Karimis study is a vast undertaking that revisits Islamic religious thought through deconstructive and hermeneutic methods. Deconstruction is understood as an internal analysis that dismantles conceptual figures from within and recomposes them, thereby exposing how religious meanings are generated. Its central strength lies in the intercultural dialogue it stages between Islamic intellectual history and Western philosophy.
It is no exaggeration to say that research into Hans Vaihingers philosophical work has experienced a remarkable upswing in recent years. This is encouraging and is clearly reflected in the two new publications discussed here. These include, on the one hand, a facsimile reprint of the second edition of the »popular edition« of Vaihingers magnum opus, Die Philosophie des Als Ob, first published in 1924, and, on the other hand, the two-volume work Forschungsgrundlagen Hans Vaihinger, which is of great historical value in the field of philosophy, primarily due to the letters to and from Vaihinger contained therein.
Dirk Westerkamp (Von (Autor)) Geboren 1971; Studium der Philosophie, Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft; 2003 Promotion; 2004-10 Juniorprofessor für Sprachphilosophie und Ästhetik an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel; 2010 Gastprofessor an der Universität Lille; seit 2010 Professor für Theoretische Philosophie und Direktor am Philosophischen Seminar in Kiel.
Democracy is widely seen to be in crisis. In recent decades authors mostly named market imperatives and sometimes a trend towards expertocratic rule as reasons. Today, the focus has shifted to right-wing populism. This review discusses books that not only aim at a better understanding of this threat - with the book of Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey even pointing to fascist tendencies - but also discuss possible solutions. A main topic are appeals to revive civic virtues and republican attitudes. While Julian Nida-Rümelin calls for the strengthening of civic culture along with basic rights and liberties, Felix Heidenreich also proposes that political communities exert stronger demands on individual citizens. Taking an historical perspective, Philipp Lepenies points out that todays democracies have almost always started as elite projects. The review posits this as a problem that also affects the proposals for todays democracies. On the one hand, these proposals offer little that could win back the masses attracted to right-wing populism. On the other hand, they tend to sacrifice liberal rather than democratic elements in order to save liberal democracy. If, as Nachtwey and Amlinger argue, we face a developing democratic fascism (which they only tackle with social psychology), this might be the wrong direction to look for solutions. Under conditions of economic stagnation and stark inequalities, Western democracy is increasingly threatened by itself, or more specifically by electoral expressions of frustration, an urge for revenge and a will for power as such.
