What's Left of Philosophy: Recent Episodes
Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris
In What’s Left of Philosophy Gil Morejón (@gdmorejon), Lillian Cicerchia (@lilcicerch), Owen Glyn-Williams (@oglynwil), and William Paris (@williammparis) discuss philosophy’s radical histories and contemporary political theory. Philosophy isn't dead, but what's left? Support us at patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
In this episode, we talk with James Chamberlain about his new book, Living Through Capitalism, in which he argues that capitalism is hostile to biological life processes and our ability to know them well enough to lead flourishing lives. Capitalism mutilates all life, and not just human life, in its harnessing of life for its own ends. Only in communities that resist this “strange teleology” that capitalism imposes on life can we truly be free.
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
James Chamberlain, Living Through Capitalism: Resisting Devastation Through Communities of Life (Edinburgh University Press, 2025).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we take on Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Although he is now more well known as an economist because of his later book The Wealth of Nations, Smith shows himself to be a philosopher in his own right in Moral Sentiments. Smith, contrary to popular characterizations, wanted to show that our conduct is not solely motivated by egoism or selfishness, but that we are also motivated by the fortunes of others. For Smith it is only through sympathy that society can achieve stability and harmony. What follows is a comprehensive examination of how we develop virtue, expound rules for justice, and cultivate emotional maturity through our sympathy for others. This episode is all of you who feel society has become more emotionally dysfunctional, lost its sense of shame, and want to understand why it is so frustrating when our so-called ‘friends’ refuse to hate what we hate. Join the pod as we learn about propriety and justice!
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, intro Amartya Sen (New York: Penguin, 2009).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we talk about Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s audacious and influential text Intellectual and Manual Labor. A fellow traveler of the Frankfurt School, Sohn-Rethel argued that the social activity of commodity exchange involves a set of real abstractions that actually precede and give rise to the structure of human consciousness and its capacity for mental abstraction. This really puts Kant in his place: the supposedly pure reason of the transcendental subject is historically conditioned by the fact that at some point people started trading stuff with each other. It also means that after the communist revolution succeeds we’ll have a totally new set of a priori categories with which to synthesize experience. That’s worth looking forward to!
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Intellectual and Manual Labor: A Critique of Epistemology, trans. Martin Sohn-Rethel (Chicago: Haymarket, 2021).
Jacob McNulty, “Frankfurt School Critical Theory as Transcendental Philosophy: Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Synthesis of Kant and Marx,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 60:3 (2022): 475-501.
Mladen Dolar, “‘Who baptized Marx, Hegel or Kant?’ On Alfred Sohn-Rethel and Beyond,” Problemi International 5 (2022): 109-133.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode we discuss the essays of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton compiled as the Federalist Papers. We talk about the philosophical justifications of the recently signed US Constitution, focusing especially on the tension between, on one hand, their passionate defense of republicanism against tyranny and despotism, and on the other, their hostility toward democratic forces. We place the problem of the durability of the republic at the core of their thought, and while noting the successes of their constitutional arrangement, ask about the costs of these successes.
leftofphilosophy.com
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the literary and cultural theories of Raymond Williams. Famous for classic works of literary analysis like The City and the Country and concepts like ‘structures of feeling’, we join Williams in analyzing how our emotions, impulses, and tone in poetry and novels evolve in relation to economic development. Many structures of feeling today are built on exploitation, but maybe that’s not the end of the story.
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature (Oxford University Press, 1977).
Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (Penguin Random House Vintage Classics, 2016).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we welcome Nicholas Vrousalis onto the show to discuss his recent book Exploitation as Domination: What Makes Capitalism Unjust. The basic thesis of the book is that capitalist exploitation should be understood as a problem of domination, and thus freedom, rather than a problem of fairness or vulnerability. For Vrousalis where there is exploitation there is domination, but there can be domination without exploitation. Throughout our conversation Nicholas takes us through his defense of normativity in Marxist theory, how normativity relates to social theory more broadly, and what makes domination under capitalist social relations structural rather than interpersonal. We conclude with an outline of what an emancipated economy would look like.
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Nicholas Vrousalis, Exploitation as Domination: What Makes Capitalism Unjust (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023).
Get a free copy of the book here: https://academic.oup.com/book/44885?login=true
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Our live show at the Epiphany Center for the Arts is right around the corner! Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 8. It’s a one-night only event, so don’t miss it! Get your tickets here:
https://link.dice.fm/J7acfdeb77d4
Also on August 7 here in Chicago: Pelle Dragsted will be discussing his book Nordic Socialism with William Banks and Matt McManus at Pilsen Community Books at 6pm! Details can be found here:
https://pilsencommunitybooks.com/events/46798
See you soon!
leftofphilosophy.com
Music: “Deny” by dreem
In this episode we discuss Axel Honneth’s Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life. As one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called ‘3rd generation’ of Frankfurt School critical theory, we ask whether Honneth’s notions of ‘normative reconstruction’ and ‘social freedom’ build constructively upon the legacies of critical theory or depart from them in a more liberal direction. Lillian reminds us that he has good answers to some of our more acerbic criticisms of his work, but we ultimately wonder about what critical theory has lost in its most recent iteration—one that, we think it’s clear, is far less antagonistic to capitalist society than its predecessors.
GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE LIVE SHOW HERE:
https://link.dice.fm/J7acfdeb77d4
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Axel Honneth, Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, trans. Joseph Ganahl (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).
Music:
"Sorriso" by Monument Music | https://youtu.be/YR4AD4Qim3w?si=UNthWq28mZf9Wbcv
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu |https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire. First published in 2000, this seminal post-Marxist text analyzed changes to power, sovereignty, and class structure in the age of globalization. Twenty-five years ago, it was the Left who was anti-globalization. Today, it’s the Right. So, we might ask, are we still in the Age of Empire?
GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE LIVE SHOW HERE:
https://link.dice.fm/J7acfdeb77d4
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire (Harvard University Press, 2000).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s landmark book After Virtue. MacIntyre, an ex-Marxist and committed anti-liberal, offers a defense of the Aristotelian tradition and its search for the truly common good against the dominant tendency of liberal societies to reduce morality to individual preferences. Modern society, MacIntyre believes, is one where we live fragmented lives, unable to narrate a coherent story of the relationship between morality and politics. Our invocations of morality ring increasingly hollow as we cannot even imagine what it would mean to convince others of what is good. We explore how the loss of morality coincides with all of us becoming moralists, why it seems we have to choose between Nietzsche and Aristotle, the costs of teaching morality like a choose-your-own-adventure buffet, and whether MacIntyre offers a compelling solution to our nihilistic times. The least we can say is that living without virtue is a real bummer!
GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE LIVE SHOW HERE:
https://link.dice.fm/J7acfdeb77d4
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Alasadair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, 3rd Edition (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007).
Émile Perreau-Saussine, Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography. trans. Nathan J. Pinkski (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022).
Michael Lazarus, Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle, Hegel and Marx (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2025).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Hi everyone! We are thrilled to announce that we will be performing live on August 7 at the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago.
This is a one-time only event and tickets are limited! Get yours here:
https://link.dice.fm/J7acfdeb77d4
Among other things, we’re planning to talk about the Communist Manifesto. The event will be filmed and released as a special episode.
We’re really excited about this – it’s going to be a fantastic time, and we hope to see you there! Thanks for all your support.
leftofphilosophy.com
Music:
“Bubble” by Sun Cuts | https://get.slip.stream/3wxjrv/
That's right, folks! Next month, Gil is teaching a class on Spinoza's Ethics at Twelve Ten Gallery in Chicago through the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
Enrollments are now open for anyone interested. Check out the course description and sign up here:
https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/spinozas-ethics/
Hope to see some of you there!
leftofphilosophy.com
Music: AMALGAM by Rockot
In this episode, we talk about Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class. In it, he argues that modern culture is basically continuous with that of predatory barbarism, except that it is drunk on the extreme surplus produced by capitalism. Under these conditions, much of human activity becomes performative: consumption, leisure, and perhaps paradoxically enough even hustle culture are all forms of demonstrating one’s superiority in a petty game of social esteem. We explore some of these paradoxes and discuss whether Veblen’s analysis still rings fully true in the 21st century, but to be honest we mostly just pour vitriol and scorn upon the extremely embarrassing members of our own ruling class. We can be petty, too!
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Bernard Rosenberg, “Veblen and Marx”, Social Research 15:1 (1948): 99-117.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the centrality of ‘representation’ in politics and political theory, guided by Hanna Pitkin’s 1967 treatise The Concept of Representation. Much of the focus is on her notion of ‘substantive representation’ – the activity of advancing the welfare and interests of others – in comparison to the empty husk of formal representation we’ve all become accustomed to in our putatively representative democracies. We explore the Anglo-American efforts to constitutionally immunize representation against advocacy and agitation by the represented, and heed Pitkin’s implicit warning that where representation is insubstantial and inadequate, hyper-investment in pale substitutes like flag and figurehead inevitably follows.
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, The Concept of Representation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss “political marxism” as a paradigm shift in Marxist thinking about historical development, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and why that should matter to philosophers with an interest in challenging easy conceptual binaries that remain entrenched even in radical circles, like between economics and politics. We take a look at the two leading figures of this kind of Marxism – Robert Brenner and Ellen Meiksins Wood – to put the conflict back into class conflict.
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Robert Brenner, “The Social Basis of Economic Development,” in Analytical Marxism, ed. John Roemer (Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 23-53.
Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism (Verso Books, 2016 [1995]).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss WLOP co-host William Paris’s recently published book Race, Time, and Utopia: Critical Theory and the Process of Emancipation. In his book, Will examines the utopian elements in the theories of W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Delany, Marcus Garvey, Frantz Fanon, and James Boggs and their critique of racial domination as the domination of social time. The crew talks about the relationship between utopia and realism, the centrality of time for our social practices, and how history can provide critical principles for an emancipated society. We even find out whether Gil, Lillian, and Owen think the book is any good!
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
William Paris, Race, Time, and Utopia: Critical Theory and the Process of Emancipation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025)
Thomas Blanchet, Lucas Chancel, and Amory Gethin, "Why Is Europe More Equal than the United States?" American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 14 (4): 480–518 (2022)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the 2007 text The Coming Insurrection, written by the pseudonymous collective The Invisible Committee. We talk about the book’s scathing condemnation of the present, its critique of everyday life in the dying late capitalist empires of the 21st century, and the kind of insurrectionary anarchism it advocates. Maybe we’re just grumpy old people who have failed to kill the cops in our heads, but we think the project dead-ends in presentist adventurism and doesn’t take seriously enough the importance of social stability and political organization. That said, we try to take a sympathetic look at the moment of negativity it expresses, and think about how it speaks to real frustrations and genuine revolutionary desires. We’re diversity of tactics people who want to build a better future together, after all!
