Drawing on critical readings of Augustine Derrida Hegel Schmitt andBenjamin Shapiro develops what he refers to as a political somatics. Theauthor is preoccupied... » 

Drawing on critical readings of Augustine Derrida Hegel Schmitt andBenjamin Shapiro develops what he refers to as a political somatics. Theauthor is preoccupied by the way desire and habit are the conditions ofpossibility for meaningful political affiliation but he also shows how theyconstantly risk being held hostage to contingency. Both he concludes areimportant resources for democratic politics. Shapiro marshals both historicaland contemporary philosophical accounts of embodiment in order to explain animportant contemporary political question How is the nationstate able tocohere as a functioning political unit despite internal differences and thevagaries of the market? «