Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

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The label "fanaticism" is increasingly
perceived threat posed by religious fu
But rarely is the history of the term an
its uses examined. Here, a philosophic
"fanaticism" from Martin Luther to th

Since the spectacular arrival of the threat of ter

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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine
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our complacent post-communist interregnum, t
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democracies has been
new presented
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by ubiquitous
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Prominent figures have
Leave your identified fanaticism as
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or even a deep psychopathology that could enab
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supposed increase
later. in supranational violence. Fe
Alain Finkielkraut 2 (in El Pas and Librati
recognized the emergence of a new global subj
polemics against the Mohammed cartoons publ
the fanatic without borders. While Savaters
clerical irreverence of a libertarian sort that spa
Finkielkraut, as shown in several of his recent w
obsession for confrontation with Islamic into
illiberal fanaticism. This seems again to reitera
Republican guise, Huntingtons noxious theses
civilizations. In both cases, the spectacle of fan
circulation through the global media, is the obje
opinion, rather than the causes of fanaticism or
which it originates (realities like that of the con
towards Muslim immigrants in Denmark).
The introduction of the concept of fanaticism in
todays ideological conflicts indeed seems to le
cultural and psychological causes than political
material ones. Fanaticism often appears as an in
transcends historical events, or even, in an Orie
a characteristic of fantastical entities such as t
anti-historicity of the concept in part allows for
hypocritical use. Fanaticism, as we cannot help
Pgina 2 de 17
Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

hypocritical use. Fanaticism, as we cannot help

painful frequency, is often projected onto an en
definition, one cannot negotiate. As Amos Oz w
a Fanatic, it is enough to read the newspaper,
television, to explain the ease with which peopl
anti-fanatic, anti-fundamentalist, with which th
Jihad crusade. 3 Words that ironically gain we
that the very same Oz, who advocates imagini
initially spurred by the recent war in Lebanon t
reasoning, proposing an apologia for Israel and
Hezbollah that fails any test, empirical or mora
title of one of his recent opinion pieces gives us
dangers of partisan anti-fanaticism: Why Israe
peace. 4

The growing use of the term fanaticism to ide

the present, particularly the exacerbation of reli
terrorist phenomenon, is rarely accompanied by
genealogy of the term and the variety of its app
philosophical history allows us instead to view
initiate a critique of its rhetorical and analytical
essay, I would simply like to assess a few mom
this exquisitely polemical concept, moments th
recognize the persistence of certain leitmotifs i
fanaticism, including the psychologization of p
the universal, and the image of Islam.

Luther: Fanatical anti-fanaticism

The discourse on fanaticism emerged from the
ideological, theological, and political battles th
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

ideological, theological, and political battles th

Reformation. Born, more precisely, of Luther a
ferocious polemics against the various urban an
movements against the German lords. Inspired
rebel preachers like Thomas Mntzer, and in
plebeian and millennial communism, these mov
authority of the princes and clerics. They tried,
peasants modus vivendi from the first manifes
Marx would call primitive accumulation, to ave
the products of their labour. As we will see, the
(from Schwrmerei, sometimes translated as
the founder of Protestantism to condemn the re
an important role in Kants critiques. But what
to in the midst of the violent battles of 1524-25
Augustinian terminology, the ideologues of the
this social movement an attempt to eliminate th
between the earthly city and the City of God, o
through a politicized and plebeian millennia
realization of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Melanchthon, who refers here to the translation
Politics, this meant eliminating the role of civ
the attempt to overthrow the secular authorities
disastrous pride, a religious catastrophe.

The conflict between Luther and the peasant re

extremely well the plurisecular mechanism that
condemnation of fanaticism into the justifica
cruel (and fanatical) political and military repre
theological arguments and characteristically po
(such as allowing the Reformation to survive in
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

caused by the peasants wars), in May 1525 Lu

criticized the German principles very harshly, w
the robbing and murdering mobs of peasants
great enthusiasm the armies of the princes to ex
like dogs, and claims, quoting St Paul, that w
princes side) dies in such battles couldnt have
death. Luther saw in the fanaticism of the pe
the case of the fanatic par excellence, the preac
assault against social order as such. It is here, a
discourse on fanaticism, that the oppositional a
the term shows itself most clearly. Firstly, as on
the sans-culottes of the French Revolution f
Burkes remarks on epidemical fanaticism
always the rebellious plebeian; fanaticism is of
mad request for social equality. As many hav
etymology of the German term shares this them
masses, to quote Etienne Balibar, inasmuch as
swarm (Schwarm), the plebs, a multitude in rev
by recent historical research, that which presen
articulated movement with specific institutio
demands (the maintenance of the peasant assem
of levies and taxes) and which used the relig
Gospel) in minimalist and pragmatic terms, is d
detractors (in order to better justify an unsparin
theological aberration, a disease of the spirit.

