What's Left of Philosophy

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/_Gf0KUxgZfIWilliam 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).Music: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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

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

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. patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphilReferences: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-bilstonLiam Kofi Bright, “Schlick’s Utopia” at http://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2016/12/schlicks-utopia.htmlMusic: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

Full episode on the Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophyIn 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'.follow us @leftofphilReferences: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 | @leftofphilReferences: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.orgMusic: 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 | @leftofphilReferences: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.patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphilReferences: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 | @leftofphilReferences: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