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Known Unknowns: How Philosophy Has Responded to Fear of the Post-9/11 World

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The Impact of 9/11 on Religion and Philosophy

Part of the book series: The Day that Changed Everything? ((911))

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Abstract

Can a field as unhistorical as philosophy say anything worthwhile about 9/11, which has been described as not merely historic but world-historical? Giovanna Borradori raises this question in the introduction to her book of interviews, conducted only weeks after the event, with philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. As she notes, even Aristotle suggests that philosophizing is out of place in such times.2 He calls poetry more philosophical than history, because it makes universal claims about “what such or such a kind of man will probably or necessarily say or do,” while history makes particular ones about “what, say, Alcibiades did or had done to him.”3 The sense that 9/11 was in some way unprecedented—the sense that “everything changed” on that date—certainly makes this view attractive; but, historians being quite as capable as poets or philosophers of making generalizations, it cannot be entirely correct. Borradori turns to G. W. F. Hegel, who coined the notion of a world-historical event, to prove that “nothing is more philosophical than history.”4 Even did this not strike me as an overstatement, I would venture that one can explain the differences and the similarities between the philosophical and the historical approaches without recourse to Hegel’s enigmatic and controversial theories. When one considers the ends of the disciplines of philosophy and history, the relevance of philosophical reflection to events—world-historical or otherwise—comes into focus.

The whole game of history and power has been turned upside down, as have the conditions of analysis. One must take time to reflect. As long as events were standing still, one had to anticipate and outrun them. But when events accelerate so much, one has to slow down—without becoming engulfed in a jumble of words and in the clouds of war, and without losing sight of the unforgettable flash of images.1

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Notes

  1. Jean Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism,” Telos 121 (2001), 134.

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  2. Giovanna Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 2–3.

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  3. Aristotle, Poetics 1451b5-10, trans. Ingram Bywater, in The Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. Richard McKeon (New York: Random House, 1941).

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  4. See E. R. Emmett, Learning to Philosophize, Second Edition (London: Pelican, 1968), 11–12.

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  5. Isaiah Berlin, “The Purpose of Philosophy,” in Concepts and Categories: Philosophical Essays, ed. Isaiah Berlin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 2.

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  6. One offender is to be found in Stanley Fish, “Truth but No Consequences: Why Philosophy Doesn’ t Matter,” Critical Inquiry 29 (2003), 389–417.

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  7. Haig Khatchadourian, The Morality of Terrorism (New York: Peter Lang, 1998).

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  8. I borrow the vocabulary of “great” and “little” traditions, although rather loosely, from Robert Redfield. See, e.g., “Civilizations as Cultural Structures?” in Human Nature and the Study of Society: The Papers of Robert Redfield, 2 vols. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1962)

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  9. On the care of the self, see Benjamin R. Bates, “Care of the Self and American Physicians’ Place in the’ War on Terror’: A Foucauldian Reading of Senator Bill Frist, M.D.,” lournal of Medicine and Philosophy 31 (2006), 385–400.

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  16. I do not intend the appellation of “autodidacticism” perjoratively. By it, I mean the historically informed application-cum-exposition of high philosophical theory, usually with reference to specific current events or trends and often parlayed by way of interviews or newspaper pieces. It is most commonly pursued by continental philosophers, perhaps because, outside the English-speaking world, philosophy is taken far more seriously as a way to approach such matters in public. For Derrida and Habermas, see once again Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror; for Baudrillard, see “The Spirit of Terrorism.” A very good example is Nicola Abbagnano, The Human Project: The Year 2000, trans. Bruno Martini and Nino Langiulli (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002)

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  19. Despite the ubiquity of the two approaches, Haig Khatchadourian appears to be alone in explicitly contrasting them. See Haig Khatchadourian, “Terrorism and Morality,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 5 (1988), 134.