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection (Los Angeles: semiotext(e), 2009).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, the boys talk about C.B. Macpherson’s insightful text The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism. Macpherson holds that liberal political theory from Hobbes to Locke is correct in its premises, since like it or not we basically all are defined by our properties, living in a society almost exclusively defined by market relations—but that those same market relations engender class antagonisms that progressively undermine the possibility of durable social cohesion. He wants to save liberal theory and liberal democracies from themselves, but is there a viable way forward? You know what we think: it’s socialism or barbarism, baby! Too bad it’s looking like barbarism!!
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we are joined by special guest Tommie Shelby to discuss the arguments presented in his most recent book, The Idea of Prison Abolition. We talk about the social functions that prisons serve, whether any of those are legitimate, and what the differences are between radical reformist and abolitionist positions. This conversation is wide-ranging, making connections between lots of left-wing debates, from how we explain the emergence of unjust institutions to how we argue for social transformation.
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Tommie Shelby, The Idea of Prison Abolition (Harvard University Press, 2022)
Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform (Harvard University Press, 2016)
Tommie Shelby, We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity (Harvard University Press, 2005)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
This is a short promo for Race, Time, and Utopia: Critical Theory and the Process of Emancipation (Oxford University Press, 2025), written by WLOP’s very own Will Paris. You can find the book here:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/race-time-and-utopia-9780197698877?cc=ca⟨=en&.
And check out Will’s interview about the book:
https://newbooksnetwork.com/race-time-and-utopia
Music:
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we tackle Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. In this book, Nietzsche diagnoses the cultural pathologies of a Europe that no longer seems able to take risks and experiment with life. We discuss his account of nihilism, his aristocratic commitment to the breeding of new philosophers, and why it is important not to domesticate Nietzsche’s critiques of morality. Along the way, we unpack what Nietzsche would think of philosophers today and why he thinks they have such a hard time finding the truth. Come learn the philosophy of the future before it’s too late!
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to the Philosophy of the Future, edited by Rolf-Peter Horstmann and Judith Norman, translated by Judith Norman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
You read the title! Next month, Gil is teaching a class on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason at the Goethe Institute in downtown Chicago through the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
Enrollments are now open for anyone interested. Check out the course description and sign up here:
https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/kants-critique-of-pure-reason-chicago/
Hope to see some of you there!
leftofphilosophy.com
Music: Titanium by AlisiaBeats
In this episode, we discuss Eric Blanc’s new book about the strategies re-building U.S. labor today, as well as how they can translate across movements and borders. Though many smart philosophers have declared that the labor movement is dead, workers from Starbucks to Amazon have something else in mind. So, what’s left?
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Eric Blanc, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big (The University of California Press, 2025).
https://www.laborpolitics.com
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the work of brilliant heterodox economist Karl Polanyi. We talk about his criticisms of neoclassical orthodoxy, his arguments against the commodification of land, labor, and money, and his critique of the dominance of markets in theory and in practice. Put markets in their place and regulate the hell out of them! We also consider his influence on recent leftist economic thought, and talk through what’s at stake in the difference between Marxist and Polanyian approaches to history and politics. We think there are limits to the Polanyi line, but it’s hard not to love an authentically humanist fellow traveler!
leftofphilosophy.com
References:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2014).
Karl Polanyi, For a New West: Essays, 1919-1958, eds. Giorgio Resta and Mariavittoria Catanzariti (Malden: Polity Press, 2014).
Fred Block, “Karl Polanyi and the Writing of ‘The Great Transformation’”, Theory and Society 32:3 (2003), 275-306.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the work of the late, great Fredric Jameson. Basing ourselves on his Marxism and Form, The Political Unconscious, and Archaeologies of the Future, we talk about the notion that history is only accessible in narrative form, the concept of social totality, the tension between poststructuralist criticism and historical materialist thought, and the problems plaguing the increasingly specialized and alienated intellectual division of labor in our times. What do we want from cultural studies, and what do we want from the social sciences, in twenty-first century Marxist thought? It’s a spicy one.
This is just a short teaser. To hear the full episode, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form: 20th Century Dialectical Theories of Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974)
Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act (New York: Cornell University Press, 1982)
Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (New York: Verso, 2005)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Black Reconstruction, and The Black Jacobins. What do these three texts have in common? They all aim to make a historical moment legible as a drama. In doing so, Marx, W.E.B. Du Bois, and C.L.R. James seem to show that history has a structure of repetition. But what could repetition mean? In this episode, we discuss an essay by the Japanese Marxist Kojin Karatani on Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire. We explore Karatani’s theory for why representative democracies seem condemned to degenerating into authoritarian crisis, what a Marxist concept of repetition could mean, and the relationships between political crises and economic crises. Come join us as we ring in a new year that has made it possible for “a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part.”
References:
Kojin Karatani, “On The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”, trans. Seiji M. Lippit, in History and Repetition, ed. Seiji M. Lippit (Columbia University Press, 2012).
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social
music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Another week, another German philosopher. This time, Steven Klein joins us to discuss the ideas and legacy of one Jürgen Habermas. We talk about his evolution alongside and away from the Frankfurt School, the enlightenment project at the core of his work, and why a critical theory born in crisis is a different animal than a critical theory born under conditions of relative capitalist stability. Love him or not, we can’t deny that Habermas is a giant of modern European philosophy. Shout out to the Habermaniacs.
leftofphilosophy.com | stevenmklein.com
References:
Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article,” trans. Sara Lennox and Frank Lennox, New German Critique (3)(1974): 49-55. Original published in 1964.
Jürgen Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests, trans. Jeremy J. Shapiro (Beacon Press, 1971). Original German published in 1968.
Jürgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume Two: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Beacon Press, 1987).
Steven Klein, The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Here, we finally deliver on our longstanding threat to do an episode all about influential philosopher Martin Heidegger. We give him credit where it’s due: he has a compelling account of the conditions for meaningful existence along with a resonant critique of the alienation endemic to modern society, and is responsible for making important concepts like temporality, finitude, language and historicity into core themes of 20th century continental philosophy. Of course, he’s also an unrepentant Nazi, animated by fascist ideas like originary authenticity and racial destiny, an enemy of conceptual thinking in favor of obscurantist poetics, and an idealist loser who wants us to turn away from actual meaningful things here and now so we can begin to approach the fateful question of the meaning of Being as such. We don’t like him! And we're right.
This is just a short teaser, which I couldn't help but stylize as a horror movie trailer once I had the idea. To hear the full episode, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. Joan Stambaugh (SUNY, 2010).
Martin Heidegger, “Letter on ‘Humanism’”, in Pathmarks, trans. William McNeill (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Martin Heidegger, “The Self-Assertion of the German University”, Review of Metaphysics 38:3 (1985): 470-480.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss Theodor Adorno’s essay “Free Time”, in which the critical theorist really lets his cantankerous old man flag fly. He argues that how our subjectivities are shaped by capitalist culture and work discipline makes it very difficult—maybe even impossible—to use our time off the clock in genuinely meaningful ways. Certainly we waste a lot of our precious hours consuming pointless, artless slop and participating in activities just because we feel like we’re supposed to, but is it really the case that everything we do is just unfree pseudo-activity, at best blowing off steam before helplessly getting back to work? We broadly come down on the side of low culture and hobbies, but Marvel movies and Disney adults are definitely cause for concern.
References:
Theodor Adorno, “Free Time”, trans. Gordon Finlayson and Nicholas Walker, in The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J.M. Bernstein (New York: Routledge, 2001).
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
For this very special 100th episode of the show, we set aside a few hours to answer questions submitted by listeners! We livestreamed the session on our YouTube channel, and this is the audio from that recording.
Thanks so much to everyone who submitted questions, to everyone who came to the livestream, and really to any and everyone who’s ever supported the show. We really love doing this, and are so so grateful.
Here’s to 100 more!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Some news! We are going to livestream our 100th episode recording session at 1pm Eastern / 12 noon central standard time on our YouTube channel on Sunday October 27th.
We will be answering questions! There's a form on our website's home page where you can submit yours. Tell us what you want to hear about!
We're really looking forward to it. See you soon.
https://www.leftofphilosophy.com
https://www.youtube.com/@whatsleftofphilosophy
Music: Smoke by SoulProdMusic
In this episode, we discuss the philosopher of science Roy Bhaskar and his essays in Reclaiming Reality. We discuss whether it is possible for the human sciences to overcome the fact/value distinction, what role knowledge has in self-emancipation, and what to do about middle-class surburbanites who would rather watch the world burn than take a hit on their property values. Some highlights include the pod disagreeing on Althusser, Spinoza’s joy saving the day, and settling accounts with the role of the activist-intellectual in contemporary times.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Roy Bhaskar, Reclaiming Reality: A Critical Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2011).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode we take on a Marxist classic, Rosa Luxemburg’s “Reform or Revolution,” in which she skewers Eduard Bernstein for being a feckless opportunist and for relinquishing the goal of socialism. Luxemburg takes on his argument that it’s possible for socialists to take increasing control of the capitalist state and progressively implement reforms that socialize the economy. Best diss track of all time. But don’t worry, we take Bernstein seriously, too. A ghost is haunting twenty-first century socialism, and it may very well be his – To rupture, or not to rupture? That is the question.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Rosa Luxemburg, “Reform or Revolution,” in The Essential Rosa Luxemburg (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007), 41-104.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode we take up the question: what is the State? With 1978’s State, Power, Socialism by Nicos Poulantzas as our guide, we talk about what it means to grasp the state as a historically specific form inseparable from the economy, find ourselves torn between the mutual dissatisfactions of Althusser and Foucault, and ask whether it is even possible to conceptualize ‘the capitalist state’ as such. Doing so might be necessary for political strategic reasons, but O, abstraction! Along the way we give some of our favorite French thinkers a bit of a hard time. It’s meant with love. Mostly.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Nicos Poulantzas, State, Power, Socialism, trans. Patrick Camiller, with an introduction by Stuart Hall (New York: Verso, 2014)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode we talk about the weird little unfinished utopian novel The New Atlantis, written by founding enlightenment figure Francis Bacon. We talk about his fetish for differential novelty, his understanding and valorization of knowledge production, and his ambivalent status as a pivotal figure between medieval and modern science. He’s right that European rationality is sickly, but what can orgiastic science deliver for utopian consciousness? Not clear! But it definitely would be cool to be able to make meteors and multiply natural forms.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, in Bacon et. al., Three Early Modern Utopias (New York: Oxford, 2009)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the educational philosophy of the American pragmatist John Dewey. Focusing on his 1938 treatise Experience & Education we explore questions concerning the ends of education, what it means to be an effective educator, and the relationship between experience and history. Dewey advocates for a form of education that focuses less on knowledge accumulation and more on cultivating the capacities of students for freedom through the enrichment of their experience. Other topics include Dewey’s controversial naturalism, the tension between Deweyan pragmatism and Marxist social theory, and finally why the traditional lecture still has a lot to recommend it!
