Critchley Infinite Demanding - Introduction
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Summary
- philosophy as beginning in disappointment — re: failure to discover knowledge of things-in-themselves, etc
- concerned with religious and political disappointment — religious: lack of experience of faith — => nihilism — political: realisation that world is unjust — what does justice involve in this world?
- active vs passive nihilism — active: everything meaningless but we can destroy it all and create something meaningful in its place — passive: everything meaningless and nothing we can do, so just focus on oneself — destruction vs withdrawal
- modern political institutions do not motivate citizens — externally binding rather than internally compelling
- this motivates people to seek other, possibly religious, frameworks of belief — because motivational deficit is also a moral one
- hence need for a motivating ethics
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What do I think? - why must the “frameworks of belief” that the lack of political motivation force us into be religious ones?
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