hegemonya

Bildiğimiz ve pratiğini yaptığımız haliyle “felsefe”nin geleceğine dair bir düşünümü (felsefenin aynı isim altında mı, diğer bilimsel ya da toplumsal pratiklerle birlikte mi yoksa onlardan ayrı olarak mı varolmaya devam edeceği, vb.) aynı anda hem acil hem de kafa karıştıcı kılan şey, diğer nedenlerin yanısıra, bu düşünümün bize çoğunlukla söylem ile kurum arasındaki birlikteliğin coğrafi-tarihsel konumuyla ilgili değerlendirmeler üzerinden ulaşıyor olmasıdır.

Tunisia and Egypt were both model countries. They were success stories. Tunisia had reaped much Western praise. Former French president Chirac spoke about the Tunisian “economic miracle” that allowed the regime to feed and house the people and to give them health and education. What else, he added, should the people want? President Sarkozy declared two years ago that the space for freedom was expanding in Tunisia. The former US secretary of defense Rumsfeld praised Tunisia as a “successful country” because it created an “environment that is hospitable to investment, enterprise and to opportunity for their people.” A senior State Department official commended Tunisia for its “impressive economy and social structure.”

In contrast to its self-portrayal as the ‘East’ vis-à-vis France, Germany’s national self posed as the ‘West’ in relation to its Slavic neighbors. Studia Zahodnie in Poland has meant German Studies while Ostforschung in Germany meant Polish studies. The imagining of East/West in virtual reality does not stop at the German-Polish border. Posited as the ‘East’ by Germans, Poles regarded themselves as ‘Europeans’ against the ‘Asiatic’ Russians. In turn, Russians, underprivileged as ‘Tartars’ in Europe, could represent themselves as Europeans confronting Asian neighbors as indicated in the Dostoyevsky’s diary.