Saul Newman (born 22 March 1972) is a British
political theorist
A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...
who writes on
post-anarchism
Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisat ...
. He is professor of political theory at
Goldsmiths College, University of London
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
.
Newman took up the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for political philosophies filtering 19th century
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
through a
post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
lens, and later popularized it through his 2001 book ''
From Bakunin to Lacan''. Thus he rejects a number of concepts traditionally associated with anarchism, including
essentialism
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...
, a "positive"
human nature
Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...
, and the concept of
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. The links between poststructuralism and anarchism have also been developed by thinkers like
Todd May
Todd Gifford May (born May 13, 1955) is a political philosopher who writes on topics of anarchism, poststructuralism, and post-structuralist anarchism. More recently he has published books on existentialism and moral philosophy. He is currentl ...
and
Lewis Call
Lewis Call is an American academic and central post-anarchist thinker. He is best known for his 2002 book ''Postmodern Anarchism'', which develops an account of postmodern anarchism through philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunk ...
.
He received his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
, and his
Ph.D
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
. His work has been translated into Turkish, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian, and has been the subject of a number of debates amongst anarchist theorists and activists as well as academics.
Works
* ''
.'' Lanham MD: Lexington Books 2001
* ''Power and Politics in Poststructuralist Thought: New Theories of the Political''. London: Routledge 2005
* ''Unstable Universalities: Postmodernity and Radical Politics.'' Manchester: Manchester University Press 2007
* ''Politics Most Unusual: Violence, Sovereignty and Democracy in the 'War on Terror. (Co-authored with Michael Levine and Damian Cox). New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2009
* ''The Politics of Post Anarchism''. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press: 2010
* (ed.): ''Max Stirner.'' Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2011
* ''Political Theology: a Critical Introduction.'' London: Polity 2018
Notes
I. For reviews of ''From Bakunin to Lacan'' see:
* ''From Bakunin to Lacan: anti-authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power.'' Review by Simon Tormey. Contemporary Political Theory, October 2003, Volume 2, Number 3, Pages 359–361.
* ''Lacanian Anarchism and the Left.'' Review by Todd May, Theory & Event 6:1, 2002.
* ''From Bakunin to Lacan: anti-authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power.'' Review by Nathan Widder, History of Political Thought, 23 (4): 2002.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Saul
1972 births
Living people
Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London
British anarchists
British anti-capitalists
Postanarchists
Poststructuralists
University of New South Wales alumni