Fanaticism in the Enlightenment

While the Other of the Protestant discourse is r
peasant in revolt, the Enlightenment, which is o
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

peasant in revolt, the Enlightenment, which is o

defined in large part as a battle against religiou
other, equally ambiguous figures of the fanatic.
Voltaires Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophe
Mohammed forces one of his hitmen (or sid
based in part on the stories that circulated abou
Assassins of Hassan-i-Sabbah) to murder the sh
refuses to bow to the religion of the fanatic. Th
unknowingly, son of the sheikh, which leads Do
read the tragedy as a demonstration of the profa
fanaticism, its destruction of all things sacred, i
all familial ties. 6 For others, the fact that Volta
Straussian figure, who doesnt believe in dog
instrumentalizes fanaticism for his political end
reading of the tragedy. 7 More generally, Voltai
demonstrates the effects of a short circuit betwe
abstract category, fanaticism, and its identificat
culture. The persistence in equating fanaticism
Enlightenment Orientalism cannot easily be set
Islam is simply a mask, or a case among many
pathology.

It is instead in the austerity of Kants Enlighten

fanaticism detaches itself clearly from a cultura
Kant it is in the very structure of subjectivity, in
between knowledge and practice, that the fanat
found. In his Critique of Practical Reason (178
between religious fanaticism, which pertains
knowledge of God, and the much more dangero
fanaticism, which, instead of making its action
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

fanaticism, which, instead of making its action

simple duty, tries to base morals on sentiments,
sublime faith. The moral fanatic is a subject wh
submit himself to the universality of duty, can e
meaning murderer. For Kant, fanaticism is alwa
the limits of human reason, a metaphysical deli
of Judgement (1790), fanaticism which for L
an excess of iconoclasm (the anti-representatio
Reform) is described aesthetically as a de
beyond all bounds of sensibility. This is almos
metaphysical idolatry (in fact, Kant praises Jew
Finally, in his essay What Does it Mean to Ori
Thinking? (1786), fanaticism projected ont
regard, justifiably, as a sworn enemy of fanatic
identified with an ontological dogmatism that c
have access to the supersensible.

What is the political core of the Kantian discou

Firstly, for Kant fanaticism is linked to an obse
it believes itself to be universal, reveals itself to
is the case in nationalistic fanaticism, which Ka
cosmopolitanism. In Kant, the defence of autho
encountered in Luther reemerges: denial of any
the requirement in politics for a respect of auth
representative institutions. This is explained no
cautious disposition, but by one of his possible
fanaticism, as the confusion of a regulatory ide
example) with a constituent plan that may be af
subjectively. This tendency to neutralize a con
can be seen clearly in Kants complex reaction
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Revolution, well analyzed by Hannah Arendt in

and judgement. While the rebel sans-culotte is
fanatical and pathological figure, the revolution
saved and universalized through its effect on th
judges it in terms of human history and the sign
conveys. In this way, Kants Conflict of the Fac
paradoxically without justifying the actors of th
revolution as a test of the moral inclination of o
(repeating a dichotomy presented in the Critiqu
Anthropology [1798], and various other texts) d
fanaticism and enthusiasm, with the latter unde
the ideal that does not flow over into the fanat
it hic et nunc.

Hegel and the excess of Islamic uni

The concept of fanaticism (for which the Germ
both Schwrmerei and Fanatismus) plays an e
role in the works of Hegel. While in Kant we a
cognitive and affective disposition, a spurious r
metaphysical impulse, in Hegel fanaticism is de
passage in the progressive universalization of S
by Domenico Losurdo, 8 German thought from
characterized as a philosophical response to the
prospect of emancipation represented by the Fr
the conceptual transcription of the revolution, f
short circuit between the abstract universal and
realization, a manifestation of subjective freedo
negativity, in its active refusal of any determina
known, in the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)
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known, in the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)

this negating movement of abstract, subjective
force behind the Reign of Terror and its ruthles
an idea that Alain Badiou has recently brought
in order to summarize the essence of the twenti

