1st Edition

Law's Sacrifice Approaching the Problem of Sacrifice in Law, Literature, and Philosophy

Edited By Brian Nail, Jeffrey Ellsworth Copyright 2019
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge



    This volume examines the relationship between law and sacrifice as a crucial nexus for theorizing the dynamics of creation, destruction, transcendence, and violence within the philosophical and legal discourse of western society.



    At a time of populist political unrest, what philosophical and theoretical resources are available for conceptualizing the discontent that seems to emanate from practically every sphere of society? What narrative strategies have been employed within literary, theological, philosophical, and legal discourse to tame or mystify human violence? Engaging with the work of preeminent theorists of sacrifice, such as Georges Bataille, René Girard, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Derrida this collection examines from an interdisciplinary perspective the sacrificial logic that characterizes the cultural and political dynamics of law in society.



    The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of legal theory and philosophy.



    Table of Contents





    Contributing Authors









    1. Introduction: Approaching the Problem of Sacrifice in Law, Literature, and Philosophy




    2. Brian W. Nail







    3. Sacrifice and the Origin of Law




    4. Wolfgang Palaver







    5. Towards a Sacrificial Aneconomy? Georges Bataille and the Aporia of Sacrifice




    6. Marie Chabbert







    7. (Misguided) Self-transcendence and the Imagination of Sacrifice




    8. Arthur Cools







    9. A We Not Modeled on the I, the Law of Law, and Futurity




    10. A. Samuel Kimball







    11. Homo Sacrificus: Sacrificial Economization and Neoliberal Subjectivity




    12. Brian W. Nail







    13. Law, Authority, and the Sovereign Exception: The (Im)possibility of Political Agency




    14. Richard Hajarizadeh







    15. The Gift of Time and the Hour of Sacrifice: A Philosophical-Anthropological Analysis of the Deep Difference Between Political Liberal and Populist Politics




    16. Johan Van der Walt







    17. Sacrificial Liberalism: The Politics of Zeal and its Selective Denial in Rawls’s Political Liberalism




    18. Richard Mailey







    19. The Sacrifice of Law’s Madness




    Jeffrey A. Ellsworth

    Biography

    Brian W. Nail, Professor of English, Florida State College at Jacksonville



     



    Jeffrey A. Ellsworth, Assistant Professor of Law and Society, Ramapo College of New Jersey