ExcerptIn recent years, much attention has been given to the notion of political theology, while much less attention has been given to political anthropology. Yet the two terms beg to be thought together. What follows is an account of the political stakes involved in Hans Blumenberg's anthropology, a reading focused on themes that Blumenberg himself largely chose to leave inexplicit or esoteric, themes indicated via oblique nods at the concepts of others rather than through clear and distinct references.1 This essay (...) deals largely with Blumenberg's relationship to Carl Schmitt and Arnold Gehlen as it is mediated through Thomas Hobbes. I…. (shrink)

What is the pedagogical place of silence in the Anthropocene classroom? Should we as teachers—particularly as teachers involved in the education of aesthetic sensibilities—understand our classrooms as sites in which awareness of our Anthropocene predicament is spread, sites in which a general sense of the urgency of our times is disseminated? And is this awareness not best spread via explicit facts and data, the key story of climate change and biodiversity loss, with these themes serving as the background against which (...) we interpret the symbolic abstractions of aesthetic objects? This article follows Ursula Le Guin's example to a conclusion that perhaps differs from the consensus. Our overall argument is that cultivating a certain sort of silence relative to the Anthropocene can be profoundly educational for our students, if—of course—that silent teaching is done artfully. (shrink)