Alexander Dugin and the Problem of Political Philosophy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 เม.ย. 2022
- Alexander Dugin and the Problem of Political Philosophy.
Read it here:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/...
MillermanSchool.com
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DuginCourse.com
HeideggerCourse.com
PlatoCourse.com
AristotleCourse.com
Thank you Mike! I'm Bulgarian fluent in Russian and I've been listening Dugin's lectures and clips for nearly 5 years now, his articles wherever I found them, his interviews and just a week ago I started reading his Forth political theory (or The forth way) book which just got published in Bulgarian and I'm blown. Thank you for your work, I also read in the introduction that You are the translator of it in English - great!
What do you think after all you have accomplished? I would like to hear from if Dugin's philosophy can be confined in an inventive ideas to political philosophy, I mean something new that can be a school of thought.
I am asking so because I am not much into his deep thought and I got a friend who says to me he collects and forms based on what he formulated from all theories, and it is actually a pseudo-intellrctual theory that is empty and relies upon the power of the leader.
As opposed to reading other’s writings - these are your own writings. It seems well reasoned and appreciate this perspective on philosopher Dugin.
Excellent. I do like the format here where we can read along with you. Great voice for reading. Thanks for posting.
I really enjoyed this perspective. Thank you
Michael,
Highly Recommend you do a podcast with Infrared and Dugin. Thanks for the great content as always
That was great, Michael!
Amazing videos. Thank you so much!
Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World; Ride the Tiger; Metaphysics of Power; The Fall of Spirituality; The Hermetic Tradition; The Bow and the Club; Recognitions.
Awesome presentation
Very thoughtful article Michael. Very much appreciate it over all the sweating mouth-breathers.
Thank you Michael, I think this article contains much more relevant view on Dugin's ideas than all texts from the west that I have read in the last month. I was glad to read it and did not see another dubious argument to cancel Dugin, on the contrary, I saw tries and efforts to pay attention on other fields of Dugin's philosophical researches.
Michael, thank you for your work!)
Thx so much for the value you offer to this trying world.
Dugin has some great insight. I look forward to my debate with him.
Masterful.
Well put
Excellent article. I am not well versed in Olavo de Carvalho`s works, which I think you have made some videos about (at least the debate with Dugin as far as I am aware), but I can imagine a similar article being written about him. Most people simply judge him by "the lowest", by some scattered facebook posts and youtube videos he used to post when he was still among us.
Learn again to say yes to that which it isn't ourselves nor that which seeks itself
Quite some people deny he is "Putin's Rasputin". It's more of a Western invention made by journalists. As far as I can tell, he is just another relativist, just with different values. Not a fourth way of anything but nothingness.
Michael, have you seen the Wikipedia article about Alexander Dugin. I would think that you would want review the article and contribute to it as well. My biggest question is whether the article is accurate in its assessment of Dugin, especially in accusations of Fascism. And there seem to be several quotes attributed to Dugin which indicate an absolute hatred of the West, especially the U.S. Best regards.
it's very correct, yes. Now that being said, each side basically hates each other so it's somewhat expected.
What's the heuristic here that would help us to adjudicate when High Dugin compensates for Low Dugin? Unlike with Low Millerman vs High Millerman, there are Dugin tweets that can be removed from the twitter stream as if nothing was said, as if no vulgar political hooliganism was committed.
Is Dugin's Aristotle course available anywhere else? Love to watch it.
Not in English, unfortunately. Paideuma.tv for the Russian
Hasn’t western „liberalism „ some parallels with the fascism of Germany and Italy?
Does „liberalism“ lead to a development to a higher quality of life of everyone, or does it cause a regression?
Thank you for posting your lecture on Dugin and the controversies around his work. I am a professional philosopher and appreciate also your translations and ability to connect the dots in the 50 or more books/interviews of other Dugin projects. There is nothing wrong with trying to understand Dugin and get to the bottom of his thinking, even as an enemy of constitutional liberal democracy and the enlightenment project of reforming it. This is a great service to the wider profession of philosophy and political studies. I hope that you can keep going on this road of figuring out the significance of Dugin dialectically and don't give up. Dugin is an interesting thinker and should be understood, not on his own terms exclusively, but by the larger cognitive community wrestling with his arguments and sorting out the better from the worse arguments. Many people want to ignore Dugin or refuse to take him seriously.
