Explore every episode of the podcast What's Left of Philosophy
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | Poulantzas, Marxism and the State | 12 Sep 2024 | 00:55:52 | |
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. | |||
| 96 TEASER | What is Utopia? Part IV. Bacon's New Atlantis | 28 Aug 2024 | 00:14:50 | |
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. | |||
| 87 | The Politics of Left-Wing Climate Realism w/ Dr. Ajay Singh Chaudhary | 17 Apr 2024 | 01:14:44 | |
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! | |||
| 86 | Right-Wing Political Thought w/ Dr. Matt McManus | 02 Apr 2024 | 00:59:00 | |
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. | |||
| 85 TEASER | Giving an Account of Oneself: Judith Butler's Ethics of Opacity | 19 Mar 2024 | 00:08:56 | |
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. | |||
| 84 | Sex in Philosophy w/ Dr. Manon Garcia | 07 Mar 2024 | 01:06:41 | |
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. | |||
| 83 | What is Aesthetics? Part III. Ernst Bloch: In Search of the Red Sublime | 19 Feb 2024 | 00:56:03 | |
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! | |||
| 82 | The State and Right: Kant's Metaphysics of Morals | 07 Feb 2024 | 01:01:48 | |
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. | |||
| 81 TEASER | David Harvey: Capitalist Urbanization and the Right to the City | 22 Jan 2024 | 00:11:05 | |
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. | |||
| 80 | Grab Bag Special Episode with Michael Peterson! Utilitarian Harems, Nietzschean Ciphers, and Cowardly Chatbots | 09 Jan 2024 | 01:22:31 | |
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 | |||
| 79 | What Could It Mean to Say, “Capitalism Causes Sexism and Racism”? with Professor Vanessa Wills | 18 Dec 2023 | 01:04:49 | |
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! | |||
| 78 | Perry Anderson's Considerations on Western Marxism | 05 Dec 2023 | 00:58:22 | |
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. | |||
| 95 | John Dewey and the Education of Experience | 14 Aug 2024 | 01:03:45 | |
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! | |||
| 77 | What is Ecosocialism? Part I. John Bellamy Foster and the Metabolic Rift | 22 Nov 2023 | 00:59:02 | |
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!! | |||
| 76 | For and Against Participatory Planning & Economics | 06 Nov 2023 | 00:56:08 | |
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. | |||
| 75 TEASER | Power, Reason, and Justification: Rainer Forst’s Critical Theory | 24 Oct 2023 | 00:08:14 | |
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! patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | |||
| 74 | Time and Work Discipline with E.P. Thompson | 02 Oct 2023 | 00:58:41 | |
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 | |||
| 73 | Effective Altruism is Terrible w/ John Duncan | 20 Sep 2023 | 01:00:55 | |
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 | |||
| 72 | Gerrard Winstanley and the English Revolution | 13 Sep 2023 | 00:54:27 | |
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) | |||
| Updates and Live Show Announcement! 8/22/2023 | 22 Aug 2023 | 00:02:03 | |
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! | |||
| 71 TEASER | What is Liberalism? Part IV: Neo-Republicanism | 08 Aug 2023 | 00:19:55 | |
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 | |||
| 70 | How Does Propaganda Work? w/ Dr. Megan Hyska | 28 Jul 2023 | 00:58:36 | |
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 | |||
| 69 | Mute Compulsion: Economic Power and Capitalist Domination w/ Dr. Søren Mau | 13 Jul 2023 | 00:56:53 | |
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! | |||
| 94 | Norman Geras' Ethics of Revolution | 02 Aug 2024 | 00:57:55 | |
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. | |||
| 68 | F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom: Competition, Individualism, and the Politics of Reaction | 27 Jun 2023 | 00:57:48 | |
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 | |||
| 67 TEASER | What is Liberalism? III. John Rawls and Political Liberalism | 13 Jun 2023 | 00:16:54 | |
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 | |||
| 66 | What's Left of Equality? Between Opportunity and Flourishing | 30 May 2023 | 01:00:43 | |
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 | |||
| 65 | Gramsci's The Modern Prince | 17 May 2023 | 01:01:26 | |
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 | |||
| 64 | What is Aesthetics? Part II. How Does it Feel to be a Problem, Hip Hop Nation? W/ Dr. Michael Thomas | 01 May 2023 | 01:02:52 | |
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. | |||
| 63 Teaser | Lenin's State and Revolution | 17 Apr 2023 | 00:09:08 | |
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! | |||
| 62 | What is Aesthetics? Part I. Schiller's Letters on Aesthetic Education | 03 Apr 2023 | 01:01:12 | |
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 | |||
| 61 | Frantz Fanon, Racism, and the Alienation of Reason | 20 Mar 2023 | 01:06:21 | |
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! | |||
| 60 | Antifascism and Emancipatory Violence with Devin Zane Shaw | 06 Mar 2023 | 01:11:02 | |
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. | |||
| 59 | Herbert Marcuse B-Sides Mixtape | 20 Feb 2023 | 01:05:57 | |
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. 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). | |||
| 93 TEASER | Charles Mills and the Racial Contract | 16 Jul 2024 | 00:11:06 | |
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. | |||
| 58 Teaser | Angela Davis: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation | 06 Feb 2023 | 00:18:00 | |
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. | |||
| UNLOCKED: 24 | What's Left of Foucault? | 30 Jan 2023 | 01:10:35 | |
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. | |||
| 57 | What is Liberalism? Part II. Policing and Political Economy | 16 Jan 2023 | 01:01:37 | |
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. | |||
| 56 | Special Minisode: Hating on New Year’s Day with Antonio Gramsci | 01 Jan 2023 | 00:31:29 | |
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! | |||
| 55 Teaser | Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality | 20 Dec 2022 | 00:08:52 | |
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. | |||
| 54 | Expropriating the Expropriators w/ Dr. Jacob Blumenfeld | 05 Dec 2022 | 01:07:03 | |
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. | |||
| 53 | Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Anti-Materialist Sociology | 28 Nov 2022 | 01:10:21 | |
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! | |||
| 52 | Mike Davis: Historical Materialism and Militant Theory | 14 Nov 2022 | 01:03:22 | |
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. | |||
| 51 Teaser | What is Utopia? Part III. Hermeneutics and Utopia: From Hans-Georg Gadamer to Ernst Bloch (Part 2) | 01 Nov 2022 | 00:20:31 | |
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! | |||
| 50 | Hermeneutics and Utopia: From Hans-Georg Gadamer to Ernst Bloch (Part 1) | 17 Oct 2022 | 01:03:12 | |
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 | |||
| 92 | What is Liberalism? Part V. Robert Nozick’s Libertarian Reveries | 01 Jul 2024 | 01:02:05 | |
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. | |||
| 49 | Coming to Terms with Human Finitude w/ Prof. Martin Hägglund | 03 Oct 2022 | 01:05:52 | |
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) Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com | |||
| 48 | Gillian Rose: Speculative Thinking and Post-Kantian Sociology with James Callahan | 19 Sep 2022 | 01:00:54 | |
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. | |||
| 47 | Guy Debord and the Society of the Spectacle | 06 Sep 2022 | 01:01:04 | |
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! | |||
| 46 Teaser | What is Dialectics? Part V: Adorno's Negative Dialectics | 22 Aug 2022 | 00:10:35 | |
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). | |||