Political ontology and international political thought

Vassilios Paipais

Palgrave Macmillan - Basingstoke

2017

This book challenges received notions of ontology in political theory and international relations by offering a psychoanalytically informed critique of depoliticisation in prominent liberal, post-liberal, dialogic and agonistic approaches to pluralism in world politics. Paipais locates the temptation of depoliticisation in their labouring under the fundamental fantasy of various guises of foundationalism (in the form of either political anthropology or ontology as "in the last instance" ground) or, conversely, anti-foundationalism (the denial of all grounds, yet still operating within a foundationalist imaginary).