What's Left of Philosophy

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 | @leftofphilReferences: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

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 | @leftofphilReferences: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.Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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 | @leftofphilReferences: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).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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 | @leftofphilReferences:Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics, trans. and ed. Edwin Curley (New York: Penguin, 1996)Benedict de Spinoza, Political Treatise, trans. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000)Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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 @leftofphilReferences: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).music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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.patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphilReferences:Erik Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, (New York: Verso, 2010).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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.patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphilReferences: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).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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’.patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphilReferences: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).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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 | @leftofphilReferences: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).Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com