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
John Dewey, Experience & Education (New York: Free Press, 2015)
John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Penguin Books, 2005)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss the contributions of political theorist Norman Geras to socialist debates about revolutionary ethics, movement democracy, and justice. He argues for a right to revolution, but that there’s a difference between political and social revolution, and that this difference tells us something about which ends justify which means. Other topics include state theory, dual power, and the role that Marxism can play in social movements today.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Norman Geras, “Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution,” Socialist Register 25(1989): 185-211.
Norman Geras, “Democracy and the Ends of Marxism,” New Left Review 1(203)(1994): 92-106.
Norman Geras, “Human Nature and Progress,” New Left Review 1(213): 151-160.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we talk about the late, great Charles Mills and his landmark book The Racial Contract. Forcefully arguing that the modern discourse of egalitarianism and freedom is underwritten by a tacit commitment to global white supremacy, Mills develops an immanent criticism of liberalism that remains faithful to many of its core values. We discuss the limits and promises of liberal universalism, the potential reform of contractarian logic, and whether white people really mean it when they say they want to abolish whiteness. Rest in peace to a really real one.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss Robert Nozick’s libertarian political philosophy as presented in his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia. We consider his challenges to leftist thought, especially the sort of left liberalism championed by the likes of John Rawls. We take seriously his demand for an argument for egalitarianism and his critique of patterned accounts of distributive justice. But we also give him a hard time for some of his more absurd arguments, from those about swimming pools to those concerning wealthy basketball players and the all-important human need to feel like a very special boy. When it comes to libertarianism, this is in fact them sending their best.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974).
Katrina Forrester, In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we tackle the concept of violence as it appears in the revolutionary and anticolonial work of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. Throughout the episode we link together Fanon’s endorsement of revolutionary violence against colonial domination with his work as a psychiatrist. How could Fanon argue for the necessity of violence while bearing witness to its regress effects on both those who suffer violence and those who deploy it? What makes the revolutionary violence of the colonized qualitatively distinct from the violence of colonizers? Finally, what can Fanon's dialectic of violence tell us today? This episode casts Fanon as both revolutionary and care worker and explores the tensions and resonances between the need for freedom and the costs of struggle.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, trans. Richard Philcox (New York: Grove Press, 2004).
Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, trans. Haakon Chevalier (New York: Grove Press, 1965).
Frantz Fanon, Œuvres (Paris: Éditions La Découverte, 2011).
Frantz Fanon, Alienation and Freedom, eds. Jean Khalfa and Robert J.C. Young, trans. Steven Corcoran (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we are joined by Jeff Diamanti to discuss what it looks like to watch the climate change. Our conversation shifts from analytical, aesthetic, and political perspectives, as we turn our attention from critical raw materials to the future cartographies already being carved out. We explore Jeff’s notion of the terminal as the kind of space where capitalism abstracts matter and value becomes concrete. As it turns out, there’s more to see in the logistics than philosophers might think, from indigenous resistance and sabotage to a possible world of sustainable provision.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Jeff Diamanti, “Critical Raw Materials,” in Worlding Ecologies (2024), 135-43.
Jeff Diamanti, Climate and Capital in the Age of Petroleum (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Charmaine Chua, Martin Danyluk, Deborah Cohen, and Laleh Khalili, “Turbulent Circulation: Building a Critical Circulation with Logistics,” Society and Space 36(4)(2018): 617-629.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we discuss essays from throughout G.A. Cohen’s philosophical career. Cohen is known as one of the founders of Analytical Marxism, so we talk about what this tradition in Marxist thinking is about and how it handles the problems of political let-down and disillusionment that affect us all. We also get into his polemics against the libertarians and John Rawls in his essays on exploitation, freedom, and justice.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
G.A. Cohen, “The Labor Theory of Value and the Concept of Exploitation,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 8(4)(1979): 338-360.
G.A. Cohen, “The Structure of Proletarian Unfreedom,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 12(1)(1983): 3-33.
G.A. Cohen, Rescuing Justice and Equality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).
Nicholas Vrousalis, The Political Philosophy of G.A. Cohen (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we are joined by Alberto Toscano to talk about his analysis of contemporary far-right movement and ideology. We discuss his new book Late Fascism and consider the strategic and rhetorical downsides of analogizing the present moment to past instantiations of fascist politics in Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. We try to get a grip on what distinguishes contemporary fascism, why liberal discourse’s fixation on ‘totalitarianism’ fails to grasp the specificity of fascism, and ask what Black and third-world scholars can teach us on this score.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Alberto Toscano, Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis (New York: Verso, 2023).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we are joined by Ajay Chaudhary to discuss his book The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World and the political, economic, and affective sites of exhaustion reproduced through climate degradation. We examine the expanding colonial relations of what Chaudhary calls the “extractive circuit” between the both the Global South and Global North as well as widening segments of the working classes in the Global North. We dispel fantasies of both the hope that climate change will automatically unify a coherent politics for a just transition and the fear of a human apocalypse. Given this, what would a left-wing climate realism look like as opposed to burgeoning forms of right-wing climate realism that aims to extract and protect as much wealth as possible for a vanishingly small minority? Much of our conversation concerns the role of temporality in our politics and the imperative not to wait for the future to solve our climate crises. Turns out waiting for Greta Thunberg to solve all our problems is a poor strategy!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
thebrooklyninstitute.com | @materialist_jew
References:
Ajay Singh Chaudhary, “We’re Not in This Together,” The Baffler (2020) https://thebaffler.com/salvos/were-not-in-this-together-chaudhary
Ajay Singh Chaudhary, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World (London: Repeater Books, 2024).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we are joined by Matt McManus to discuss his research into the history and philosophy of right-wing politics in his book The Political Right and Equality. We discuss the nature of conservatism as an irrationalist reaction to modernist ideas about human egalitarianism, the rhetorical strategies of the right, and the historical conditions under which moderate conservatism turns over into extremist fascist reaction. We pay special attention to Edmund Burke’s aestheticization of politics and Joseph De Maistre’s formula for presenting conservative ideology as punk-rock counterculture rather than the argumentatively weak status-quo apologia it really is. It pays to know your enemy, comrades.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Matt McManus, The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity (New York: Routledge, 2023).
Matt McManus, “Liberal Socialism Now,” Aeon (2024). https://aeon.co/essays/the-case-for-liberal-socialism-in-the-21st-century
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode we delve into Judith Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself, an illuminating book from 2005 that examines subject-formation and the relationship between the self, other people, and the normative social order. We reconstruct Butler’s efforts to ground a philosophical ethics with positive claims in the insights of three theoretical traditions that have generally been understood to frustrate moral philosophy: post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. Our core focus is the question of whether Butler’s conceptions of the ‘relationality’ and ‘opacity’ of the human self can do the kind of ethical heavy lifting that they claim.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Judith Butler, Giving an Account of Oneself (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we talk with Manon Garcia about the problem of women’s submissiveness in feminist philosophy. Then we discuss longstanding feminist criticisms of the concept of consent, what we want from consent in the first place, and what it could mean in the future. And we wonder if the reason it’s so hard to talk about sex in philosophy is that we don’t really think about it philosophically enough, which is too bad, since as it turns out, good sex is an integral part of the good life.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Manon Garcia, We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Lives (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021).
Manon Garcia, The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2023).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we return to the work of Ernst Bloch and his theory concerning “aesthetic genius” and the possibility of the red sublime. Bloch attempts to construct a Marxist account of art that can explain how it is possible for aesthetic objects to provoke experiences of beauty and sublimity long after the historical conditions of their genesis have passed. Bloch thinks certain artworks contain a utopian surplus that beckons for a not-yet existing classless society. In other words, Bloch thinks we can inherit the knowledge of the real possibility of communism from the history of class domination and catastrophe. Join us as we try to make sense of these claims, dunk on the idea of art as “resistance,” and even try (in vain) to get Gil to experience the sublime!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Ernst Bloch, “Ideas as Transformed Material in Human Minds, or Problems of an Ideological Superstructure (Cultural Heritage) (1972)” in The Utopian Function of Art and Literature, trans. Jack Zipes and Frank Mecklenburg (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988), 18-71.
Filippo Menozzi, "Inheriting Marx: Daniel Bensaïd, Ernst Bloch and the Discordance of Time” in Historical Materialism 28, 1 (2020): 147-182.
Stuart Hall, “Marx’s Notes on Method: A ‘Reading’ of the ‘1857 Introduction’ [1974]” in Selected Writings on Marxism, ed. Gregor McLennan (Durham: Duke University Press, 2021), 19-62.
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we dig into the Doctrine of Right in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals to see what he has to say about the state. Turns out he’s a fan, because the state is what guarantees the possibility of justice and perpetual peace. Nice! But he also thinks that the state should be authorized to kill you. And that you don’t have the right to rebel even if the sovereign is abusing their power. And that you shouldn’t think too hard about the origin of the state. And that human beings are transcendentally disposed to malevolent violence toward each other? So let’s call this a mixed bag, maybe.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary Gregor (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this episode, we talk about David Harvey’s analysis of the urbanization process as a form of accumulated surplus capital expenditure and consider the built environment as a crucial site of class struggle. The physical constitution of the built environment in which we live mediates our forms of sociality and political dispositions, not to mention how important it is for making mass action and organization possible. So it sure sucks that the shape of its development has been determined by the needs of capital rather than those of human flourishing for a few hundred years now! Oh, and we’re really mean to the suburbs, too.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
David Harvey, “The urban process under capitalism: a framework for analysis.” In Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society, eds. Michael Dear and Allen Scott (London: Routledge, 1981).
David Harvey, “The Right to the City.” New Left Review 53 (Sept/Oct 2008). https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii53/articles/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
In this nonstandard episode, Gil and Owen are joined by Michael Peterson to talk about how dreadful utilitarianism is, consider some of the offers that folks have made to come guest on the show, and reflect on how deeply unimpressive LLMs are when it comes to actually taking a position. Just having some fun with it! Video of the recording is available to our supporters on Patreon.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
National Council on Disability, Response to Singer
https://ncd.gov/newsroom/04232015
münecat, "Sovereign Citizens: Pseudolaw & Disorder":
https://youtu.be/KcxZFmKrxR8?si=s3Xu_nH7dS6NkrWd
music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | https//schematist.bandcamp.com
Connect by Astrale | https://go-stream.link/sp-astrale
START OVER by HYMN | https://get.slip.stream/g3FFTJ
My Space by Overu | https://go-stream.link/sp-overu
In this episode, we are joined by George Washington University Associate Professor Vanessa Wills to discuss her article “What Could It Mean to Say, ‘Capitalism Causes Sexism and Racism’?” We try to figure out why critics badly understand the Marxist concept of causation as it concerns identity-based oppression, why labor and production provide the conditions of possibility for science, and whether the abolition of capitalism would automatically mean the end of racism and sexism (no, but it sure would help!). And as a treat, Hegel shows up to school us on the appearance/essence distinction!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Vanessa Wills, “What Could It Mean to Say, ‘Capitalism Causes Sexism and Racism?’” Philosophical Topics 46 no. 2 (2018): 229-246.