In the Philosophy of Right (1821), Hegel return

speaking of a fanaticism of destruction that is
elimination of suspected individuals, in the reje
stabilization of the revolution in any determine
In the field of politics, if the fanatic strives for
ideal, he at any rate ends up fatally underminin
organization, inasmuch as his negative freedom
only in the destruction of the particular. In an a
Philosophy of Right, Hegel associates this nih
injection of religious subjectivity into the objec
Insofar as religion is characterized by a strict im
totality, and the State instead depends on the di
organs, the introduction of religion into polit
wish to have the whole in every particular, wr
fulfilled only by the destruction of the particula
just the refusal to give scope to particular differ
devotion enters into the State, it reveals itself a
intolerance. This could give the impression of a
liberal or conservative, of a radical politics of p
our attention to Hegels more specifically histo
can instead note that this fanaticism of destruct
abstract, can represent an inevitable passage, an
Kant, an inclination against which we may be i
healthy dose of Enlightenment. At this point it
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

healthy dose of Enlightenment. At this point it

Hegels use of the concept of fanaticism, even i
specific role in the development of Spirit, share
with its more recent usages. One can even say t
the concept of fanaticism of destruction goes
extension to apparently disconnected cases t
of Dahomey, Hinduism, Islam. Or better, in the
on fanaticism there is a strange short circuit bet
immanent moment of the European spirit and th
non-European and ahistorical Other. Leaving as
images of a savage and frenetic Africa, and of a
the tepid waters of the Absolute, the discourse
which seems to retrace the worst of eighteenth-
contains interesting and at times surprising idea

Firstly, it is worth noting that in Hegel Islam ap

and political phenomenon. In a symptomatic ph
as the Revolution in the East. Far from the fa
despotism, 11 he sees in Islam a movement of
although one that, dominated by the Oriental p
around abstract unity (monotheism without trin
to the abandonment or forcible dissolution of p
differences, and multiplicity. In the Philosophy
Islam appears as a triumph over Jewish particu
true and proper universal character. Therefore i
pathological obsession for the particular as i
nationalistic fanaticism condemned by Kants c
but in the excess of universality that Hegel r
and political limits of Islam, whose subject is w
without qualities. It is therefore on the basis of
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without qualities. It is therefore on the basis of

fanaticism as abstract and negative subjectivity
revitalizing Orientalist discourse: Islam is exp
cannot stabilize itself in a differentiated manifo
sensuality (another element of the Orientalist
the fantasies of an Orient made of harems and o
cohesion is granted only by the One, by Allah,
of the State. So, though recognizing the univers
(also embodied, according to him, by the dignit
warriors), for Hegel its spirituality necessarily
destruction.

Setting aside the utter neglect of Islamic politic

scientific thought, which conditions such verdi
within the bounds of Hegels discourse, is it po
fanaticism as a mere dead end of Spirit? Inas
as a movement of radical universalization, I do
Hegels thought permits a simple expulsion of I
In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
formalism of Islam is explicitly flanked with t
and its terrorist dissolution of the pre-revolut
the Hegelian State aims to integrate subjectivity
organic and differentiated system of institutiona
Hegels historical thought cannot ignore the ine
certain sense progressive, nature of the fana
reminded of this political power of abstraction,
experience of the African-American leader Mal
conversion to Islam functioned as a break in the
black nationalism. As he wrote in a letter from
(during the hajj dramatized in the famous film b
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

Islam represented the one religion that erases

its society. 12

Remaining closer to Hegel, the inevitability and

fanaticism (as a movement of radical univers
by the young Hegelian Arnold Ruge in a text en
Philosophy of Right and the Politics of Our Tim
Deutsche Jahrbcher in 1842. In which sense
appear necessary to Ruge? Reflecting on the ke
the relationship between Church and State, Rug
religion manifests itself as desire (Lust) for libe
fanaticism represents an intensified religion,
(Wollust) for liberation that is born from a prior
blockage of the routes to emancipation. Again t
returns, with its insane but comprehensible re
destroy the obstacles to social equality. It is in h
the practical pathos of the fanatic that Ruge s
one of our contemporaries. Indeed, he writes:
something to explode, one goes up in smoke wi
ultimately, while not sparing oneself, one also s
horribly to ones purposes. 13 But while many
might read this pathos (or this pathology) in an
Ruge it was a consequence of the failure to inco
for liberation into the mechanisms of the State.
declares that as long as there are batteries to m
defend with ones life, we will have no history
14

