Political Platonism

Alexander Dugin’s Political Platonism offers a seminal analysis of the contemporary philosophical crisis from one of the best-known writers and political commentators in post-Soviet Russia. Through a series of essays, course transcripts, and a single long interview—each remarkable for the depth of its learning and the boldness of its vision—Dugin exposes the profoundest roots of the Western philosophical tradition, offering his view of why it has reached its final terminus, and his indication of where a new beginning must be sought.

The works collected in this volume present Dugin’s theory of Political Platonism as a fundamental philosophical and political orientation, capable at once of reviving higher political and social forms and furnishing solid ground for resistance to the collapse of the contemporary world. His multi-perspective thesis offers a thorough and thought-provoking critique of modernity and a masterful survey of Western philosophy, reaching from before Heraclitus to beyond Heidegger. In its provocative, clear-sighted analyses and its visionary flights, this book provides an invaluable reference for those already familiar with Dugin, and an intriguing introduction for those coming to him for the first time.

1. The Philosophy of Politics

2. Deconstruction of Democracy

The Concept of “Democracy” Is Not Neutral and Not Self-Evident

Demos in “Democracy”: Aristotle’s Etymology

The Metaphysical Foundations of Democracy: The Hypotheses of the Parmenides

The Hypotheses of the Parmenides and Types of Democracy

Political Platonism

3. Political Platonism and Its Ontological Bases

Part 1. Total Homologies of Power in Platonism

Part 2. The Structures of Platonopolis and the Hypotheses of the Parmenides

Part 3. The Aristomorphosis of Politics in Aristotle

Conclusion

4. Traditionalism against Devilopolis

From Progress to Eschatology: A Change of Reference Points

Traditionalism as Philosophy and Its Appearance in Russia

René Guénon: The Foundations of Philosophy

Julius Evola’s Revolt Against the Modern World

Traditionalism and Non-Conformism

Reasons for the Relevance of Traditionalism

Towards Political Platonism

Critique of Devilopolis: Opening the “World Egg” from Below

Russia’s Eschatological Choice

5. Plato’s Relevance for Russia and the Platonic Minimum

6. Christianity and Neo-Platonism

7. Heraclitus and Contemporary Russia

8. A Conversation about Noomachy

9. The Existential Theory of Society

Implicit Sociology

Volk Als Dasein

The Existential Structure of the Volk

The Project of Authentic Society: The Existential Empire

The Narod and Its God: The Religion of Selbst

10. Thinking Chaos and the Other Beginning of Philosophy