Arpad Szakolczai

Reflexive Historical Sociology

This paper attempts to reassess the standard sociological canon and sketch the outlines of a new approach by bringing together a series of thinkers whose works so far have remained disconnected. Introducing a distinction between classics and background figures who were crucial sources of inspiration, it shifts emphasis to the late, reflexive works of Durkheim and Weber. These are sources for two types of reflexive sociology: historical and anthropological. The main background figures of reflexive historical sociology are Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Freud, while its protagonists include Foucault, Elias, Voegelin, Borkenau, Mumford, Ariès and Koselleck. A short introduction will be given to the four main fields of interest within the approach: the reconstructive histories of subjectivity, of forms of thought, of forms of knowledge, and of closed space and regulated time.

In Pursuit of the 'Good European' Identity : From Nietzsche's Dionysos to Minoan Crete

This article argues that Nietzsche’s preoccupation with the figure of Dionysos can be best understood as a visionary insight concerning the distant roots of European culture in Minoan civilization. While the opportunity offered by the discovery of ancient Crete for continuing Nietzsche’s genealogical work into the sources of Greek culture was ignored by the vast archive of literature on Nietzsche, this project was pursued in a book by the mythologist Károly Kerényi, published posthumously. Using the classic work of Henrietta Groenewegen- Frankfort, this article identifies the ‘spirit’ of Minoan Crete with its attempt to manifest the gracefulness of life. The sudden emergence of Minoan Palace civilization, its peaceful character shown by the absence of fortified walls, and the importance of epiphany scenes in various works of art all indicate the centrality of religion for ancient Crete. The article offers the hypothesis that the origins of this culture can be traced to similar transcendental experiences such as those in ancient Judaism. The basic difference is that in the Cretan case epiphanies were connected to female figures, leading not to a prophetic tradition of divine grace through the revealed word and public law, rather the transmission of a secret tradition and the manifestation of its truth through spectacular public rituals and graceful works of art. While direct awareness of Minoan civilization was lost, its central concern survived in the value attributed to the manifestation of radiant, indestructible truth, a central characteristic of European identity, periodically revitalized in a series of renascences.

The Discourse of Civil Society and the Self-elimination of the Party

In explaining the revolutionary changes that occurred in Eastern Europe during 1989, one often encounters a discourse centring upon the resurrection of civil society. This seems all the more plausible as the concept of civil society was revived and used in East Central Europe extensively throughout the decade of the 1980s in a normative sense of promoting organisation and gathering support for the change of the system. Nothing seems to be more natural than to claim that, after all, events proved the correctness of the strategy: the resurrected civil society defeated the totalitarian system — to use another concept that became much in vogue in the last decade.

Permanent (trickster) liminality: The reasons of the heart and of the mind

The term liminality is often used to celebrate escape from rigid structures or to promote creativity. However, the collapse of the stable frameworks of social life also generates anguishing conditions of uncertainty. This article introduces the term “permanent liminality” for situations in which the temporary suspension of normality becomes permanent. Such situations of entrapment within an interstitial dimension produce an emotional overheat, generating a “liminal hotspot.” This paper addresses the possibility of ending such entrapment. Reasoning cannot guide out of permanent liminality, as—in the absence of stability necessary to apprehend ratio, or harmonious proportionality—it is also liable to short-circuit, being closely associated under liminal conditions with imitativity. A solution is offered, through Pascal rather than Kant, by the heart. Such an idea also receives support from the Palaeolithic Age, maternal heartbeat in the womb, and long-distance walking pilgrimage.

Moving Beyond the Sophists Intellectuals in East Central Europe and the Return of Transcendence

This article argues that the dominant role played by intellectuals in East Central Europe was motivated by a deeply felt Enlightenment missionary belief. This establishes affinities between them and the ancient Sophists, and the ambivalence of such a position is illustrated through the case of Georg Lukács. As examples of philosophers in the classical sense of the term, the article provides four short portraits: the Czech Jan Patocka, who argued that Europe as a culture is rooted in the care of the soul; the Hungarian one-time friends Károly Kerényi and Béla Hamvas, and the Polish bishop-philosopher Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II. The central thrust of the argument is that while Western thought is increasingly trapped in an ever more desperately radicalized critique of metaphysics, in East Central Europe – ironically, to a large extent in the footsteps of Nietzsche – the most important intellectual figures have sparked a return to metaphysics.