You should always expect other philosophers to argue back, and resistance to Dugin is part of dialectic. The 2019 debate (available on TH-cam) with Bernard-Henri Levy and Dugin in Amsterdam is an excellent example of engagement and arguing back without dismissing Dugin. But Levy's best point against Dugin is that his whole philosophy is morbid, death-smelling, and apocalyptic rather than life-grounded and on the road to a peaceful, better world. Dugin promotes a continuing war of civilizations and this militancy is dangerous and short-sighted, and definitely not statesman-like or wise diplomacy. The most important thing about the large group (over 100) of constitutional liberal democracies in the world is that they have stopped going to war against each other during the last 200 years (John Rawls interprets this in his last book, The Law of Peoples). Wars between illiberal regimes like Russia and other democracies continue as America has gone to war against many illiberal enemies, but if the democracies keep growing and helping each other survive without force and coercion, then their larger numbers will eventually provide world stability and more peace. Dugin's vision is a world with endless war among rival civilizations.
Some critical points: 1) I am wondering if Dugin owns his own publishing house or media organization, and if most of his work and your translations are not going through an independent editing process by an independent publisher/academic referees. Is Arktos Media Ltd owned wholly or in part by Dugin and associates? Who is his Russian publisher? The large number of overlapping books or similar versions of arguments/redundant work suggests to me that this is the case. Is there a Dugin reader/anthology of his best work useful as a textbook? Some of his literary output looks like a get-rich-quick scheme. 2) All of Dugin's many books are not equally worthy of attention by a world audience. Your work should be in identifying the best books in that group of 50 or more, Dugin at his best or the high Dugin as you say following Leo Strauss, the moments of his writing most worth engaging. That does not necessarily mean his most read or popular books so far. This is not subjective, but a community reflecting together will figure this out over time, maybe you and your students/colleagues in this case. Until you know what books stand this test of time, I would be very skeptical about Dugin's claims to wisdom.
3) When discussing Dugin's methodology or meta-philosophy, you must realize how narrow/restricted it is to focus on Leo Strauss and Heidegger's hermeneutics and hero-worshipping the great thinkers is the problem. Dugin has used many methods and switches approaches, but his disdain for analytical philosophy and refusal to engage with philosophers like John Rawls or Ronald Dworkin or Bernard Williams is telling. If you want to understand contemporary "epistemological struggle" (Dugin's term), then you should use the best tools and read books like Truth and Truthfulness by Bernard Williams along with Rorty and other analytical philosophers who know how to argue clearly. There are many interesting contemporary discussions about meta-philosophy and political philosophy such as the book Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will: The Political Philosophy of Kai Nielsen. My own view is that you need to be master of many methods as a philosopher, and Heidegger's hermeneutics might work well for fragments of Ancient Greek philosophy but also be a complete disaster in interpreting the future of world politics. Dugin's own history of development suggests a search for method and using disciplines like geopolitics or ethnosociology for one set of projects, then moving on to other methods in new projects. More philosophy of language and analytical philosophy rather than less is needed to sort out what is good argument in Dugin, versus poetry/fiction or other modes of writing, such as propaganda. Habermas has a very telling criticism of Heidegger's philosophy and that was that this thinker was not really interested in conversation with an existing audience, and avoided what is known by ordinary language philosophy as the conversational model of philosophy (defending your ideas in everyday or plain terms, avoid technicalities). Heidegger and Dugin try to speak past the readers and public to an imaginary abstract audience of posterity, or some grand ideal public, not the real listeners. Gadamer observed that Heidegger actually lectured to his philosophy students not by looking them in the face as he spoke, but while staring out the classroom window. This is probably some evidence of sophistry rather than decent philosophy. You must put Dugin's claims about meta-philosophy into much broader context, no hero-worshipping allowed in this regard.
