• What's the Deal?: Fichte's Closed Commercial State, Trump, and Economic Nationalism

    Author(s):
    Anthony Adler (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    TC Philosophy and Literature, TM Literary and Cultural Theory
    Subject(s):
    Biopolitics, Germany, Area studies, Political science--Philosophy
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    German Idealism Today
    Conf. Org.:
    Underwood Research Institute
    Conf. Loc.:
    Seoul, South Korea
    Conf. Date:
    June 3rd
    Tag(s):
    #trump, #fichte, #political theory, #neoliberalism, germanidealism, German studies, Political philosophy
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M61M5J
    Abstract:
    Starting out from an analysis of the "Art of the Deal," this paper seeks to understand Trump's "deal-making" as a form of life under capitalism organized around the paradoxical desire to simultaneously "be the game" and be the "biggest winner"--- In this way, Trump exemplifies a modern pathological form of existence whose proximate roots can be found in German idealism, and perhaps most clearly in Fichte's Closed Commercial State. Here Fichte proposes a wage to end all wagers; a monetary operation that would put the entire world on the path to world peace and economic justice. Fichte's economic nationalism---- world peace is only possible by the complete closure of the state as commercial entity--- is the very opposite of what is now spoken under that name; and yet the desire to "play the game" and "master it" at the same time offers a point of commonality. Beyond the scope of this paper lies the questions: is this paradoxical desire ultimately theology in origin? Is another relation to contingency possible?
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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