Course Description

We are living in a time of rapid change: Technological innovations and political change transform the way we live. An increasing mobility of goods, services and labor modifies the different areas of our life. Political power, power in general, shifts away of the nation state. All these developments are normally referred to as globalization. This course will provide a genuine philosophical understanding of globalization focusing on Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s neo-Marxist and postmodern account of history and society
The course consists out of three parts: A short first part, comprising the first two meetings, will summarize Hardt and Negri’s conceptual framework lied out in Empire. The main part of the course will discuss the sequel to Empire, Multitude (published 2004) and critically discuss the main ideas therein of “war”, “multitude” and “democracy”. The third and final part will discuss the Antonio Negri’s Essay “Kairòs, Alma Venus, Multitudo”, which provides a deepening of the thoughts presented in Empire and Multitude.