My article ‘Political Correctness’ as the core of politics. With Nietzsche Against the New Right was published in the new supplement of the Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy on the crisis of the democratic constitutional state in the 21st century. In the short article, I focus on the distinction between a right-wing Nietzsche reading, in which political correctness is criticized as slave morality, and a left-wing Nietzsche reading, from which political correctness appears as a struggle for privilege. In this way I also criticize the widespread skepticism of political correctness in the left-liberal millieu.

The most detailed and developed version of my theses on political correctness was published in Leviathan 1/2020: ‘Political Correctness’ as Slave Morality? Towards a Political Theory of Privilege Critique.

I recommend the other contributions in the supplement The Crisis of the Democratic Rule of Law in the 21st Century, published by Kristin Y. Albrecht, Lando Kirchmair and Valeria Schwarzer. The volume presents a comprehensive legal theoretical analysis of the current situation.

Abstract

The article develops the concept of “political judgement” - a new, affirmative understanding of the phenomena which are criticized as “political correctness” by both right-wing and liberal commentators. To that end, it takes the right’s claims, that “political correctness” is slave morality in Nietzsche’s sense seriously and proposes a systematic reading of a right-nietzschean position. Connecting current “political-correctness”-critique and Nietzsche in this way allows for a deeper understanding of the right-wing rationality and the affective energy underlying the critique. Through contrasting this right-nietzschean reading with its systematic opposite, a left-nietzschean position, the article shows that the essence of politics is to redesign norms which distribute privilege. What is critically labelled “political correctness” is, thus, better captured by the notion of “political judgment”, because - given an interest in emancipation - such politics should not be demonized when they limit the freedom provided by undeserved privileges .

Quote and download

Schubert, Karsten (2020): „Political Correctness“ als Kern der Politik. Mit Nietzsche gegen die neue Rechte. In: ARSP-B (Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie - Beihefte), Band 164: Die Krise des demokratischen Rechtstaats im 21. Jahrhundert, 167-176. https://elibrary.steiner-verlag.de/content/chapter/99.105010/9783515126748/167-177/1
Download Academia.edu