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we get the Perry Anderson treatment and ask if we philosophers are the problem with how Western Marxism has evolved over time. We discuss what Anderson calls the formal and thematic shifts that happened within this theoretical tradition once the philosophers got in the driver’s seat. Partly ethnographic, partly analytical, and a little more meta-philosophical than usual. We hope you’ll indulge us this once as we ask ourselves what the hell we’re doing.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Perry Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism (London: Verso Books, 1979).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this inaugural episode of our new series on ecosocialism, we discuss some writings by ecological Marxist thinker John Bellamy Foster, whose main contribution to contemporary discourse is his elaboration of the theory of metabolic rift. We talk about how this concept is meant to explain why the capitalist mode of production is environmentally unsustainable in principle, but also dig into why this approach is not totally satisfying. By the end of the discussion we’re bumming ourselves out about the unfolding climate crisis and the looming threat of ecofascism. Can’t promise that the rest of the series won’t also be a real downer! Uh, sorry about that!!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
John Bellamy Foster, “Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology,” American Journal of Sociology 105.2 (1999): 366-405
John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark, “Marx’s Ecology in the 21st Century,” World Review of Political Economy, 1.1 (2010): 142-156
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this patron-requested episode, we discuss the proposals for participatory planning and economics developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert. They contend that socialists should want to organize social production and consumption neither through authoritarian centralized planning, nor through market mechanisms, but by democratic consensus attained through federated workers’ councils. We appreciate the scope of the ambition and their visionary utopianism, and generally buy their criticisms of markets, but also discuss what we find unsatisfying in their approach. Mostly this means talking about how a system like the one they propose can’t stop a lazy scoundrel like Owen from defrauding the whole thing into the ground like it’s the USSR 2.0. But honestly it’s hard to hold that against them.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, “Participatory Planning,” Science & Society 56.1 (1992): 39-59.
Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, “In Defense of Participatory Economics,” Science & Society 66.1 (2002), 7-28.
Robin Hahnel, A Participatory Economy (AK Press: 2022).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we discuss the social theory of the Kantian critical theorist Rainer Forst in his book Normativity and Power. We work through how well his theory of the relationship between power and reason accounts for economic domination, why he thinks power and violence ought to be distinguished, and whether critical theory can escape the problem of circularity in judging the difference between better and worse reasons for acting. Do we have reasons for acting? Does it matter? Come get Kant-pilled and leave your Hegel at home!
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Rainer Forst, Normativity and Power: Analyzing Social Orders of Justification, translated by Ciaran Cronin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we discuss E.P. Thompson’s amazing article “Time, Work Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” E.P. Thompson is the legendary Marxist historian and author of The Making of the English Working Class. How did time become money? And why can’t we just pass it away? Lots of work discipline, as it turns out, which leads us to ask – maybe laziness is a virtue?
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
E.P. Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” in Class: The Anthology, eds. Stanley Aronowitz and Michael J. Roberts (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2018).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we are joined by researcher and video essayist John Duncan (@Johntheduncan) to talk about the Effective Altruism movement and why it is so comprehensively awful. Granted, it’s got some pretty solid marketing: who could be against altruism, especially if it’s effective? But consider: from its individualism to its focus on cost-effectiveness and rates of return, from its idealist historiography to its refusal to cop to its obvious utilitarianism, from its naive empiricism to its wild-eyed obsession for preventing the Singularity—it’s really just the spontaneous ideology of 21st century capitalism cosplaying as ethics. Look, if your moral project involves you working in finance or for DARPA, sees new sweatshops in the global south as a good thing, and is beloved by tech bro billionaires, you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere. It’s deeply embarrassing and accordingly we drag it for filth.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
https://www.youtube.com/@JohntheDuncan
References:
William MacAskill, “The Definition of Effective Altruism”, in Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues, eds. Hilary Greaves and Theron Plummer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).
William MacAskill, What We Owe the Future (New York: Hachette, 2022)
Adams et. al., The Good It Promises, The Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk English Revolutionary politics in the mid-17th century, and specifically the philosophy and practice of legendary 'Digger' Gerrard Winstanley. We discuss his radically egalitarian conviction that the execution of Charles I was not sufficient, and that all the 'kingly power' of landlords and owners must be abolished to complete the Revolution. We draw a stark contrast between Winstanley and his contemporary, Thomas Hobbes, while distinguishing his conception of the 'commons' and its use from that of John Locke. Did the then-existing forces of production need to be developed for modern communism to be possible? Probably yes, but look: this dude was raw.
1leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Gerrard Winstanley, The Law of Freedom and Other Writings, Penguin (Baltimore: 1973)
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (Penguin, 1975)
No episode this week BUT we've got some big news: that's right, at long last, a What's Left of Philosophy live show! Come see us on October 12th at the Free Times Cafe in Toronto, 8pm onward. More details coming soon. Thanks for everything!
leftofphilosophy.com
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we dive into Philip Pettit’s Republicanism from 1997, which argued that republicanism and liberalism are not the fast friends many assume them to be. However, many liberal and left philosophers think that neo-republicanism is just riding the coattails of liberalism or that it’s just another bourgeois moralism. So what’s the big deal? And how radical can republicanism be?
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Philip Pettit, The Common Mind (Oxford University Press, 1993).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Megan Hyska to discuss her work on propaganda. She takes us through the history of the term propaganda, what makes propaganda a distinctly political concept, and how propaganda helps create or inhibit group agency. She shows why thinking that assumes propaganda can only work by manipulating our irrationality fails to help us see that propaganda can be effective even when it does not trick or deceive us. This is a great episode for those of you interested in the relationships between effective propaganda and social power. Also if you are Hobbesian just wait until you hear what Owen has to say!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
meganhyska.com
References:
Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani, “The Injustice of Under-Policing in America,” American Journal of Law and Equality 2 (2022): 85-106
Megan Hyska, (2021) “Propaganda, Irrationality, and Group Agency,” in The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology, eds. M. Hannon & J. de Ridder: 226-235.
Megan Hyska, (2023) “Against Irrationalism in the Theory of Propaganda,” Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 9(2), 303-317.
W.E.B. Du Bois, (1926) “Criteria for Negro Art” http://www.webdubois.org/dbCriteriaNArt.html
Amia Srinivasan, (2016) “Philosophy and Ideology,” Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History, and Foundations of Science 31(3): 371-380.
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
On this episode we are joined by Dr. Søren Mau to discuss his new book, Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital. We talk about why economic power is different than violence and ideology, what’s distinctive about the human being in terms of its metabolic exchange with nature, and what this means for capitalist reproduction and the possibility of its interruption. Speaking of interruptions, we find ourselves subject to reactionary infrastructural violence when the internet crashes mid-conversation, but we manage to recover before long!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
sorenmau.com
References:
Søren Mau, Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital (New York: Verso, 2023)
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we discuss the ideas of economist and political philosopher F.A. Hayek as they appear in his 1944 book The Road to Serfdom. This influential book was written in response to what Hayek saw as the trend towards socialism in the mid-twentieth century and it offers his defense of “classical liberalism.” We examine the political and epistemological premises of Hayek’s theory of liberty and free markets, question his assumptions on human nature and cooperation, and near the end critique his odious conflation of communism and fascism. Say what you will about Hayek: at least he saved us from being subordinated and unfree! ...Right?
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, edited by Bruce Caldwell (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007).
F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, edited by Ronald Hamowy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011).
Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we finally get down and dirty with the big dog of Anglophone political philosophy, John Rawls. We discuss his 1993 book Political Liberalism, which expands on his earlier theory of justice to develop an account of the pluralistic tolerance at the heart of a liberal society characterized by the fact of a diversity of incommensurate but reasonable worldviews. We talk about what Rawlsian theory genuinely has going for it, but also pull no punches about the serious theoretical and practical limits to this most careful and aspirationally progressive exemplar of liberal political philosophy. But hey: don’t worry, we can tolerate a good liberal.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we unpack tensions between theories of equality that emphasize opportunity and outcomes in a discussion based upon Christine Sypnowich’s recent Boston Review article, “Is Equal Opportunity Enough?” We also discuss our very own William Paris’s response to Sypnowich in his essay “The Art of Equality.” We debate whether liberalism is tied to capitalist institutions, what it means to lead a flourishing life, and why French social clubs may contain part of the answer. We end with a stirring defense of equality as the best concept for social transformation.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Christine Sypnowich, “Is Equal Opportunity Enough?” https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/is-equal-opportunity-enough/
William Paris, “The Art of Equality” https://www.bostonreview.net/forum_response/the-art-of-equality/
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk about Antonio Gramsci’s book The Modern Prince. Written while imprisoned by the fascists in Mussolini’s Italy, the work is a reflection on the party as a form of organization and the importance of leadership for revolutionary socialist politics. We discuss Gramsci’s realist approach to politics as an art and science, his insistence on partisanship as a condition for objectivity in socio-political analysis, and what he might have to say about the sad state of leftist movement today. We are also joined by Owen’s adorable baby Eleni, who makes her presence known on more than one occasion.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Antonio Gramsci, The Modern Prince, in Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. and ed. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we are joined by Michael Thomas to talk about Black aesthetics and hip hop in particular. We work through what it means for hip hop to be a 'problem space' that reconstructs the cultural contradictions and political messaging of a racist society in a way that is not essentializing and that aspires to address social problems without producing easy answers. Main themes include hip hop's form, vibe, and story-telling capacity across generations.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Michael Thomas, "Singing Experience in Section.80", in Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning, eds. Christopher M. Driscoll, Monica R. Miller, and Anthony B. Pinn (New York: Routledge, 2019)
Paul C. Taylor, "Black Reconstruction in Aesthetics", Debates in Aesthetics 15.2 (2020): 9-47
Lissa Skitolsky, Hip-Hop as Philosophical Text and Testimony: Can I Get a Witness? (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020)
The five of us put together a playlist for this episode!
Big K.R.I.T. feat. Devin The Dude, Curren$y, and Killa Kyleon, “Moon & Stars”
Gary Clark Jr., “This Land”
GZA feat. Method Man, “Shadowboxin’”
Kanye West, “Blood on the Leaves”
Little Simz, “Venom”
Lupe Fiasco, “WAV Files”
Makaveli, “To Live And Die in L.A.”
Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones, Pt. II”
Nas, “N.Y. State of Mind”
Nicki Minaj, “All Things Go”
Nicki Minaj, “Here I Am”
Saba feat. Day Wave, “2012”
Vince Staples, “Like It Is”
Young Money, “Lookin Ass”
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this patrons-only episode we discuss Vladimir Lenin’s 1917 The State and Revolution. When he’s not snarkily dragging his political opponents for their opportunism and philistinism, Lenin tries to work through some of the most hotly contested ideas in Marxian political theory, including the role of the state in capitalist society and its ‘withering away’ after the revolution, the problems of bourgeois parliamentarianism and bureaucracy, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. How could this polemical intervention still be relevant for us today, over a hundred years after the October Revolution and in a very different world than Lenin’s own? Join us and find out, tovarisch!
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution, trans. Robert Service (New York: Penguin, 1992)
Ralph Miliband, “Lenin’s The State and Revolution”, at Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2018/08/lenin-state-and-revolution-miliband
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this inaugural episode of our new series on aesthetics, we discuss Friedrich Schiller’s 1795 Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man. We begin with his assessment of the French Revolution and its perceived failure to deliver on its lofty republican ideals, focusing on his ascription of this failure to the fragmentation of the modern self and society. We then attempt to wrap our minds around Schiller’s proposed corrective: an ‘aesthetic education’ that mobilizes art and beauty toward the end of dialectically unifying sensuous life and Reason, nature and moral freedom, the ‘coarser’ class of ‘savages’ and the refined ‘barbarians’. We end, frankly, by trashing the current state of cultural production and fine art, caustically noting the contemporary shortage of Schillerian aesthetic education.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, eds. and trans. Elizabeth M. Wilkinson and L.A. Willoughby (New York: Oxford University Press)
Jacques Rancière, "Schiller and the Aesthetic Promise," trans. Owen Glyn-Williams, in Aesthetic Reason and Imaginative Freedom, eds. María del Rosario Acosta López & Jeffrey L. Powell (Albany: SUNY Press, 2018)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we take a deep dive into Frantz Fanon’s first book Black Skin, White Masks. We discuss his views on racism as a form of alienation and narcissism, assess that status of reason throughout his argument, and interrogate his emphasis on futurity over history. Throughout we defend his theory of social pathology and his embrace of reason and universal humanism. This episode should be a stimulating introduction to the anticolonial and revolutionary work of Fanon for both newcomers and experts!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, trans. Richard Philcox (New York: Grove Press, 2008).
Frantz Fanon, Œuvres (Paris: Éditions La Découverte, 2011).
Frantz Fanon, “Racism and Culture,” in Toward the African Revolution, trans. Haakon Chevalier (New York: Grove Press, 1967).
Liam Kofi Bright, “White Psychodrama,” The Journal of Political Philosophy, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12290
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we are joined by Devin Zane Shaw to talk about his book Philosophy of Antifascism: Punching Nazis and Fighting White Supremacy. We discuss the concept of the ‘three-way fight’, what Beauvoir’s analysis of the antinomies of action can teach us about emancipatory violence, and the necessity of community self-defense. Ambiguity may be an inescapable condition for those of us who truly care about freedom, but you just cannot have dinner with nazis, comrades.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Devin Zane Shaw, Philosophy of Antifascism: Punching Nazis and Fighting White Supremacy (New York: Roman & Littlefield, 2020)
Devin Zane Shaw, “Seven Theses on the Three-Way Fight”, at threewayfight: https://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2021/08/seven-theses-on-three-way-fight.html
Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014)
Stanislav Vysotsky, American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism (New York: Routledge, 2021)
Leanne Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021)
Shane Burley, Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse (AK Press, 2021)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
Feeling alienated? In this episode, we are here for you. We dig into three periods of Herbert Marcuse’s thought. Marcuse was Martin Heidegger’s student in the 1920s, a member of the Frankfurt School in the 1930s, the philosopher of the New Left in the 1960s, and stays haunting the petit bourgeois in the 2020s. We pay our respects and get to the bottom of his influence on critical theory, social movements, and the culture.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Herbert Marcuse, Heideggerian Marxism, edited by Richard Wolin and John Abromeit (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955).
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we dig into some early writings by the incomparable black radical feminist and communist Angela Davis. We reflect on some of the contradictions involved in the transformation of women’s labor in the development of patriarchal capitalism and the latent potentials for the emancipated life in common that these developments nevertheless carry within themselves. We talk about the radical potential of industrializing housework, discuss strategies for the formation of effective solidarity, and—as usual—find a way to drag American suburbia. Get out there and contest capitalist power at the point of production! Those potentialities won’t actualize themselves, after all.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Angela Y. Davis, "Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation," in The Black Feminist Reader, eds. Joy James and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (Malden: Blackwell, 2000)
Angela Y. Davis, “The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective”, in Women, Race, and Class (New York: Random House, 1983)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
We couldn't put together a new episode for you this week, so we thought we'd unlock an old Patreon exclusive! Thanks to everyone who helped us pick which one by voting in our Twitter poll. We'll be back with a brand new ep next Monday.
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In this episode, the crew takes on a beloved figure of the academic 'left': Michel Foucault. The discussion gravitates around Foucault’s work in the early 1970’s on the ‘punitive society’, power as civil war, and popular rebellion. This post-‘68 period of his life and work is often seen as his most politically radical, both because of his activist involvement in the Prisons Information Group (GIP) and because he directly engages with Marxist discourse and thought. Nevertheless, the conversation quickly turns skeptical (to put it mildly). We question both the explanatory power and the political stakes of his historical studies: What is the principle of connection between the often remote historical discourses and events he examines and present conditions of life? What are the consequences of rejecting causal explanations of historical development? Above all, how salient and clarifying are his histories for emancipatory struggles in the present? We try to answer these questions, while poking a bit of fun at our Foucauldian friends and comrades. Oh and we talk about the CIA’s alleged awareness of the increasing hegemony of French theory in the academic left—apparently they loved that for us.
leftofphilosophy.com
Follow us @leftofphil
References:
Michel Foucault, Penal Theories and Institutions: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1971-1972, ed. Bernard E. Harcourt et. al., trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Picador)
Michel Foucault, The Punitive Society: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1972-1973, ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Palgrave MacMillan)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In the second installment of our “What is Liberalism?” series we discuss the relationship between liberalism and the institution of the police. If a core principle of liberalism is the equal application of the law, then some enforcement mechanism is necessary to ensure the stability of the social order. The problem is that in liberal democracies the police are asked to equally apply the law while maintaining an unequal social order. These two tasks create legitimacy crises for the state. We discuss how the liberal political economy of the United States explains the exceptional brutality of the police, why it is so difficult to think of a world beyond the police, and how redistribution would ameliorate crime and social disorder.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Matias Dewey, Cornelia Woll, and Lucas Ronconi, “The Political Economy of Law Enforcement,” Maxpo Discussion Discussion no. 20/1 (2021): 1-28.
Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani, “The Injustice of Under-Policing in America,” American Journal of Law and Equality 2 (2022): 85-106.
David Garland, “Penal Controls and Social Controls: Toward a Theory of American Penal Exceptionalism,” Punishment & Society 22(3) (2021): 321-352.
Geoffrey H. Hodgson, “What are Institutions?” Journal of Economic Issues 40(1) (2006): 1-25.
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this special holiday episode we bring in the new year by being complete and total haters! We keep it real light and breezy for this short little convo. We drag Auld Lang Syne, the concept of New Years’ resolutions, the very notion of historical dates, and also for some reason the city of Boston. At one point the discussion turns into an unboxing video, which is great content for a podcast, famously a visual medium. Oh and we read Antonio Gramsci’s 1916 essay “I Hate New Year’s Day”. We’re just having some fun with it! Happy new year to you all!
(Sorry about the spotty audio quality—we all called in to record from our various holiday locales and didn’t have our best hardware on us!)
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Antonio Gramsci, “I Hate New Year’s Day”, trans. Alberto Toscano, Viewpoint Magazine | https://viewpointmag.com/2015/01/01/i-hate-new-years-day/
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo (1947) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SID1FS7Rclg
Auld Lang Syne - Bad Recorder Cover by Brizzy Brit | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcrIvOmoxRc
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was many things, but chill was not one of them. In this patron-exclusive episode we have no chill either, getting into it about the renegade philosopher’s Discourse on Inequality, his totally bizarre fictional state of nature, and his stunningly prescient critique of modern society. You know, we aren’t primitivists at all, but sometimes it’s kinda hard to maintain that this whole civilization thing was worth it. We gave dogs anxiety disorders and spend our spare time licking the boots of our economic and political overlords! It sure seems like mistakes were made! Come, friends: take the Rousseau pill with us.
This is just a short clip from the full episode, which is available to our subscribers on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 3, ed. Roger D. Masters and Chistopher Kelly, trans. Judith R. Bush, Roger D. Masters, Christopher Kelly, and Terence Marshall (Hanover: Dartmouth University Press, 1992).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk with Jacob Blumenfeld about the concept of property in German Idealism. As it turns out, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel each had a pretty different idea of property than their Anglo counterparts who were out there apologizing for private property as a natural right and capitalism as freedom. Some might even say that socialism is what completes the system of German Idealism. They might also say that Fichte is totally bonkers. In either case, the Germans are both way cooler and way weirder than you know.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Jacob Blumenfeld, The Property Relation: Freedom, Right, and Recognition in Kant, Fichte, and Hegel (forthcoming)
Jacob's Academia page: https://uni-oldenburg.academia.edu/JacobBlumenfeld
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism is probably the most important foundational text for modern sociology, and we think that’s kind of a downer, actually. We talk about how we are thoroughly unconvinced about his central historical claim in the book, which seems to be that the Protestant reformation created the subjective conditions for the emergence of capitalism somehow. We also take him to task for his weak criticism of historical materialism and for his own sorely lacking methodology. The book’s definitely got some interesting stuff in it, but it’s mostly a swing and a miss for us! Sorry, Weberians!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism, trans. Peter Baehr and Gordon C. Wells (New York: Penguin, 2002).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
This is a tribute episode to the great Mike Davis, the visionary social theorist and comrade who recently passed away in October 2022. We discuss his pathbreaking social analysis of Los Angeles, his political economy of urban life, his fondness for and reactivation of Marx’s political writings, and his unique ability to locate concrete phenomena within a specific historical conjuncture. Despite his clairvoyance about our disastrous present trajectory, we show why he was not the ‘prophet of doom’ that some think he was, insisting on the renewal of his spirit of militancy and hope.
RIP to a true giant of the Left and a fierce, loving comrade.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 2006).
Mike Davis, “Marx’s Lost Theory: The Politics of Nationalism in 1848”, New Left Review 93 (May/June 2015).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In Part Two of our two-part mini-series we discuss the work of Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope. We ask what difference there is between the thought of Bloch and Theodor Adorno, how hope and utopia enable political action, and why so many traditions seem to abhor the concept of utopia. Expand your horizons and come learn how to hope again in this episode!
This is just a small clip from the full episode, which is available to patrons:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope, vols. 1 &3, trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice & Paul Knight (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1986).