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  20. For prominent examples of violence analyses and violence-against innocents analyses, see Michael Walzer, Instand Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, Second Edition (New York: Basic Books, 1977/1992), 197–198

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  35. Articles on just war theory that make reference to 9/11 include the following: Brian Orend, “Justice after War,” Ethics and International Affairs 16 (2002), 43–56

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  45. A selection of these articles is as follows: Matthew R. Silliman, “Weighing Evils: Political Violence and Democratic Deliberation,” in Social Philosophy Today: War and Terrorism, ed. John R. Rowan (Charlottesville, VA: Philosophy Documentation Center, 2004), 129–136

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  50. Omar Dahbour, “The Response to Terrorism: Moral Condemnation or Ethical Judgment?” Philosophical Forum 36 (2005), 87–95

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  51. Karsten Struhl, “Is War a Morally Legitimate Response to Terrorism?” Philosophical Forum 36 (2005), 129–137

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  53. A selection of these items is as follows: Fritz Allhoff, “Terrorism and Torture,” International Journal of Applied Philosophy 17 (2003), 121–134

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  54. Michael Langford, “A Moral Education Discussion Topic of Current Concern,” Prospero 10 (2004), 21–24

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  55. Jean Maria Arrigo, “A Utilitarian Argument against Torture Interrogation of Terrorists,” Science and Engineering Ethics 10 (2004), 543–572

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  56. David Sussman, “What’ s Wrong with Torture,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 33 (2005), 1–33

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  57. John M. Berkoff, “Defeating Terrorism without Fighting a War,” Criminal Justice Ethics 24 (2005), 47–51

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  58. Larry May, “Torturing Detainees during Interrogation,” International Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2005), 193–208

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  65. See Wilkinson, Political Terrorism, 21–29, and Paul Wilkinson, Terror and the Liberal State (London: Macmillan, 1977).

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  66. For this kind of view, see Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998)

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  69. Walter Laqueur, The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)

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  70. Walter Laqueur, “Terror’ s New Face,” Harvard International Review 20 (Fall 1998), 48–52

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  71. Jose Vegar, “Terrorism’ s New Breed,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 54 (1998), 50–55

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  73. Steven Simon and Daniel Benjamin, “America and the New Terrorism,” Survival 42 (2000), 59–75

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  74. Nadine Gurr and Benjamin Cole, The New Face of Terrorism: Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction (London: Tauris, 2002)

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  75. Steven Simon, “The New Terrorism: Securing the Nation against a Messianic Foe,” Brookings Review 21 (2003), 18–24.

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  76. See Ariel Merari, “Terrorism as a Strategy of Struggle: Past and Future,” Terrorism and Political Violence 11 (1999), 52–65

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  77. David Tucker, “What Is New about the New Terrorism and How Dangerous Is It?” Terrorism and Political Violence 13 (2001), 1–14

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  78. Thomas Copeland, “Is the’ New Terrorism’ Really New? An Analysis of the New Paradigm for Terrorism,” Journal of Conflict Studies 21 (2001), 91–105

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  79. Isabelle Duyvesteyn, “How New Is the New Terrorism?” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 27 (2004), 439–454

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  80. Jonny Burnett and Dave Whyte, “Embedded Expertise and the New Terrorism,” Journal for Crime, Conflict and the Media 1 (2005), 1–18

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  85. J. M. Selgelid, “Democratic Defense Spending in an Age of Bioterrorism,” American Journal of Bioethics 5 (2005), 49–50.

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  87. Howard Trachtman, “Who Are the Guardians Guarding?” American Journal of Bioethics 2 (2002), 47.

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  1. Westfield State College, Massachusetts, USA

    Liam Harte (Assistant Professor of Philosophy)

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  1. Liam Harte
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  1. White Plains, New York, USA

    Matthew J. Morgan

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© 2009 Matthew J. Morgan

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Harte, L. (2009). Known Unknowns: How Philosophy Has Responded to Fear of the Post-9/11 World. In: Morgan, M.J. (eds) The Impact of 9/11 on Religion and Philosophy. The Day that Changed Everything?. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101609_14

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