[Luojia Forum] Australian Academician Patton Talks about European Continental Political Philosophy

On May 8th, Paul Patton, Academician of the Australian Academy of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, gave a lecture at the 235^thLuojia Forum, bringing a report titled "Path of Political Philosophy in Contemporary Continental Europe". Shen Zhuanghai, deputy secretary of the party committee of WHU, presented a commemorative certificate for him.

From the perspective of French contemporary critical theory after the 1960s, Patton discussed the political philosophy of contemporary continental Europe. After summarizing the theory of post-French structuralists such as Deleuze, Gattari, Derrida, Foucault, he further elaborated the uniqueness of post-structuralist theory, and the intrinsic relevance of post-structuralism and political philosophy.

Patton compared the differences between post-structuralist political thoughts and Rawls's justice theory, and analyzed them one by one on how to carry out critical practice of philosophy. He talked about Deleuze and Guattari’s attention to the conditions of social change, deconstructive philosophical analysis method developed by Derrida, and Foucault's genealogical research. By contrasting Rawls's "Utopia of Reality" theory, Patton explained why post-structuralist philosophy could be reasonably viewed as political philosophy.