Abstract
I was lucky enough to be born with two passions: philosophy and the world. Very early in my life, critical theory came to help reconcile them. Since I encountered Adorno and Horkheimer in college, I have always been doing both history of philosophy and critical theory as if they were just two sides of the same coin. When we look at the past, we always do it from the perspective of the present, and when we look at the present, we do it from the point of view of a certain understanding of where we come from.
It is this spirit that drove me to Prague, where I have been introduced by Alessandro Ferrara. I first met him in the context of the Italian Seminar for Critical Theory, which used to meet then in Gallarate, in a small, austere setting close to Milan. It is in that context, that of the specifically Italian gathering for critical theorists, that Alessandro first invited me to Prague. I was then an unknown PhD student from Florence and the fact that there would be such a space, where people like me could get a chance to speak with critical theorists from all over the world just by submitting a paper proposal, was a breath of fresh air.
Imagine how much breathing I did when I arrived there. The breadth of topics, of countries represented, of people in different stages of their careers, was astonishing. But even more impressive was the spirit of equality that animated those sessions. In both plenary lectures and panels, the passion for critique seemed to be the major driving force of the gathering. This, together with its truly open and pluralistic spirit, is in my view the great force of the Prague spirit.
It is within that spirit that I have returned to Prague whenever possible and that I have presented there all of my major book projects. The number of voices who have provided helpful feedback and criticism and have shaped my intellectual path is too large to be mentioned here. Many of them, beginning with Alessandro Ferrara, Marίa Pίa Lara, Rainer Forst, Nancy Fraser, Jean Cohen, Andrew Arato, Richard Bernstein and Martin Saar, have become much more than intellectual interlocutors. They are among my dearest friends.
Among all the presentations and sessions, the one that I remember most vividly is when I presented an essay on human rights and imagination. I gave that talk and discussed it with the usual animated audience while, literally, breast-feeding my 40-days daughter. This is not something that you can do in many academic settings. You need a supportive and truly open-minded environment. That is what I have always found in Prague.
It was also after that talk that Rainer Forst invited me to Frankfurt for a Vertretungprofessur. That was my first teaching job. I owe it to Prague, and to Rainer of course, that my first academic job was in the school’s own city. The passage from there to the New School for Social Research, where I was lucky enough to find my academic home, was very short indeed, notwithstanding the many kilometers. It is therefore not an exaggeration to say that without Prague I would not be where I am. And despite the different forms and shapes that my work has been taking throughout the years, I think it still exhibits the same passion for critique that I first experienced and practised there.