Trust and Violence

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Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2012-04-02
Publisher(s): Princeton Univ Pr
List Price: $60.00

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Summary

The limiting of violence through state powers is one of the central projects of the modern age. Why then have recent centuries been so bloody? In Trust and Violence, acclaimed German intellectual and public figure Jan Philipp Reemtsma demonstrates that the aim of decreasing and deterring violence has gone hand in hand with the misleading idea that violence is abnormal and beyond comprehension. We would be far better off, Reemtsma argues, if we acknowledged the disturbing fact that violence is normal. At the same time, Reemtsma contends that violence cannot be fully understood without delving into the concept of trust. Not in violence, but in trust, rests the foundation of true power. Reemtsma makes his case with a wide-ranging history of ideas about violence, from ancient philosophy through Shakespeare and Schiller to Michel Foucault, and by considering specific cases of extreme violence from medieval torture to the Holocaust and beyond. In the midst of this gloomy account of human tendencies, Reemtsma shrewdly observes that even dictators have to sleep at night and cannot rely on violence alone to ensure their safety. These authoritarian leaders must trust others while, by means other than violence, they must convince others to trust them. The history of violence is therefore a history of the peculiar relationship between violence and trust, and a recognition of trust's crucial place in humanity. A broad and insightful book that touches on philosophy, sociology, and political theory, Trust and Violencesheds new, and at times disquieting, light on two integral aspects of our society.

Table of Contents

Prefacep. ix
Introduction: The Mysteryp. 1
Trust and Modernityp. 9
Two Scenes from Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krullp. 10
Trustp. 12
Practices of Social Trustp. 17
Trust and Seriousness-The Gretchenfragep. 21
Trust and the Construction of the Wep. 27
We Can't Not Trustp. 33
Reorientationp. 35
The Bearers of Premodern Social Trustp. 39
The Problem of Trust within Modernityp. 44
Trust in Modernityp. 52
Power and Violencep. 54
Kratos and Biap. 54
A Phenomenology of Physical Violencep. 55
Locative Violencep. 57
Raptive Violencep. 60
Autotelic Violencep. 62
Reduction to Bodyp. 66
Psychological Violence/Autotelic Biasp. 69
Fragmentation: The Destruction of the Ip. 71
Complementary Oppositesp. 74
Power-Without Violencep. 76
Coercive Powerp. 79
The Temporality of Powerp. 80
Reward Power, Coercive Power, and Violencep. 80
Richard III: A Flawed Power Calculusp. 83
Consent as a Function of Temporalityp. 86
Participatory Power, Trust, Legal Regulationp. 89
Monopolyp. 92
Delegationp. 93
The Dynamics of Demonopolizationp. 95
Participatory Power and Violencep. 97
Modernity and Violencep. 99
Delegitimation/Relegitimationp. 101
Marsyasp. 101
Max Stays Seatedp. 102
Permitted, Prohibited, Mandatedp. 103
Civilization and Barbarismp. 106
The I and the Idea of Humanityp. 110
Disgustp. 116
Shakespeare and the Dawning Awareness of Violence as Wrongp. 127
Curtailing Violence and Preserving Trustp. 145
Relegitimation (1): The Rhetoric of Nation and Civilizing Missionp. 153
Bounding the Nationp. 167
The Guillotine and the Puppyp. 169
Relegitimation (2): The Rhetoric of Eschatological Purgep. 175
Relegitimation (3): The Rhetoric of Genocidep. 180
Modernity and Its Discontentsp. 184
Trust in Violencep. 187
Violence-Trust-Power: The Devil and the Little Bishopp. 187
Auschwitz-Gulag-Hiroshimap. 191
Escalating the Instruments of Violencep. 196
Modernization and the Gangp. 205
Demodernization and the Gangp. 219
The Logic of Terrorp. 231
Macbethp. 239
Why the Jews?p. 242
When the Impossible Becomes Possiblep. 246
Trust in Violence and the Role of Personalityp. 248
Trust in Violence and Self-Trustp. 250
Violence and Communicationp. 259
Cola Gentile Speaksp. 259
Sociology's Silencep. 261
The Disappearance of the Third Partyp. 266
Coping (1): Delegitimation by Criminal Procedure and the Exclusion of the Third Partyp. 274
Coping (2): The Authority of the Victim and the Replacement of the Third Partyp. 278
Coping (3): Instrumental Interpretation and the Denial of Communicationp. 280
Excursus: A Brief Theory of the Desperado, or, Did William Tell Really Liberate Switzerland?p. 287
Displaying the Instruments of Torture-Again?p. 302
Angst and Self-Assurancep. 305
Polonius, His Will and Testamentp. 309
Notesp. 313
Bibliographyp. 359
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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