Etienne Balibar, “Critical Reflections on the New Definition of the Human Species“

What is the role of critical theory today and who is it for? What kind of maps can theory provide in the context of entrenched capitalist crisis? These are some of the questions posed by this seminar series. In the aftermath of various mutations of twentieth-century ’critical theory’ (Frankfurt School, ’French Theory’, etc.), proponents of ’postcritique’ have argued that critical theory has ’run out of steam’. Instead, this seminar series starts from the premise that 21st-century crisis has also generated dynamic new ways of reconsidering these questions. A critical theory of the present is necessarily a crisis theory. In this session, Etienne Balibar will give a talk entitled ‘Critical Reflections on the New Definition of the Human Species’: