Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast What's Left of Philosophy
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 124 | Living Through Capitalism w/ Dr. James Chamberlain | 19 Nov 2025 | 00:57:04 | |
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. 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 | |||
| 123 | Adam Smith and the Lessons of Sympathy | 03 Nov 2025 | 01:05:27 | |
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! 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 | |||
| WLOP LIVE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT! | AUGUST 7 | EPIPHANY CENTER FOR THE ARTS, CHICAGO | 18 Jun 2025 | 00:01:32 | |
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. Music: “Bubble” by Sun Cuts | https://get.slip.stream/3wxjrv/ | |||
| 32 | What is Equality? Disagreeing with Jacques Rancière | 22 Feb 2022 | 01:05:46 | |
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). Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 31 | Raymond Geuss: Realism in Political Theory | 07 Feb 2022 | 01:02:03 | |
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. patreonn.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil References: Raymond Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 30 | What is Utopia? Part I. Thomas More: Critical Realism in a Time of Enclosure | 24 Jan 2022 | 01:00:40 | |
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. patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil 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). Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 29 | Sartre and the Question of Philosophy | 10 Jan 2022 | 01:06:13 | |
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! patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil References: Jean-Paul Sartre, Search for a Method, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Vintage Books, 1963) Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 28 | A Very Special Holiday Episode: Learning How to Give with Jacques Derrida | 25 Dec 2021 | 00:54:37 | |
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! patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil References: Jacques Derrida, Given Time I. Counterfeit Money, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992) Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 27 | Crisis and Utopian Consciousness | 21 Dec 2021 | 01:05:38 | |
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! patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil References: William Paris, “Crisis Consciousness, Utopian Consciousness, and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” Puncta: Journal of Critical Phenomenology (forthcoming) Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 26 | Wake Up and Choose Divine Violence: Walter Benjamin w/ Dr. Ashley Bohrer | 04 Dec 2021 | 01:09:22 | |
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. patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil 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). Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 25 | Reflections on Freedom and the Cold War w/ Dr. Lea Ypi | 19 Nov 2021 | 01:02:15 | |
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. | |||
| 24 Teaser | What's Left of Foucault? | 05 Nov 2021 | 00:23:57 | |
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. | |||
| 23 | How Does a Democracy Keep its Character? Lessons from the Black Radical Tradition w/ Prof. Melvin Rogers | 22 Oct 2021 | 01:06:54 | |
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! patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil References Rogers, Melvin. Forthcoming. The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| Gil is Teaching a Class on Spinoza's Ethics in Chicago | 11 Jun 2025 | 00:02:03 | |
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! Music: AMALGAM by Rockot | |||
| 22 | The Meaning of Disability (with Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds) | 08 Oct 2021 | 01:08:50 | |
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? patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil 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. Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 21 | What is Critical Theory Doing? w/ Dr. Prof. Robin Celikates | 28 Aug 2021 | 01:08:07 | |
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. patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil 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. Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 20 | David Walker and the Politics of Judgment | 13 Aug 2021 | 00:58:17 | |
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. | |||
| 19 | Machiavelli: Cunning, Fortune, and Republican Virtue | 01 Aug 2021 | 01:11:36 | |
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? | |||
| 18 | Spinoza: Necessity, Ethics, Joy | 16 Jul 2021 | 01:13:32 | |
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. | |||
| 17 Teaser | What is Dialectics? Part III: What's the Deal with Marx, Anyway? | 02 Jul 2021 | 00:19:04 | |
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. | |||
| 16 | Erik Olin Wright: Utopia and Social Science | 18 Jun 2021 | 01:07:29 | |
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. | |||
| 15 | What is Dialectics? Part II: We Need to Talk about Hegel | 04 Jun 2021 | 01:16:08 | |
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. | |||
| 14 | Thomas Hobbes Hates Your Book Club | 22 May 2021 | 01:03:23 | |
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’. | |||
| 13 | What is Dialectics? Part I. The Crew Gets Kant-Pilled | 07 May 2021 | 01:02:11 | |
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. | |||
| 115 | Modern Barbarism with Thorstein Veblen | 10 Jun 2025 | 00:57:01 | |
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! 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 | |||
| 12 Teaser | Gustav Landauer: Anarchism, Utopia, Community | 23 Apr 2021 | 00:08:19 | |
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! | |||
| 11 | Climate Politics and Global Justice (with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò) | 09 Apr 2021 | 01:18:20 | |
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. | |||
| 10 | Donna Haraway: Socialist Cyborg Affinities | 28 Mar 2021 | 01:15:23 | |
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? | |||
| 9 | C.L.R. James: Leadership, Organization, Mass Politics (with Dr. William Clare Roberts) | 12 Mar 2021 | 01:01:01 | |
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?) | |||
| 8 | (Neo)colonialism and Anticolonialism | 26 Feb 2021 | 01:06:30 | |
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. | |||
| 7 | Why Does Class Matter? | 12 Feb 2021 | 00:59:26 | |
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. | |||
| 6 | What's Left of Positivism (with Dr. Liam Kofi Bright) | 29 Jan 2021 | 01:12:26 | |
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. | |||
| 5 Teaser | Beauvoir: Existentialism and Liberation | 15 Jan 2021 | 00:14:28 | |
Full episode on the Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | |||
| 4 | Security, Supreme Concept of Bourgeois Society? | 01 Jan 2021 | 00:58:45 | |
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. | |||
| 3 | Laclau and Mouffe, or How we learned to hate class and love Derrida | 18 Dec 2020 | 01:11:07 | |
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. | |||
| 114 | What's Left of Representation? | 26 May 2025 | 00:56:42 | |
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. 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 | |||
| 2 | Stuart Hall: What are the politics of culture? | 18 Dec 2020 | 01:16:27 | |
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. | |||
| 1 | Althusser: Marxism and Philosophy | 18 Dec 2020 | 01:02:21 | |
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. | |||
| 113 TEASER | Political Marxism | 14 May 2025 | 00:14:07 | |
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 | |||
| 112 | Excavating Utopias w/ Dr. William Paris | 28 Apr 2025 | 01:13:49 | |
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! 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 | |||
| 111 TEASER | Infantile Disorders: The Coming Insurrection | 14 Apr 2025 | 00:16:37 | |
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! | |||
| 110 | What is Liberalism? Part VI. Possessive Individualism and the Collapsing Order | 02 Apr 2025 | 00:54:47 | |
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!! | |||
| 109 | Should We Abolish Prisons? w/ Dr. Tommie Shelby | 18 Mar 2025 | 01:06:37 | |
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. | |||
| Will Has Published a Book! | 03 Mar 2025 | 00:02:30 | |
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&lang=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 | |||
| 122 | Real Abstraction and the Origin of Consciousness with Alfred Sohn-Rethel | 14 Oct 2025 | 00:54:28 | |
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! 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 | |||
| 108 TEASER | Friedrich Nietzsche on Learning How to Live in a Dying Culture | 24 Feb 2025 | 00:08:33 | |
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! “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| Gil is Teaching a Class on Kant's First Critique in Chicago | 20 Feb 2025 | 00:01:01 | |
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 | |||
| 107 | How Labor Can Win w/ Eric Blanc | 10 Feb 2025 | 01:10:27 | |
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? | |||
| 106 | Karl Polanyi and the Critique of Market Society | 27 Jan 2025 | 01:02:29 | |
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 | |||
| 105 TEASER | Fredric Jameson: Marxist Criticism and the Role of Theory | 16 Jan 2025 | 00:09:31 | |
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. | |||