4) Dugin's sustained attack on Ukrainian independence for many years is not a purely literary event, and it now looks complicit in major war crimes and genocide in Ukraine in 2022. Dugin has become an apologist for some great contemporary crimes, and his continuing reactions to these events become new data for interpreting his older arguments and books. It really makes me question his ethics and politics. Philosophy can have great consequences and be some part of these events despite Dugin's intentions just to deliver a better argument, he may have actually made things much worse. The Bucha March 2022 massacre and tales of the Wagner Group mercenaries involved in terrorizing the population into surrendering to Russian aggression are extreme consequences in this case. Heidegger could never be brought to apologize for Germany and the Holocaust, this is what German Jewish poet Paul Celan realized and it drove him to suicide among other things. If you want to be the expert on Dugin, you need to determine what his work means in such real life terms, where it has mattered and influenced people, or not. Dugin was born in 1962 so he should still live more than 20 years, and his work will change meaning as he reacts further to world events and his role in Russia's struggles to find its identity in world affairs. Maybe Douglas Murray's new book, The War on the West, would be useful context for understanding Dugin more. I predict that as time wears on and Dugin's role in things emerges more clearly, your own views of his work will change radically and shift directions more than once. He is much less of an original thinker and more of a synthesizer of avant garde and ancient thought I think. His thoughts are not actually very original, but he is good at taking thoughts from others and re-packaging them politically and giving them another life.
Please keep posting your interviews and lectures on Dugin and pay attention to how your own views of Dugin change when other people react to what you are finding interesting. This story is not over and is becoming more interesting.
Dr. Millerman, what was your source for the Heidegger quote about respect?
"The Word of Nietzsche"
@@millerman, awesome, thank you.
Huhh, ""doxa as being-in-the-world" sounds a bit strange association.
It's long been a question in my mind whether the 'soundbite' grew organically out of the 'memorable quote' or if it was deliberately cultivated by some sociologist/propagandist.
The text you are reading is out of the frame, so it is not possible to hear and read simultaneously.
Sorry about that.
I like Dugin’s works, but what do you think about his apparent hatred of White people?
"What is truth? What is being? What is the relationship between being and truth? Between being, truth, and language? What is a people? What is the relationship of truth and being to a people? What does it mean to be absolute? When he claims that truth is relative, what is Dugin saying it is relative to? What does it mean for truth to exist but not absolute truth? It is presumptuous to believe that the answers to these questions are self-evident when approached, as they must be, on the basis of Heidegger’s thought" TELL ME MORE ABOUT THESE QUESTIONS FROM AN HEIDEGGERIAN PERSPECTIVE!
ps: really, any good place to start?
The answer to your question is best encapsulated in the film "Gaslight".
In Dugin's BBC interview he explains and justifies his own lies as his own truth or "the Russian truth".
This is tantamount to saying "I am lying to you". A wise man would believe this and only this from every statement ever uttered by the person.
Iq45
What did he lie about, then?
@@communist754 he explicitly admits to lying
At 2:58 - the characterization of Dugin approaching these matters “systematically” seems at odds with Dugin’s own words about “the Special Russian Truth”. The word “Systematically” usually implies adherence to scientific method and go where the data leads you. Can’t do that if you hold your own “Special Truths”. Though perhaps your last statement about “through the lens of Russian history” is a nod to those Special Truths.
I wonder if the author would treat similarly the Schutzstaffel commandant who gives a flawless rendition of Bach on the piano. I wonder if we would have to examine the "high" Nazi SS officer before condemning him.
Would you have nothing to say about Bach himself if he'd been equivalent to a member of the Nazi party? Why or why not?
@@millerman Rather than respond to a question responding to a question, Mr Millerman, let me observe that I am used to the study of Marx, Lenin and Stalin (not to mention Mao -- who's a much worse writer), undertaken by conservative scholars, oriented entirely to find what faults in logic or method which can be identified. What strikes me as striking about your project is your -- I may be unfair, but so it seems at first glance -- examination of far-right thinkers (Strauss, Schmitt, et alia) from the Right.
Those commenters on Marx and Lenin from the Right have no difficulty excavating problematic passages in their subject writers, but the reader comes across quite a few ideas that have significant validity.
Examining photo-fascist authors from a conservative point of view, in my naive estimate, takes on a strong element of apology.
You are right but I believe you should understand the reasons. I have written about them in a few places, for instance (1) www.academia.edu/36042254/Dissertation_Proposal_Beginning_with_Heidegger_A_Comparative_Study_of_Receptions_of_Martin_Heidegger_as_a_Political_Philosopher and (2) im1776.com/2020/09/16/the-virtues-of-right-wing-anti-liberalism/ as well as in my book (3) HeideggerBook.com. You might still object but at least the reasons will be somewhat clearer.
wait, wasn't the most dangerous thinker in the world Slavoj Zizek ?
