Fifteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The aim of the study is to show the crisis as an inspiration to create new ideas. The area of research is political thought. The argumentation for the hypothesis that the crisis may inspire the creation of new concepts will be carried out on the example of political theories from antiquity to the 21st century. Some examples: Socrates and Plato (crisis of Athenian democracy); Thomas Hobbes (crisis of absolutism); the political philosophy of Edumnd Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville and the French theocrates - Joseph de Maistre and Louis de Bonald (crisis caused by the French Revolution); Carl Schmitt’s concept (crisis of the Weimar Republic, parliamentarism); Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy (crisis of democracy and the emergence of totalitarianism); Slavoj Žižek (crisis of liberal democracy). The main part of the considerations focus on the identification and talking over the attitudes adopted by political thinkers towards the crisis in the political sphere and on showing the inspiring aspects of the crisis. It is worth emphasizing that the chosen thinkers represent various political options - from right-wing to left-wing.