Ernst Bloch and Theodor Adorno, “Something’s Missing: A Discussion between Ernst Bloch and Theodor W. Adorno on the Contradictions of Utopian Longing (1964)” in Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function of Art and Literature, trans. Jack Zipes and Frank Mecklenburg (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1988).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In part one of our two-part mini-series on hermeneutics and utopia we discuss the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer in his 1983 text Praise of Theory. We talk about the importance of prejudice and tradition for self-understanding, ask whether the natural sciences or the human sciences have sole claim to truth, and praise the (qualified) freedom of theory from instrumental reason (continental philosophy even gets a positive shout-out!). The purpose of this mini-series is to assess the insights of hermeneutics for theory and social philosophy, so look forward to our Patron exclusive conclusion on Ernst Bloch!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Praise of Theory, trans. Chris Dawson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we are joined by Martin Hägglund to discuss the existentialist's argument for what makes human life meaningful—and why democratic socialism is the logical conclusion to reach after having considered the matter carefully. We also dig into the limits of social democracy, the need for the state, and the revaluation of value that is yet to come.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
Follow Martin: @martinhaegglund | http://martinhagglund.se
References:
Martin Hägglund, This Life: Secular Life and Spiritual Freedom (New York: Penguin Random House, 2020)
What Is Democratic Socialism? Part I: Reclaiming Freedom - Los Angeles Review of Books (lareviewofbooks.org)
What Is Democratic Socialism? Part II: The Immanent Critique of Capitalism - Los Angeles Review of Books (lareviewofbooks.org)
What Is Democratic Socialism? Part III: Life After Capitalism - Los Angeles Review of Books (lareviewofbooks.org)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we are joined by James Callahan (aka Crane) to talk about Gillian Rose’s book Hegel Contra Sociology. We explore Rose’s critique of early twentieth-century sociology, which she argues was completely hampered by the limitations of its neo-Kantian framework. Looking to break out of this transcendental circle, Rose turns to Hegel and defends a highly original and sophisticated reading of his speculative political thinking, in order to develop a sociological analysis adequate for grasping and transforming our modern capitalist world. We also talk about why Hegel hated the starry skies above and thought slimes and rashes were way cooler.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
Follow James on twitter: @gruidae_james
and check out his substack: https://jamescrane.substack.com/
References:
Gillian Rose, Hegel Contra Sociology (New York: Verso, 2009)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In today’s episode we talk about Guy Debord’s critique of life under modern capitalism by looking at his scathing and provocative The Society of the Spectacle. Is it true that all that was once lived is now mere representation? That the whole of society is mediated by an endless proliferation of passifying images? That the fullness of life has been replaced by its bloodless negation in survival? Because it sure feels like it! We discuss what exactly he means by spectacle, reflect on whether and how it’s possible to maintain his distinction between real needs and pseudo-needs, and consider what a politics without representation would, ahem, look like. And we talk some real trash on North American suburbia, whose surface-level image of homogeneous conflictless positivity is the true legitimation mechanism of capitalism here in the dying imperial core. It's a lot of fun, actually!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this patron-exclusive episode, we continue our series on the concept of dialectics by talking about Adorno’s Negative Dialectics. We reflect on what a non-closed dialectical system would look like, why Adorno is definitely not the defeatist he’s often caricatured as being, and what it means for us to hold onto utopian promises for a better world from within the administered nightmare of modern capitalism. Along the way we try to hone in on what’s special about Adorno’s negative dialectics, especially in comparison with what we get out of Kant and Hegel. And we give Heidegger an appropriately hard time for being just the worst.
This is just a small clip from the full episode, which is available to patrons:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Theodor Adorno, Negative Dialectics, trans. E.B. Ashton (New York: Continuum, 2007).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we are joined by Nathan DuFord to discuss their new book Solidarity in Conflict: A Democratic Theory. We unpack why they believe solidarity ought to be theorized as a political concept rather than moral injunction. For DuFord, we risk missing that solidarity is what the oppressed do with one another and that the oppressed will have disagreements within their solidary groups if we undertheorize the political dimensions of solidarity. We go on to discuss the relationships between trust and conflict, whether groups formed in solidarity can last forever, and contemporary questions concerning conflict in left organizations. If you believe in solidarity you won’t want to miss this episode!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Nathan DuFord [published under Rochelle DuFord], Solidarity in Conflict: A Democratic Theory (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk about the most important Marxist thinker during the time of the Second International, Karl Kautsky. We talk about his infamous claim that the breakdown of capitalism is historically inevitable, what he thinks socialist praxis should look like in a liberal democracy, and what the concentration of large-scale capital means for your small business. Plus at some point we realize that almost all anti-socialist arguments are actually just confused anti-capitalist ones, which we find irresistibly delightful. We’re in old-school classical Marxist territory for this one, folks!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Karl Kautsky, “The Commonwealth of the Future,” in The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program), translated by William E. Bohn (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1910).
Music:
Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk with the wonderful Jason Read about his work on the concept of transindividuality and what it means for critical social theory, Marxist notions like alienation and reification, and traditional conceptions of freedom and equality. It’s bad news for anyone who thinks politics can be directly derived from ontology, but incredibly productive theoretically and practically if you're willing to think social relations as processes. Also Will admits he’s almost ready to confess his Spinozism, so that’s a clear win.
follow us @leftofphil
References:
Jason Read, The Production of Subjectivity: Marx and Philosophy (Leiden: Brill, 2022)
Jason's blog: http://www.unemployednegativity.com/
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we talk psychoanalytic theory and practice. With Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle as our touchstone, we get speculative about human desire, the death drive, and the relationship between psychoanalysis and political struggle. We discuss the problem of scaling up from individual psychology to collective organizations, the opacity of the subject, and some of the psychosocial pathologies peculiar to the United States here in the twenty-first century. We could all use a bit more transference!
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, trans. and ed. James Strachey (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989).
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we discuss James Boggs’s 1963 The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook. We talk about Boggs’s materialist conception of rights as “what you make and what you take.” In Boggs we find a novel conception of rights that are grounded in social power. We delve into the dangers automation and structural unemployment present to rights to life and happiness while wondering if a “workless” society would truly be a better one. In the end, we extend a figleaf to egalitarian liberals and offer to heal their psychic distress by showing them that they are already revolutionaries (comrades, join us: the water's fine!).
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
James Boggs, The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook, with a New Introduction by Grace Lee Bogs and Additional Commentary (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009).
James Boggs, “Toward a New Concept of Citizenship,” in Pages from A Black Radical’s Notebook: A James Boggs Reader, ed. Stephen M. Ward, with an Afterword by Grace Lee Boggs (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2011).
C.L.R. James, “The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the United States,” at https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1948/07/meyer.htm
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we kick off our new series called “What is Liberalism?” with private property, conquest, and a discussion about John Locke’s apologia for both. We appreciate the efforts of the left to civilize liberalism in the wake of its own civilizing efforts across the globe, but we ask whether it’s really possible to separate economic and political liberalism to make liberalism work for the left. Our experiences in DEI workshops suggest not, although many who are smarter than Locke have tried.
The full episode is available on our patreon!
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ed. C.B. Macpherson(Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we discuss the work of György Lukács, focusing on the reification essay from his seminal 1923 book History and Class Consciousness. We talk about why it’s not great that the commodity form has penetrated every aspect of social life, why we need to retain the category of totality in spite of loud protests from postmodernists, and what’s special about the standpoint of the proletariat. Welcome to capitalism, folks: real contradictions and necessary illusions abound. But it’s not over yet!
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness, trans. Rodney Livingstone (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1972)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode, we discuss the infamous Nazi jurist and political philosopher Carl Schmitt, with particular focus on his 1923 book The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. We attempt to better understand the right-wing, Schmittian case against both liberal ‘parliamentarianism’ and ‘Marxist socialism’, while trying to discern his positive political vision. Doing so requires assessing his paradoxical claim that democracy and dictatorship are perfectly compatible, and that dictatorship is good, actually. We end by asking what the hell a ‘Left Schmittian’ is, asking what if anything he has to offer for leftist theory and practice today.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Carl Schmitt, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, trans. Ellen Kennedy (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000)
Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth, trans. G.L. Ulmen (New York: Telos Publishing, 2003)
Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, trans. George Schwab (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007)
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What do we mean when we call something a ‘structural injustice’? In this episode, we take up some of Iris Marion Young’s work and ask what makes the difference between interpersonal injustice and structural injustice. Along the way, we investigate concepts such as political responsibility, social connection, and the character of global injustice. As an extra special treat listeners will find out what is preventing Gil from being a revolutionary (the answer may surprise you)!
The full episode is available on our patreon!
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References:
Iris Marion Young, Responsibility for Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)
Iris Marion Young, “Responsibility and Global Labor Justice”, The Journal of Political Philosophy 12:4 (2004): 365-388
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In this episode, we talk with Owen Alldritt about justice. We come to Plato’s defense against the Western philosophical canon, mostly in spite of ourselves, and insist on the True coinciding with the Good. What does this all have to do with utopia, you ask? As it turns out, Plato is a realist and he thinks we can know the Good in itself, organize our cities accordingly, and realize justice…or at least philosophers can. Good luck to everyone else!
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References: The Republic, by Plato
Owen Alldritt: moonbear.substack.com | @AlldrittOwen
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In this episode, we talk with Aaron Rabinowitz of Embrace the Void and Philosophers in Space about the paradoxes of moral luck, the problematic nature of our everyday notions of responsibility, and what good pedagogy looks like when you’ve agreed – as you must – that spontaneous, volitional free will is merely an illusion. We do some Kantian maneuvering, form provisional alliances, and all things considered have as good a time as is possible given our total lack of freedom.
References:
Thomas Nagel, “Moral Luck” https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil1100/Nagel1.pdf
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In this episode we talk about Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment, focusing on their notion of reason as abstractive domination and their understanding of the culture industry as a means of producing mass complicity with the machinations of capital. The good news is that we've got a much better sense of humor than either of them, so it's not as miserable as all that might sound. The bad news is we're not sure if they're wrong to be so pessimistic. We also drag a fair bit of popular culture, admit we still love it, and call out the podcast form itself. But you don't need to worry: your media consumption habits are good. You're fine. You're one of the ones who gets it, definitely.
This is just a small clip from the full episode, which is available to patrons:
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References:
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002).
Theodor Adorno, "Free Time", in Critical Models (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).
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In this episode we discuss what distinguishes politics from other aspects of human existence by looking at Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition and “Reflections on Little Rock.” We question why Arendt is so concerned with defending the distinction between politics, the social, and the private realm and what useful insights can be drawn from these distinctions when analyzing real human history. In addition, we touch on Arendt’s controversial relationship to black politics around integration or as she thought of it black “social climbing.” This might be the one that gets us canceled!
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References:
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, second edition, with an Introduction by Margaret Canovan (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998).
Hannah Arendt, “Reflection on Little Rock” in The Portable Hannah Arendt, edited by Peter Baier, 231-247 (New York: Penguin Books, 2000).
