanda global constante de asistencia, de inclusión y de participación. A la misma, se enfrentan los Estados a partir de sus diferentes sistemas políticos y de su desigual disponibilidad de fondos.

Based on an old Nietzschean narrative, this paper explores conceptual encounters between the Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna (ca. 150-250 CE) and the post-structuralist Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995 CE) which may be clearly articulated by way of their similar conceptions of negation. Both philosophers vehemently rejected the reduction of difference to the negative and were able to initiate a strictly philosophical resistance against the orthodox philosophies of their respective place and time. Nevertheless, Nāgārjuna-in my view-goes one step further than Deleuze by arguing for a non-conceptual, absolute indifference which is able to embrace difference without reducing it. While this affirmative notion of indifference perhaps seems unintuitive for the Western reader, I explore its conceptual relation to absolute freedom and unrestricted love by employing both Eastern and Western, historical and contemporary sources.

What are contemporary security concerns and what effects do they have on liberties? After 9/11 a number of security measures have been introduced in the name of protection. The search for security has led many governments to restrict liberties for selective populations (i.e. suspected of terrorism and unauthorized migration) in the form of secret detentions, narco-analysis and other tests on prisoners, but also to increase surveillance measures, enumeration techniques and curtail liberties as part of everyday rule applicable to the general population. This module seeks to tackle contemporary questions of security and liberties and how they are shaped by colonial dynamics. It highlights specifically terrorism and liberties, migration and security, and general surveillance. Topics range from indefinite detention, policing, airport security, biometrics and video-surveillance to encounter killings, contemporary states of exception backed by laws and policies. Discussions of contemporary issues are employed to understand some of the inherent problems of liberal democracies in the search for a ‘balance’ of security and liberties.

The course will provide an introduction into theorizing security and the tension between security and liberties. Is there a tension between the two? How can the liberal state deal with its ‘enemies’? How is the category of enemy constructed? Do exceptional times require exceptional measures? Should governments suspend rights and liberties of individuals to preserve the constitution and protect the liberal order? Can and how can the liberal paradox be resolved? Is there a right balance between security and liberties? Under which circumstances should fundamental rights be restricted? We will discuss the relation of security and liberties from political, legal and sociological perspectives and highlight debates on exceptionalism and the rule.

The course aims to analyse specific contemporary and emerging issues, seeking to combine problematics of security and liberties for selective populations and general populations. Topics include terrorism and liberties, policing and criminalization, borders and biometrics, and surveillance technologies. The contemporary issues are chosen with the intent to provide students to the breadth of contemporary issues that can be analysed through the lens of security and liberties. Lectures and seminar discussions will include policy documents, court cases, film/arts, and current newspaper articles and journals to develop critical understanding, complex factors and diverse actors involved in shaping the formal apparatus of terror and counter-terror.


For more, read the attached syllabus.

What role can aesthetics as the philosophy of autonomous art assign to affect? Since Hegel, artistic autonomy has manifested itself as an indifferent form of appearance that “confronts us like a blessed god.” Is thinking art through affect thus necessarily the introduction of a heteronomy, a hidden economy that subverts the indifferent surface of autonomous appearance? The paper goes in the opposite direction by exploring the affectivity immanent to art’s very indifference. It discusses Hegel’s struggle to distinguish the divine indifference of the ideal artwork from the ironic indifference that indicates the end of art, Adorno’s observation that art is obliged to express suffering but can only do so in a medium that is essentially indifferent to it, and Rancière’s reaffirmation of indifference as the specifically aesthetic power to affect by displacing the coordinates of sensible experience. Hegel and Adorno both affirmed the indifference of art, but also attempted to ground it in some kind of substantiality. For Rancière, on the other hand, indifference is the only substantiality art can have.

Life is busy. Life is chaotic. Life is messy. What is out of sight is out of mind, good or bad, and the opposite of love is indifference.

Throughout history, extraordinary men and women have reminded humanity of the importance of human rights issues or certain aspects of life. These extraordinary individuals enlighten the world, giving sight to those that were previously blind to the world’s heartache.

“It is equally important to fight indifference and the attitude that ‘it’s no concern of mine.'” Elie Wiesel saw the struggle against indifference as a struggle for peace. In his words, “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.”

Intercultural citizenship seems to benefit from certain generic aspects of city life that carry a negative quality, such as " blasé attitude " or the typical " indifference " of city dwellers. The main part of this essay argues that this observation allows the formulation of a moral minimum—a threshold conception—of intercultural citizenship in the urban setting, namely, what I call side-by-side citizenship. A certain level of indifference makes possible personal freedom and a tolerant multicultural city, although there are more ideal formulations of intercultural citizenship, such as in terms of agonism or cosmopolitanism. However, these more ambitious forms easily become too demanding given the muddle of everyday urban living conditions, which tend to promote mutual reserve and impersonal social relations. A modest and realistic conception of intercultural citizenship could prove crucial in motivating citizens to act according to some minimal standards.