SOVEREIGN CRITIQUE I

Abstract

This chapter discusses the sovereigns who are demanded to eliminate all presupposition as it is exercised in the absolute beginning. It also points out the sovereignty's demand to suspend (epokhé) presupposition, heteronomous regulation. It explains how there is no prince or sovereign beginning-principle if it does not emerge from pure decision, without anterior motivation, force of habit, or histories. The chapter talks about the sanctioned beginning as the product of a principle and a previous habit rather than of pure decision. It analyzes critique as a modern “critical attitude” that was conceived in exemplarily fashion by Cartesian philosophy as hyperbole or the evil genius who decides on the beginning principle without principle or beginning, without condition, on the beginning.