Living Permanent Liminality: The Recent Transition Experience in Ireland

Modernity, or the combination of market economy, liberal democratic polity and a society driven by technological progress, we are led to believe, is the end-state of history; the glorious condition of a fully enlightened society of free citizens equipped with equal rights at which all traditional societies are bound to arrive, after a period of transition which might involve some temporary difficulties or ‘sacrifices’. However, and in contrast to this, modernity rather involves an infinite period of transition, in which the stable elements of social life, representing not just rigid external constraints on individual freedom, but also the condition of possibility of meaningful life, are one by one liquidated. This article argues that the anthropological concept ‘liminality’ is particularly helpful in understanding the formative aspects of transition experiences, like the Celtic Tiger phenomenon in Ireland. It also helps to move beyond the conventional ‘transition to modernity’ framework by pointing out that advanced modernity is identical to a permanent state of transitionality.

The global monastery

This paper argues that the phenomenon of globalisation can be best understood as the secularisation and widespread extension of a particular type of life‐conduct that originated in Western monasticism. This concerns not substantive content but modality and form, like the self‐sustaining methodical regularisation of the everyday conduct of life in closed and partitioned space aiming at rationalisation and perfection. This type of inner‐worldly asceticism was a successful response to the challenge of chaotic ‘liminal periods of transition, following a wholesale dissolution of order. However, the solution represents a generalisation of liminality into a permanent condition, explaining both the innovativeness and creativity of modern societies, but also their characteristic tempo of hectic change that disrupts stable human relationships and the coexistence with animals and plants, losing balance and measure.

The Theatricalisation of the Social: Problematising the Public Sphere

This article investigates a single thesis, following Nietzsche’s insights: a central feature of the modern world is theatricalisation. Beyond being entrapped by critiquing the ‘naïve mirroring’ perspective, it is argued that art is not simply part of reality, but might interfere with other aspects of life, and so can become problematic. As for a theoretical framework, the author introduces three anthropological concepts: imitation, liminality and trickster. Under liminal conditions, imitative processes can escalate and trickster figures become influential. A central area for such escalating processes is the public sphere, due to its own liminal features. Focusing on the rise of the modern realistic novel in England, the article first presents how such novels further escalate theatricalisation. Through the example of Goethe, the author then shows how the best novelists, by reflecting on their own activity, made the in-depth theatricalisation of social life in modernity a central theme of their works.

In liminal tension towards giving birth: Eros, the educator

The discussion on the nature of eros (love as sexual desire) in Plato’s Symposium offers us special insights concerning the potential role played by love in social and political life. While about eros, the dialogue also claims to offer a true image of Socrates, generating a complex puzzle. This article offers a solution to this puzzle by reconstructing and interpreting Plato’s theatrical presentation of his argument, making use of the structure of the plays of Aristophanes, a protagonist in the dialogue. The new image of Socrates, it is argued, signals Plato’s move beyond the way he envisioned so far his master, best visible in his introducing Diotima, a prophetess who takes over the role of guide from Socrates; and by his presenting the truth about Socrates through Alcibiades, cast into the role of a boastful intruder, a central figure in Aristophanes’ comedies. Eros and Socrates are both ‘in-between’ or liminal figures, indicating that Socrates is still entrapped in the crisis of Athenian democracy. The way out, according to the new philosophy of Plato, lies in redirecting eros from the hunting of beautiful objects that are to be possessed, to elevating the soul to the essence of beauty as a primary means for further generating beauty, in particular through engendering and educating children, thus reasserting a harmonious coexistence with the order of the cosmos.

Individualization as Depersonalization: Minority Studies and Political Anthropology

This article offers an introduction to the special issue. It presents the arguments why a political anthropological perspective can be particularly helpful to understand the connected political and cultural challenges and opportunities posed by the situation of ethnic and religious minorities. The article concisely introduces the major anthropological concepts used, including liminality, trickster, imitation, and schismogenesis; concepts that are used together with approaches of historical sociology and genealogy, especially concerning the rise and fall of empires, and their lasting impact. The suggested conceptual framework is particularly helpful for understanding how marginal places can become liminal, appearing suddenly at the center of political attention. The article also shows the manner in which minority existence can problematize the depersonalizing tendencies of modern globalization.