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In this episode we discuss the meaning of equality by delving into French political philosopher Jacques Rancière’s 1995 book, Disagreement. In a contentious conversation we unpack the core concepts of the book, including its expansive notion of the police and its highly restrictive definition of politics as foundationally egalitarian. Above all, we press Rancière (and each other!) on both the meaning and the political utility of equality as a presupposition or ‘axiom’ rather than a social goal. It’s a banger!
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Jacques Rancière, Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, trans. Julie Rose (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999).
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In this episode we work through some of the ideas laid out in Part 1 of Raymond Geuss’ 2008 Philosophy and Real Politics. It’s a refreshingly clear-eyed argument for what he calls the realist approach in political philosophy, which tries to attend to the messiness of actually existing societies, the opaque and invested people who make them up, and the shifting, contradictory values they hold. We’re talking Hobbes meets Lenin meets Nietzsche here, folks. Leave your rational decision theory and normative idealism at the door.
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References:
Raymond Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).
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In this episode, we kick off a new series on the concept of utopia by taking a look at the guy who invented the word, Thomas More. We discuss how his wonderfully satirical 1516 book Utopia was written in response to the enclosures happening in England, which forced masses of peasants into unemployment and misery and created the conditions for early capitalist agriculture. His fictional island nation of Utopia thrives without private property, but More’s real trick is how he reveals the wildly utopian and fantastical nature of our own capitalist world order. Plus Owen invents the phrase ‘professional social improvement class’, which is just great.
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References:
Thomas More, Utopia, trans. Robert M. Adams, ed. George M. Logan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Karl Kautsky, Thomas More and his Utopia, trans. Henry James Stenning, accessed at the Marxist Internet Archive: https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1888/more/index.htm.
Quentin Skinner, “Sir Thomas More’s Utopia and the language of Renaissance humanism,” in The Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe, ed. Anthony Padgen (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Alexandre Matheron, “Spinozism and the Breakdown of Thomist Politics: Machiavellianism and Utopia,” in Politics, Ontology, and Knowledge in Spinoza, trans. and ed. Filippo Del Lucchese, David Maruzzella, and Gil Morejón (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020).
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In this episode, we read Jean-Paul Sartre's Search for a Method. We begin by working through Sartre’s puzzling claim that Marxism is this era’s one true philosophy and then branch out into broader questions concerning what it is we are trying to do when we philosophize and whether Sartre was right not to give up on capital-T “Truth.” Other topics include Sartre’s conception of freedom, the relationship of the individual to history, and the problems of dogmatic Marxism up to the present day. This one is sure to delight, and it's just the start for us with old J-P!
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References:
Jean-Paul Sartre, Search for a Method, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Vintage Books, 1963)
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Merry Christmas and happy holidays! In this surprise gift of an episode, we’re visited by the spectre of Jacques Derrida and his deconstruction of the gift. Like the Ghost of Christmas Past, he forces us to ask whether we have given enough, whether we know how to give without reciprocity, and why it is so hard to give in the first place. The gang reflects on the phenomenology of gift-giving and the insidious politics of philanthropy, and even takes shots at the big guy himself: Santa Claus. So sit back, grab your eggnog, and celebrate the holidays with your four favorite philosophers. ‘Tis the season!
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References:
Jacques Derrida, Given Time I. Counterfeit Money, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992)
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In this episode we get together to discuss a new article by our very own Will Paris! We talk about Will’s critical and materialist conception of consciousness, the role of awareness and normative expectations in processes of social transformation, and why utopia is involved in knowledge production. We talk Bloch, we talk Hayek: you know, the usuals. It’s a classic original crew set, recorded live on stream!
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References:
William Paris, “Crisis Consciousness, Utopian Consciousness, and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” Puncta: Journal of Critical Phenomenology (forthcoming)
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In this episode we welcome Dr. Ashley Bohrer to discuss Walter Benjamin’s 1921 essay “Critique of Violence”. We talk about the relationship between violence and the law, reflect on the limits of institutional power for emancipatory projects, and get really real about the spiritual dimension of justice. Keep your messianism weak, comrades.
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ashleybohrer.com
Pedagogies for Peace podcast: https://kroc.nd.edu/research/intersectionality/pedagogies-for-peace-podcast/
References:
Walter Benjamin, “Critique of Violence,” trans. Edmund Jephcott, in Selected Writings Volume I: 1913-1926, eds. Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).
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This episode dives behind the Iron Curtain into socialist Albania in discussion with Lea Ypi on her new memoir “Free.” The crew explores what has been gained and what has been lost in the transition to capitalism. Lea explains why some of the symmetry may surprise us and why Marxism is a philosophy of human freedom.
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References:
Lea Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History (Penguin Random House, 2021)
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In this episode, the crew takes on a beloved figure of the academic ‘left’: Michel Foucault. The discussion gravitates around Foucault’s work in the early 1970’s on the ‘punitive society’, power as civil war, and popular rebellion. This post-‘68 period of his life and work is often seen as his most politically ‘radical’, both because of his activist involvement in the Prisons Information Group (GIP) and because he directly engages with Marxist discourse and thought. Nevertheless, the conversation quickly turns skeptical (to put it mildly). We question both the explanatory power and the political stakes of his historical studies: What is the principle of connection between the often remote historical discourses and events he examines and present conditions of life? What are the consequences of rejecting causal explanations of historical development? Above all, how salient and clarifying are his histories for emancipatory struggles in the present? We try to answer these questions, while poking a bit of fun at our Foucauldian friends and comrades. Oh and we talk about the CIA’s alleged awareness of the increasing hegemony of French theory in the academic left—apparently they loved that for us.
Listen to the full episode on our Patreon!
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Follow us @leftofphil
References:
Michel Foucault, Penal Theories and Institutions: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1971-1972, ed. Bernard E. Harcourt et. al., trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Picador)
Michel Foucault, The Punitive Society: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1972-1973, ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Palgrave MacMillan)
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In this episode, we welcome Professor Melvin Rogers of Brown University to discuss his forthcoming book The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought. We focus on the often elided importance of character in social struggle and transformation, the tension between optimism and pessimism in African American political thought, and the centrality of rhetoric and persuasion in this tradition. It is not to be missed!
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References
Rogers, Melvin. Forthcoming. The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
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In this episode we are joined by Joel Michael Reynolds for a wide-ranging discussion about disability theory. We dig into the relationship between disability and white supremacy, the idea of politics as differential capacitation, genomics and medicalization, justice as equity, and more. Naturally we put full-bore social constructivism on blast. Leftists gotta be materialists, you know?
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References:
Joel Michael Reynolds, “The Meaning of Ability and Disability.” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 33.3 (2019).
Joel Michael Reynolds, “Genopower: On Genomics, Disability, and Impairment.” Foucault Studies 31 (forthcoming).
Joel Michael Reynolds, “Disability and White Supremacy.” Critical Philosophy of Race (forthcoming).
Joel has also graciously compiled a comprehensive list of literature related to disability theory and politics, which you can find here.
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In this episode we are joined by Professor Robin Celikates to discuss the big “method” question in critical theory: What is it doing, and why? Since Marx, this tradition has had a special connection to emancipatory struggles, so we talk about how that works (or doesn’t) in relation to contemporary debates about civil disobedience and migration.
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References:
Robin Celikates, 2019. “Constituent Power Beyond Exceptionalism: Irregular migration, disobedience, and (re-)constitution,” Journal of International Political Theory 15(1): 67-81.
Robin Celikates. 2018. “Slow Learners? On Moral Progress, Social Struggle, and Whig History,” "Forms of Life, Progress, and Social Struggle", in Amy Allen/ Eduardo Mendieta (eds.), From Alienation to Forms of Life, University Park: Penn State University Press, 137-155.
Robin Celikates, “Radical Civility. Social Struggles and the Domestication of Dissent," in: Julia Christ et al. (eds.), Debating Critical Theory, London: Rowman & Littlefield 2020, 83-94.
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For this episode we discuss David Walker’s 1830 radical anti-slavery tract An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World and Melvin Rogers’s 2015 article “David Walker and the Political Power of the Appeal.” We explore Walker’s political philosophy of judgment and its relationship to normativity, solidarity, and reconstructing civic society. Walker offers an insightful critique of the insidious pathologies race introduces into Western political formations. We cover questions of universalism, the contentious role of violence in political change, and what it means to inherit a political tradition.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
David Walker. 1830. An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Found at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeaamericanstudies/15/
Melvin Rogers. 2015. “David Walker and the Political Power of the Appeal.” Political Theory 43(2): 208-233.
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In this episode we talk through the work of one of the most infamous figures in the history of political thought, Niccolò Machiavelli. Looking both at the Prince and some passages from the Discourses, we ask ourselves what the Florentine can teach us about strategy, the need for vision and flexibility, and the virtues of leaders and citizens in a world of duplicity and chance. Is he a ruthless lover of cruelty, a clear-eyed political scientist, or a partisan defender of freedom as non-domination?
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
Antonio Gramsci, The Modern Prince, in Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. and trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971).
Louis Althusser, Machiavelli and Us, ed. François Matheron, trans. Gregory Elliott (New York: Verso, 2000).
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In this episode we finally get around to talking about Spinoza. It turns out normativity is kind of complicated when you think everything is strictly determined and there’s no such thing as contingency! We discuss the relationship between affect and power, the inherently social nature of knowledge, and why you should want joy for others as much as for yourself. Along the way we also manage to work in a needless and slanderous dig against Heidegger, just for good measure.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics, trans. and ed. Edwin Curley (New York: Penguin, 1996)
Benedict de Spinoza, Political Treatise, trans. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000)
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In this Patron exclusive episode, we move to the third part of our mini-series “What is Dialectics?” and take on the works of Karl Marx. The WLOP crew investigates what Marx took and rejected from Hegelian dialectics while defending why Marx remains deeply relevant in our contemporary moment. We cover the role of mystification under capitalism, Marx’s moral and political critique of value, and the future of Marxism in the context of ecological crisis. There’s even a mention of spectres for you Derrida fans out there! It’s a can’t miss episode for sure.
Full episode available at patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
Follow us @leftofphil
References:
Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” in The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), 53-66.
Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” in The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), 67-77.
Karl Marx, “Introduction to the Preface of the 1859 Critique,” at Economic Manuscripts: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy 1859 (marxists.org)
Karl Marx, “Appendix to the 1859 Critique,” at Economic Manuscripts: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy 1859 (marxists.org)
Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1, trans. Ben Fowkes (New York: Penguin Books, 1982).
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In this episode, we discuss Erik Olin Wright’s 2010 book Envisioning Real Utopias. We excavate the relationship between social scientific investigation and normative claims concerning how we ought to structure our society. We ask what a theory of social transformation ought to entail and figure out why we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds yet. So sit back and relax while we pour one out for a real one: Comrade Erik Olin Wright.
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References:
Erik Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, (New York: Verso, 2010).
