Aesthetics and Transcendence in the Arab Uprisings
Abstract
Politics is regarded as a science for it tells us what to do, when it deals with measurable
concepts. But politics is also an art—a form of practice, telling us how and when
to do things. Lest we forget, the arts of persuasion and inspiration are part of politics.
And, every art also produces an aesthetic. By aesthetics I mean, the ways by which
we think about art: recall, art is what we do and how we do things. Th ose things
and acts that become visible when we do and produce certain actions—jubilation, conversations,
speeches, greetings, protests, banners, deaths, wounds and other expressions—all constitute
the means by which thought becomes visible, effective, and sensible. These forms and
visible expressions of the sensible constitute the aesthetics of politics. Only the
patient will know where the momentum for change in the Arab world is heading. But,
if the outcome of the Arab uprisings is unclear, then there is one certainty: the
people have changed the order of the sensible. Thanks to peaceful protests in the
face of regime brutality, tens of millions of people have performed change in myriads
of expressions: aesthetics. Their feelings have cumulatively changed, and how people
feel about governance is ultimately what politics is all about.
Type
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/5743Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1163/187633711X591512Publication Info
Moosa, E (2011). Aesthetics and Transcendence in the Arab Uprisings. Middle East Law and Governance, 4. pp. 171-180. 10.1163/187633711X591512. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/5743.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Ebrahim E.I. Moosa
Professor in the Department of Religious Studies
Ebrahim E.I. Moosa is Professor of Religious and Islamic Studies in the Department
of Religious Studies.
His interests span both classical and modern Islamic thought with a special focus
on Islamic law, history, ethics and theology.
Dr Moosa is the author of Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination, winner of the American
Academy of Religion's Best First Book in the History of Religions (2006) and editor
of the last manuscript of the late Professor Fazlur Rahman, Revival and Reform in
Islam: A
This author no longer has a Scholars@Duke profile, so the information shown here reflects
their Duke status at the time this item was deposited.

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