PЯӨMӨƧM
baZed
I guess I'm low Dugin. Thankfully one doesn't have to know anything about him to understand what's going on in Russia. Like most people, I think that if he supports Putin, he's probably mostly about manufacturing accusations and hatred for the United States. However, Professor Millerman says that if you can get past that, you'll find a very significant philosopher. However to understand Mr. Dugin, one must be thorough in about twenty philosophers ranging from pre-Plato to Heidegger, and learn to speak Russian. So we presume that because he's so smart, his reasons for supporting Putin must have some validity, for they are too high for us.
Mr. Dugin is ideological twin to the most evil person in history, who is threatening to commit the biggest crime in the history of the universe.
And make the world only Russian.
And then, I suppose, build beautiful socialist cities where everyone wears silver suits. The end of history where ideologies harmonize and class struggle is no more. However, I don't think it will turn out that way. If Putin decides to destroy humanity with massive tidal waves, the Lord will return at that same moment to reap the souls of humankind, whom he so loves that he died on the cross to save, as Putin, who seems to hate humanity, murders them. And at Armageddon, the Lord's "...fury will flare up in his face..." and he will personally destroy Russia's army by "...raining down fire and brimstone upon them..." Ez 38. And Putin, "that man of sin" and "the son of perdition", also called "the beast", will be "...cast alive into a lake of fire that burneth with brimstone" Rev 19:20. And we will live again and there will be everlasting PEACE.
This is an extraordinary account of how Aristotle was your gateway drug to 4th way eurasianism-not-fascism - (not fascist, which you can tell because dugin says so. Not fascist)
This is how fascists operate. They take advantage of the vulnerabilities of young men searching for identity and meaning.
I hope you find your way back.
You can also tell it's not fascism by actually going through his arguments.
@@burlbird9786 the argument being blood and soil, but not in a fash way, not me.
@@RDHamel It can't be fear that we glimpse in your words? The fear of actually reading what you criticise? It could never be so, I wish not to believe it possible. And yet...and yet.
@@burlbird9786 yep. Afraid of that stuff. Those kind of alternative reality fascist constructions have a beguiling quality. Sort of epiphanic, explanatory, final, dare I say, eternally decisive. Almost always very dangerous when they take a hold. Witness current events.
But apparently he wrote about Aristotle, didn’t write mein kampf, and thinks we should stop worrying about washing machines…
@@RDHamel I am puzzled. It seems as if you have convinced yourself you know what you are talking about without putting any effort into knowing what you are talking about. Now there is something I know we should be frightened by, but the gulf of the virtual distance just makes me smile. Not a smirk, but a puzzled smile.
Nice propaganda. A touch of history might do your political philosophy well. Hilarious that the basis for “Putin taking ideology from Dugin” is that they “read the same Russian literature and history”. Also hilarious that you go from implying Russian “imperialistic objectives” to discussing this one small (albeit critical) area in south east Ukraine. What a load of crap.
You missed all the points but thanks for watching.
@@millerman the fallacies of the logic and misguided spin on reality did indeed detract from whatever points may have been made (that it’s still useful to read Dugin, if only to reinforce our hegemonic distortion of political philosophy/history, as well as the colored lens through which mainstream America views the latest extension of the Ukraine crisis and Russian culture in general?)
@@millerman It seems the western way of thinking/mindset inculcated for so long makes it so we not really understand what is being said and do not even get the hint of the condition we are in, if I am making any sense. I am speaking from my own personal experience after getting that hint, but that realization, along with others, is relatively recent and I am not highly educated in philosophy and its language/terms and have always had trouble putting things in words. It seems that often its as if two different "languages" are being spoken with the same vocabulary and in the same language even (signafying the perception and ability/mode of processing). I am further convinced that reason was elevated and "idolized" (during the "Enlightenment" and in other ways) then the ability to use reason and logic was targeted and on a mass scale (I suspect John Taylor Gato expounds this) destroyed or left disabled. I am aware of the condition and that I still need recovery. Others seem unaware of the possible condition and its adverse effects that leave them unable to become more aware, if this makes any sense too. In my condition and partial convalescence this is a rough draft attempt.