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In this episode, we continue our series on dialectics by completely losing our minds talking about Hegel. We break through Kant’s critical prohibition on speculative metaphysics and grasp the in-itself as the movement of dialectical negativity. We realize the unity of opposites. We are seized by the necessity of the absolute Idea in history. It’s a banger, folks. In retrospect, it couldn’t have been any other way.
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References:
G.W.F. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, trans. H.B. Nisbet, ed. Allen W. Wood (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
G.W.F. Hegel, Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline, trans. and ed. Klaus Brinkmann and Daniel O. Dahlstrom (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
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In this episode, we go back to the seventeenth century to talk about Thomas Hobbes’ hugely influential political philosophy. Focusing mostly on De Cive, we dive into his hilariously bleak anthropology, his totalitarian absolutism, and his uncomfortable fit within the modern tradition of political liberalism. But things are a little more complicated than they first appear: maybe old Bishop Bramhall was right when he said that Hobbes’ ideas are ‘a rebel’s catechism’.
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References:
Thomas Hobbes, On the Citizen, ed. and trans. Richard Tuck and Michael Silverthorne (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994).
Thomas Hobbes and Bishop Bramhall, Hobbes and Bramhall on Liberty and Necessity, ed. Vere Chappell (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
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In this episode, we start our series on dialectics with a conversation about Kant. If you’ve ever wondered what the hell this term means, then the WLOP crew is here for you. We talk about what human beings can know, what we can’t know but need to think, and introduce ourselves to the philosophy of history.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, ed. and trans. Paul Guyer and Allan Wood (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, ed. Paul Guyer, trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
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In this episode, we explore the work of German anarchist Gustav Landauer. We work through the utility of utopia in political transformations and what is required to create richer communities and social life. In the end, we discover the one vibe we’re cool with: joy. Come on through for wild mysticism and learn what Meister Eckhart can do for you while in prison!
The full episode is available on our Patreon page.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Gustav Landauer, “Anarchism and Socialism,” in Revolution and Other Writings, edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn (Oakland: PM Press, 2010), 70-75.
Gustav Landauer, “Anarchic Thoughts on Anarchism,” in in Revolution and Other Writings, edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn (Oakland: PM Press, 2010), 84-94.
Gustav Landauer, “Through Separation to Community” in Revolution and Other Writings, edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn (Oakland: PM Press, 2010), 94-110.
Gustav Landauer, “Revolution” in Revolution and Other Writings, edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn. 110-188. (Oakland: PM Press, 2010).
Adolph Reed, Jr., Class Notes (New York: The New Press, 2000).
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In this episode, we are joined by Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (@OlufemiOTaiwo) (Georgetown University) to discuss his work on the politics surrounding climate change and generative frameworks for global justice. In this wide-ranging discussion we address the urgency of climate politics for the African continent, what it means to connect the local to the global, and how we can move towards richer forms of collaborative security. We also offer a theory of “vibes” in politics and theory.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Who Gets to Feel Secure?” https://aeon.co/essays/on-liberty-security-and-our-system-of-racial-capitalism
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Crisis, COVID-19, and Democracy” https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/06/02/crisis-covid-19-and-democracy/
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Climate Colonialism and Large Scale Land Acquisitions” https://www.c2g2.net/climate-colonialism-and-large-scale-land-acquisitions/
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Climate Apartheid is the Coming Police Violence Crisis” https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/climate-apartheid-is-the-coming-police-violence-crisis
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Want to Abolish the Police? The First Step Is Putting Them Under Democratic Control.” https://inthesetimes.com/article/abolition-communitycontrol-police-abolition-safety-power-whitesupremacy
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference” https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/essay-taiwo
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Identity Politics and Elite Capture” http://bostonreview.net/race/olufemi-o-taiwo-identity-politics-and-elite-capture
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In this episode, we discuss Donna Haraway’s distinctive socialist cyberfeminism. We talk through the virtues and vices of her version of postmodern feminism and leftism, the ambivalent character of scientific knowledge production and new technologies, and the strange material powers of metaphor. Ask yourself: would you rather be a cyborg or a goddess?
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References:
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Sophie Lewis, “Cthulhu plays no role for me,” Viewpoint Magazine, 2017 https://viewpointmag.com/2017/05/08/cthulhu-plays-no-role-for-me/
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Episode 9 explores the antinomies of autonomy and self-emancipation in the thought of C.L.R. James. Dr. William Clare Roberts joins us to discuss James’ legacy and how it fits into his book project on the history of “history from below.” Please be advised that a side-effect of this episode may be republicanism. (No, you Yanks, not the GOP. It’s the Black Jacobins, get it?)
References:
CLR James, The Black Jacobins, (New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
CLR James, World Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017)
CLR James. Radical America, vol. IV, no. 4 (May 1970): https://repository.library.brown.edu/storage/bdr:89210/pdf/
Selma James, “The Perspective of Winning,” (1973); in Sex, Race, and Class: A Selection of Writings, 1952-2011 (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012).
“CLR James talking to Stuart Hall,” Channel 4, dir. Mike Dibb (1984): https://youtu.be/_Gf0KUxgZfI
William Clare Roberts, “Centralism is a dangerous tool: Leadership in CLR James’ history of principles,” forthcoming in The CLR James Journal (2021).
William Clare Roberts, Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017).
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 (New York: The Free Press, 1998).
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000).
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In episode 8, we look to the writings of Aimé Césaire to guide a conversation about colonialism, neocolonialism, and anti-colonial thought and struggle. Focusing especially on his 1950 Discourse on Colonialism and his 1956 letter to Maurice Thorez—in which he explains his resignation from French Communist Party—we discuss the subjective and objective ‘boomerang effects’ of colonialism on colonizing countries, the tensions between particularism and universalism in putatively global left politics, the relationship between colonialism and capitalism, and the state of neocolonial domination and exploitation.
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. Ed. Robin D.G. Kelly. Monthly Review Press, 2000.
Aimé Césaire, “Letter to Maurice Thorez”, trans. Chike Jeffers, Social Text 28.2 (2010): 145-52.
Silvia Federici, "War, Globalization, and Reproduction," in Revolution at Point Zero. PM Press, 2012.
Paul Gilroy, Against Race: Imagining Political Culture beyond the Color Line. Harvard University Press, 2002.
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Episode 7 dives into class theory as we discuss why it’s important to make a normative case for class politics, misconceptions about who the working class is, and why the labor market dominates. We also ruminate on why workers don’t always organize and why solidarity is a counterculture. Plot twist: Lillian accuses everyone except herself of class reductionism.
Lillian Cicerchia, "Why Does Class Matter?", Social Theory and Practice 47:4 (2021):
https://philpapers.org/go.pl?id=CICWDC&proxyId=&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.5840%2Fsoctheorpract2021916136
Claus Offe and Heimut Weisenthal. “Two Logics of Collective Action.” In Disorganized Capitalism. The MIT Press, 1985.
Cedric Johnson. Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
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In this episode, we heal the divide between analytic and continental philosophy by finally giving logical positivism its due. Dr. Liam Kofi Bright (London School of Economics, @lastpositivist) explains the socialist roots of some of the positivists, details their views on the role of science and knowledge in projects of social betterment, and defends the political importance of clarity.
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References:
Hans Hahn, Otto Neurath, and Rudolf Carnap, “The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle,” at https://www.manchesterism.com/the-scientific-conception-of-the-world-the-vienna-circle/
Otto Neurath, “Personal Life and Class Struggle.” In Empiricism and Sociology. Edited by Marie Neurath and Robert S. Cohen (Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company), 283-297.
Rudolf Carnap, Lecture notes from “Philosophy-Opium for the Well-Educated.” Translated by Chris Lembeck.
Rudolf Carnap, 1932/33. “Psychology in Physical Language.” In Erkenntnis 3: 107-142.
Liam Kofi Bright, 2017. “Logical Empiricists on Race.” In Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 65: 9-18.
Stuart Jeffries, “Bilston's revival: the pursuit of happiness in a Black Country town” at https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/02/pursuit-happiness-black-country-town-bilston
Liam Kofi Bright, “Schlick’s Utopia” at http://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2016/12/schlicks-utopia.html
Music: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
Full episode on the Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
In this episode, we talk about Simone de Beauvoir's masterful book The Ethics of Ambiguity. We spend some time with her typology of inadequate ethical positions, focusing on the subhuman, the serious person, and the nihilist, and discuss what it means to say that freedom is only possible as a liberatory movement. Oh and we make fun of the abstract negation of revolt, the absolute value of the Target corporation, and Ayn Rand's 'epistemology'.
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References:
Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, trans. Bernard Frechtman (New York: Open Road, 2018)
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism, trans. Carol Macomber, ed. John Kulka (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)
Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, trans. George J. Becker (New York: Schocken Books, 1976)
Wolfgang Streeck, How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System (New York: Verso, 2017)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In our fourth episode we talk about security, digging into Mark Neocleous' argument, following Marx, that security rather than liberty is 'the supreme concept of bourgeois society'. But we also ask the thorny question of how the left can speak to everyone's desire to feel safe while critically highlighting the racialized violence and ruling-class utility of existing security regimes. It's, uh, more fun than that probably sounds.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Mark Neocleous, Critique of Security (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008)
Mark Neocleous & George Rigakos (eds.), Anti-Security (Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 2011)
Anonymous, A World Without Police (2016), at aworldwithoutpolice.org
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In our third episode, we talk about Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, the landmark text of post-Marxism. Both serious arguments and slam dunks ensue.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Second Edition (New York: Verso, 2001)
Karl Marx, “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.” In Selected Writings. Ed. Lawrence H. Simon. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In this episode we discuss the work of cultural theorist Stuart Hall and his politics of culture. We focus on his relationship to Althusser and Gramsci with a detour through contemporary Black politics in the United States.
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References:
Stuart Hall, Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History. Edited by Jennifer Daryl Slack and Lawrence Grossberg (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016)
Stuart Hall, “Political Commitment, 1966.” In Selected Political Writings: The Great Moving Right Show and Other Essays. Edited by Sally Davison, David Featherstone, Michael Rustin, and Bill Schwarz (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017)
Stuart Hall, “Gramsci’s Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity [1986].” In Essential Essays Volume Two: Identity and Diaspora. Edited by David Morley (Durham: Duke University Press, 2019)
Stuart Hall, “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture? [1992].” In Essential Essays Volume Two: Identity and Diaspora. Edited by David Morley (Durham: Duke University Press, 2019)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
In our inaugural episode, we talk about Louis Althusser’s pathbreaking work on philosophy and Marxism from the 1960s. Targets of reckless slander include Sartre and post-structuralist theories of agency.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Translated by Ben Brewster (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001)
Louis Althusser, Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists. Translated by Ben Brewster, James H. Kavanagh, Thomas E. Lewis, Grahame Lock, and Warren Montag. Edited by Gregory Elliott (New York: Verso, 2011)
Louis Althusser, Machiavelli and Us. Translated by Gregory Elliott. Edited by François Matheron (New York: Verso, 2000)
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com