Focussing on the problem of resistant philosophy, this essay re-examines and dialectically rehabilitates the dialectics of grand revolutionary theory, pointing out the dialectic relation between these abstractions and the practices of their realizations. Taking cues from Alain Badiou’s turn to a mathematical Platonism in an event-oriented ontology, Ruda's ambitious argument follows the structure of the three logical forms of negation to differentiate that relation, ultimately pleading for multiple negations in dealing with the doubled temptation of faithfulness to revolution, and its opposite. Thus by overcoming and re-framing the thought of the seemingly still contemporary 20th century, a 21st century becomes conceivable.

This volume contrasts a number of recently suggested concepts of the political – each of which connects to certain instances of art and literature in its discourse – with questions concerning the rigidity of those connections: How strongly do such claims to politics depend on their specific examples, what is the scope of their validity to understand art with regard to politics, and how can they help us grasp the political within other pieces of art? In each case, manners of thinking concepts of the political, the mutual resistance of such concepts and their academic treatment, and the turn towards specific readings informed by those concepts converge.

The essays collected in “Thinking Resistances. Current Perspectives on Politics, Community, and Art“ engage with political phenomena in their interrelations with arts as well as with recent theoretical and philosophical perspectives on the very meaning of politics, the political, and community.

With contributions by Armen Avanessian, Friedrich Balke, Judith Butler, Simon Critchley, Anneka Esch-van Kan, Josef Früchtl, Andreas Hetzel, Jon McKenzie, Dieter Mersch, Chantal Mouffe, Maria Muhle, Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Stephan Packard, Wim Peeters, Jacques Rancière, Juliane Rebentisch, Gabriel Rockhill, Frank Ruda and Philipp Schulte.