Children in the Forest | Against Dying

Creativity
Andrew Kaufman

Issue 3 (Spring 2014)

Children in the Forest

Against Dying

Deadline for the forthcoming issue: April 30.

The recent authoritarian turn in global politics—from Brazil to the United States and from Turkey to the Philippines– has caused great consternation in the humanities and social sciences. Coupled with the resurgence of old and new racisms and an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, this shift has prompted scholars to rethink previously held assumptions about democracy in the twenty-first- century. Probing its underlying causes, scholars across disciplines are calling into question the intellectual foundations of modern democracy—foundations rooted in renaissance humanism and enlightenment political thought. To quote one observer, is the age of humanism over?

In other words, has the rational subject of renaissance humanism and enlightenment modernity given way to a new subject defined by unbridled market values and commodified human relations? Or rather, does the current proliferation of authoritarian and neoliberal state actors merely signal the dark underside of the philosophical discourse of modernity as others have previously suggested? Similarly, are we witnessing the birth pangs of a new world order characterized by overt forms of domination? Alternately, how can a renewed and critical understanding of the humanist and enlightenment philosophical traditions serve to confront the virulent forms of violence and exclusion that characterize the shifting geopolitical landscape? In short, what are the philosophical and literary resources available to artists and intellectuals seeking to grapple with the erosion of democratic norms in contemporary modes of governance?

Voyages: Journal of Contemporary Humanism seeks to become a forum for debate on these questions, asking whether this pessimism is justified, where its sources and logic stem from, and most importantly, how humanism, past and present, can serve as a vehicle for resolving the problems facing the world today.

ISSN 2283-6578

Children in the Forest | Against Dying

Creativity
Andrew Kaufman

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Voyages: The Journal of Contemporary Humanism ( ISSN 2283-6578)

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