Something Must Be Done: Reinhart Koselleck and 'The Dialectic of Crisis'

Taking its starting point in Carl Schmitt’s “state of exception” and Reinhard Koselleck’s various intellectual histories of the term crisis, this essay argues that the idea of crisis is best approached in terms of the historical dialectic especially as it is manifested in the separation of morality from politics that is characteristic of European modernity. The dialectic of crisis invites us to think and, above all to act otherwise whereby an action in response to any given situation is what reveals the truth of that situation only in so far as it is open to a new future.

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Work Title Something Must Be Done: Reinhart Koselleck and 'The Dialectic of Crisis'
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Robert Lambert Bernasconi
Keyword
  1. Crisis
  2. Dialectic
  3. Reinhart Koselleck
  4. Carl Schmitt
  5. State of Exception
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Eco-Ethica
Publication Date 2024
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.5840/ecoethica202582068
Deposited April 21, 2026

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Version 1
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  • Created
  • Added Something_Must_Be_Done.docx
  • Added Creator Robert Lambert Bernasconi
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated Publisher Identifier (DOI) Show Changes
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.5840/ecoethica202582068
  • Updated Keyword, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Crisis , Dialectic, Reinhart Koselleck, Carl Schmitt, State of Exception
    Publication Date
    • 2025-08-20
    • 2024