Conclusion: Beyond liberalism and f

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Today it is good to keep Ruges considerations

Cold War, the discourse on totalitarianism op
with an extremely impoverished version of the
that had already been articulated in German phi
especially evident in this discourses desire sim
egalitarian force of the French Revolution, ofte
Talmon and even Arendt) as the remote, but fun
all the ills of our time. State socialism too was
psychological and religious key, leaving aside s
sociological analyses. Sensationalist texts on th
Stalin, for example, have obscured the institutio
terror and their material and economic context,
the eminently pragmatic and opportunistic char
that led to the gulags, as well as the Machiavell
moderation in Stalins political trajectory.

The anti-communist thought of the twentieth ce

regarded fanaticism as the cause rather than t
evils (see for example the reflections of Emil C
Aron 17 ), has given rise to the purely ideologica
a liberalism of scepticism and compromise, on
fanaticism, on the other. According to such thin
not simply an erroneous but inevitable tendency
(Kant) or a necessary phase of extremism in the
humanity (Hegel). It is a pathology to be eradic
fanaticism not only forgets that sceptics and lib
capable of causing enormous harm, or indeed e
legitimated by a just war, which wars against
definition), and that not all reactionaries can be
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definition), and that not all reactionaries can be

fanatics, but it also ignores the lesson of Rug
fanaticism can only be the result of a politics o
and not of an abstract battle of ideas. Does this
the term fanaticism should simply be abando
is an illusion, a chimera?

Not necessarily, but, following the traces of the

wrestled with it, it is up to us contemporaries to
a precise historical, political, and psychologica
present and not simply as a talisman for exorcis
absolute enemies. Perhaps a first step would be
predicate of certain actions and political discou
defining political subjects as fanatics sans ph
of Luther and the rebel peasants shows, the des
enemies as fanatics is often the sinister prelu
like dogs, or like unlawful combatants.

1. Fernando Savater, "Fanticos sin front

February 2006, www.atrio.org/?page_id=
(http://www.atrio.org/?page_id=96).

2. Alain Finkielkraut, "Fanatiques sans fro

Libration, 9 February 2006.

3. Amos Oz, How to Cure a Fanatic, Princ

University Press, 2006 [the title of the sh
Help Us to Divorce, London: Vintage, 20
critiques of Oz and other left Zionist inte
Laor, "You are terrorists, we are virtuous
Books, 17 August 2006, 11, and Ran HaC
Intellectuals Love the War", www.antiwa
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Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

Intellectuals Love the War", www.antiwa

2006, antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=94
(http://antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=9

4. Amos Oz, "Why Israeli missiles strike fo

Standard (London), 20 July 2006.
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn41
(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/m

5. Peter Blickle, From the Communal Refo

Revolution of the Common Man, Amster

6. Dominique Colas, Civil Society and Fan

Histories, trans. Amy Jacobs, Stanford, C
University Press 1997.

7. Franois Busnel, "Voltaire, le retour",

2004.

8. Domenico Losurdo, "Liberalism, Conse

Revolution, and Classic German Philoso
the Freedom of the Moderns, Durham 20

9. Alain Badiou, The Century, trans. A. To

Polity, 2007.

10. G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, para

Eduard Gans. Available at:
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/heg
(http://www.marxists.org/reference/archi

11. Alain Grosrichard, The Sultan's Court: E

the East, London: Verso 1998; Maxime R
the Mystique of Islam, Seattle: Universit
1987.
http://www.eurozine.com/fanaticism-a-brief-history-of-the-concept/ Pgina 15 de 17
Fanaticism: A brief history of the concept Eurozine 23-03-17 18)19

1987.

12. Malcolm X Speaks, ed. G. Breitman, New

59.

13. Arnold Ruge, "Hegel's Philosophy of Ri

Our Times", in The Young Hegelians: An
Lawrence S. Stepelevich, Cambridge 19

14. Ibid.

15. Isaac Deutscher, Stalin, A Political Biog

Oxford University Press 1967.

16. E.M. Cioran, "Genealogy of Fanaticism"

of Decay, trans. R. Howard, New York: A

17. "Le fanatisme, la prudence et la foi", Pre

PUBLISHED 7 DECEMBER 2006

Original in Italian
Translation by Anna Wolf
First published in Reset 97 (2006)
Contributed by Reset (http://www.eurozine.com/journals/reset/)
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