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Samson, Antigone, and the charismatic agonistes: From a “pro‐power” to a “pro‐existence” political engagement
Author(s) -
Untea Ionut
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the philosophical forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.134
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1467-9191
pISSN - 0031-806X
DOI - 10.1111/phil.12268
Subject(s) - charisma , politics , active listening , power (physics) , sociology , aesthetics , logos bible software , reciprocal , social psychology , epistemology , psychology , political science , art , philosophy , law , communication , linguistics , physics , theology , quantum mechanics
Abstract In this essay, I argue that the agonistic approach toward political engagement places too much emphasis on the task of winning the social game and overlooks the dimension of what has been called ever since Greek Antiquity by the name charis . Charis is the quality of life, denoting ideals of reciprocal invitations to feel joy and satisfaction. Under the influence of the Weberian model of charismatic leadership, collective charisma has faded away from the attention of political theorists. This essay offers arguments for the integration of the collective charis into agonistic political theory but calls for several revisions of this theory. Counterbalancing the overemphasis on winning involves listening and witnessing in the sense of transforming the miracle of charis into the plain words of the logos and the sounds of the phonê that everybody can perceive.