My name is Gavin Rae. I'm here at University Carlos III working on the project Sovereignty and Law
between Ethics and Politics.
And prior to coming here I was an assistant professor at the American University in Cairo
I specialize in Post-Kantian Philosophy with specific emphasis on questions of ontology
the ethical - political relationship and the subjectivity
I´ll be working on the project Sovereignty and Law between Ethics and Politics which looks at
three research questions: the first is what do Ethics and Politics refer to?
The second looks at the relationship between those two conceptual categories
and the third engages with a development of a
particular ethical-political relationship
and questions surrounding that, such as what legitimizes a particular understanding?
What authority figures, both conceptually and politically speaking can we use to understand that particular
conception. And I'll be developing this through two monographs: The first one
which will be called The Problem of Political Foundations in Carl Schmitt and Emmanuel Levinas
We´ll look at the problem of the ethical - political relationship from the perspective of the political
and that monograph is now being finished and I would hope have it published quickly
and the second one, which is what I'm looking at now will be on the relationship between the ethical
and the political from the perspective of the ethical
and there I´ll be looking at the way in which Symbolic Order manifested through narratives, and stories,
conceptual frameworks and so on, creates our moral order and gives our existence a significance of life.
The idea behind both of those monographs is to engage with the foundations of both the ethical,
and the political, and the relationship between both.
And I´m very happy to be here at the University Carlos III, had a very warm welcome from everyone here
and especially my colleagues on the department of Humanities, Philosophy, Literature and Language
and I look forward very much for the next three years.
