SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper takes Ricœur’s position that philosophy must be useful in the real world. With this core assumption, the focus is upon consideration of political languages in this age of extremes and then, briefly, of religious identities in this age of demanding recognition. Each phenomenon - political languages and religious identities – can be seen as condensed into the negative and artificially exaggerated polarities between secularism and Islamism and a powerful inductive fallacy. Moreover, academic researchers are under pressure because research is more politicised than ever before. Ricœur’s writings about language and violence and secularism can help researchers to attain clarity. His early unpublished work on negation is particularly useful for analysing the ideological polarization that appears to have been effected between certain belief systems. This early work also helps to explain human tendencies towards a ubiquitous calculus of negation that must be addressed.