metalinguistic
Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of dialogue relationships between units of speech communication as manifestations and enactments of co-existence ...
talk about
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studie ...
; a political dialogue about politics itself. In this mode, metapolitics takes on various forms of inquiry, appropriating to itself another way toward the discourse of politics and the political. It assumes a self-conscious role of mediating the analytic, synthetic, and normative language of political inquiry and politics itself.
The language used for studying, analyzing, and describing a language is a ''
metalanguage
In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to describe another language, often called the ''object language''. Expressions in a metalanguage are often distinguished from those in the object language by the use of italics, quot ...
''. In current usage and
praxis
Praxis may refer to:
Philosophy and religion
*Praxis (process), the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realised
* Praxis model, a way of doing theology
* Praxis (Byzantine Rite), the practice of fait ...
, the term ''metapolitics'' is often used in relation to postmodern theories of the Subject and their relation to
political theory
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
. In its broadest definition, ''metapolitics'' is a discipline that studies the relationship between the state and the individual.Other "meta-" discourses: Since ''Metapolitics'' in its current usage takes on
inter-disciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
characteristics, it is often discussed in relation to other disciplines, including mathematics (science) and art. When mathematicians are concerned with utilizing the formula, signs, and language of mathematics in order to talk about the formal system itself they are engaging in a metalanguage. To discuss the system of axioms which constitutes the foundation of mathematical talk (ie.,
calculus
Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...
or
set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly concer ...
), mathematicians (or any lay person) would occupy themselves with ''metamathematics'' (talk about mathematical talk). Those who occupy themselves with the examination, analysis, and description of the language of science, occupy themselves with ''metascience''.
Contemporary views
Two important contemporary thinkers in the field of metapolitics are
Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure, École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gil ...
and
Jacques Rancière
Jacques Rancière (; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring '' ...
. Discussing Badiou's ''Metapolitics'', Bruno Bosteels asserts that:
See also
*
Metaphilosophy
Metaphilosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of philosophy, is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy characte ...
References
Further reading
*Carlo Gambescia, ''Metapolitica. L’altro sguardo sul potere'', Edizioni Il Foglio Letterario 2009, .