Browsing by Author "Diken, Bulent"

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Flattery and the Misanthrope
(Wiley, 2025) Diken, Bulent; Akcali, Elif; Tuzun, Defne
Molière's Alceste is often discussed with reference to his misanthropic personality, but what he aspires to doing, truth-telling, has received relatively less attention. This is curious especially if we consider that Alceste defines flattery, the opposite of truth-telling, as his main adversary. Indeed, it is Alceste's hatred of flattery that explains his misanthropy, not the other way around. We will first discuss the significance of flattery. Then, we trace the consequences of this idea in the play drawing on Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle where they define flattery as a relation to untruth and in opposition to friendship. In Plato's Gorgias, however, a second sense of flattery transpires: distorting ideas and practices through instrumental use. We ask what a reflection on flattery in these two interrelated senses can contribute to our understanding of Molière's comedy. What frames our discussion is the relation between Alceste and Philinte (as a stand-in for the social), on the one hand, and the relation between Alceste and Célimène (as a stand-in for seduction) on the other. Alceste cuts an abject figure in relation to both Philinte and Célimène. We end with a discussion of how Alceste can, for all his abjection, continue to fascinate us.
Hate Speech as an Abuse of Freedom of Speech
(Kadir Has Üniversitesi, 2022) UYSAL, RAHMİ; Diken, Bulent
The thesis thematises the actuality of abuse of free speech through three different – early modern, modern, and near-future – accounts of this nexus, demonstrating how the abuse continuously takes on new appearances. I initially define abuse of freedom of speech as hate speech in terms of corrupting free speech by populism through demagogy, commercialisation, and security concerns. I argue that hate speech no longer emerges in the classical form of insults and swears against particular minorities or people. Instead, it originates from demagogy, the reduction of free speech to a commodity, the psychological pressure of security politics, and the culture of fear. I name this form of hate speech the abuse of free speech. In doing this, I use mixed methods research. I firstly handle the critical film of Ken Russell's, the Devils (1971) through the textual analysis method of film studies. The Devils is interesting to reconsider in a contemporary context because of its explicit focus on the demagogic element in the nexus of parrhesia, cancellation, and self-censorship. Later, the study turns the Circle (2013), a novel by Dave Eggers, which elaborates on how the attempt at creating a transparent society causes the perversion of free speech through commercialisation. I examine the novel via literary analysis. In the next chapter, the study discusses how security concerns and fear legitimise hate speech through critical discourse analysis of former US President Donald Trump’s speeches on immigrants. To conclude, I articulate, in a prism, how populism corrupts free speech and leads to hate speech through demagogy, commercialisation and security concerns, and I underline the problems of populism by associating them with liberal democracy.
Citation - WoS: 2
Citation - Scopus: 2
Neo-Slavery as Instrumentalization: Amazon, Surrogate Motherhood, and Mobile Phones
(Wiley, 2025) Diken, Bulent; Gocer, Tugba; Ucak, Mesut
Despite being perceived as a remnant of the past, slavery persists in today's increasingly economized and biopoliticized world. To thematize the actuality of slavery, we initially return to Aristotle's discussion/justification of slavery as instrumentalization of human beings. Then we revisit Plato's allegory of the cave through three distinct readings. This threefold reading enables us to frame three present-day cases/examples to reconsider slavery: the Amazon, surrogate motherhood, and the cell phone. The concept of use is pivotal for such reconsideration. Finally, we propose the concept of neo-slavery. Although the traditional accounts of slavery understand slavery through its triangulation with property relations and force, we suggest another triangulation here: neo-slavery, instrumental use, and consent. In this way, the examination of the three cases casts the traditional accounts of slavery in a new light, revitalizing the concept of slavery by putting it into a different use.