Published by Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris
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In What’s Left of Philosophy Gil Morejón (@gdmorejon), Lillian Cicerchia (@lilcicerch), Owen Glyn-Williams (@oglynwil), and William Paris (@williammparis) discuss philosophy’s radical histories and contemporary political theory. Philosophy isn't dead, but what's left? Support us at patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
139 TEASER | What is Modernity? Part I: Marshall Berman and the Contradictions of Modern Experience
In this episode, we begin our new series on modernity with a discussion of Marshall Berman’s 1982 book All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity . Some of the questions we will tackle in this series will address the substance of modernity, whether modernity is singular or multiple, the relationship of art to modernization, and whether modernity is better understood as a rupture from the past or a development out of it. Berman, for his part, argues that modernity has always been about development through contradictions. We moderns bear witness to the constant dissolution of the traditions, political forms, and social mores of the past in the name of the production of the new. However, Berman thinks the 20th century has lost touch with the essentially contradictory nature of modernity by becoming either dogmatic enthusiasts of creative destruction or resolute pessimists who see nothing but degradation in modern life. He returns us to the 19th century where artists and thinkers such as Goethe, Marx, and Baudelaire had a more vivid and sensitive appreciation of the contradictory demands of modern development. We discuss Berman’s ultimately hopeful account of modern experience, its relation to urban life, and why any future politics must reckon with people’s desire for stability. Get ready to ride the wave of modernity (it’s not like you have a choice)! This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity (New York: Verso, 2010). Perry Anderson, “Modernity and Revolution”, New Left Review I/144 (1984): 96-113. Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
138 | Machinic Intelligence and Marxism
In this episode, we use Marx’s infamous “Fragment on Machines” from the Grundrisse as a starting-point for a wide ranging discussion about the emancipatory and regressive potentials of AI technologies. Marx thought that automated systems of machinery are incredible embodiments of highly developed human knowledge, which render labor increasingly unnecessary in processes of production, opening the door for unprecedented liberation. Of course, tied to the imperatives of capital accumulation, even the most amazing machines do little more than increase the rate of exploitation and expose untold millions to desperate poverty. There’s no reason in principle why machines, including AI systems, couldn’t instead free up our time for the active development of our capacities and the pursuit of our personal and collective goals. Abolish the drudgery of gruntwork! But which way we go with these technologies is a political, not a technical matter; a little historical materialism goes a long way. leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Karl Marx, “Fragment on Machines”, in Grundrisse , trans. Martin Nicolaus (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), pgs. 690-712. Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
137 | Althusius: Communitarianism Before Hobbes
In this episode we talk about the political philosophy of early modern jurist Johannes Althusius. For us, he represents a road not taken in political theory, since Hobbes definitively constructed political philosophy around the idea of the self-interested atomized subject and he couldn’t disagree more. Althusius is an axis between medieval and modern thinking about political life, and his federalist vision forces us all to ask odd questions about what we want. History teaches! leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Johannes Althusius, Politica , translated by Frederick S. Carney (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
136 TEASER | What’s the Point of Equality? Meditations on Post-Socialist Analytical Philosophy
In this episode, we talk about the relational paradigm in political philosophy. Made famous by Iris Marion Young, developed later by Elizabeth Anderson, this view of what equality is all about presents a puzzle for the class conscious. It says that the point of equality is to live in a society of equals. Its proponents skewered famous analytical Marxists for having a reductive and economistic view of justice. Was this fair? Join us to find out. This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Elizabeth Anderson, “What’s the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109 (1999): 287-337. Samuel Scheffler, “What is Egalitarianism?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 31(2003): 5-39. Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference . Princeton University Press, 1990. Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
135 | The Ambiguities of Reconstruction w/ Professor Lucien Ferguson
In this episode, we are joined by Assistant Professor of Law Lucien Ferguson (Chicago-Kent College of Law) to discuss the ambiguities of freedom and labor in the constitutional interpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments that were passed after the US Civil War. Our discussion is guided by the landmark Slaughter-House Cases of 1873 that narrowly construed the federal rights protected by the 14th amendment and set the stage for the failure of Reconstruction at the end of the 19th century. We discuss the divergences between liberal and republican accounts of freedom, whether the constitution should remain the grammar for leftist political strategy, and how the collapse of reconstruction shapes debates around citizenship and belonging to this day. leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: William E. Forbath, “The Ambiguities of Free Labor: Labor and the Law in the Gilded Age” Wisconsin Law Review 4 (1985): 767-817. Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
UPCOMING STUFF! | SPEP Webinar on Environmental Philosophy | BISR Class on Anti-Oedipus
Just a quick word about upcoming events you should join us for! SPEP Webinar: Philosophy and Environmental Injustices, with Matthias Fritsch, Romy Opperman, and Michael Peterson, May 25, 5pm Eastern Standard Time https://us.list-manage.com/1tRnwaVjgii?e=e22f097f7b&c2id=b595b31be157b5b356d9b3d96de5843f As noted in the audio, a previous version of this announcement wrongly identified the date of the webinar as May 21. It's May 25. Sorry for the confusion! BISR Chicago Course: Anti-Oedipus with Gil Morejón https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/deleuze-and-guattari-anti-oedipus-chicago/ Hope to see you soon!
134 TEASER | The Problem with Work
In this episode we discuss Kathi Weeks’ 2011 book The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries . The text brings together social reproduction feminism and autonomist Marxism to develop a critique of work as the organizing principle of life and dominant ethos in capitalist society. Weeks argues that the valorization of work is taken for granted even in certain strains of socialist criticism. We agree that work sucks, but we admit we have a hard time developing the postwork imaginary Weeks wants. We may just be the kind of modernists she’s calling out, but we’re very sympathetic and would love to see more idleness all around! This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011) Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
133 | Indigenous Struggles Beyond the Colonial Politics of Recognition: Glen Coulthard's Red Skin, White Masks
This episode engages with Glen Coulthard’s 2014 book Red Skin, White Masks : Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition . Coulthard weaves a rich and varied tradition of radical Indigenous thought and practice with Marxism and the anti-colonial thought of Frantz Fanon into a distinctive vision of emancipation. Together, we interrogate his claims that dispossession rather than exploitation, or the expropriation of land rather than the expropriation of labour, constitutes the paradigmatic mode of domination for colonized peoples. More than anything, we contend with the notion that state ‘recognition’ is not only insufficient, but inimical to the kind of emancipatory Indigenous politics Coulthard envisions. leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
132 TEASER | Marxism and Religion, Part II: The Gospel According to Terry Eagleton
In this episode, we discuss Terry Eagleton’s defense of religion. We focus on his diagnoses of the Enlightenment, modernism, and post-modernism as different kinds of post-religious movements. Post-modernism is the only “truly atheist” one, which is one reason it got along with capitalism so well. We also talk a lot about social and spiritual meaning and their importance to Left wing political projects. This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Terry Eagleton, Culture and the Death of God (Yale University Press, 2014). Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (Yale University Press, 2009). Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great (Atlantic Books, 2007). Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, 2006). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
131 | What's Left of Black Politics? Brandon Terry's Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement
In this episode, we discuss Brandon Terry’s 2025 book Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement . There is little doubt that in US the Civil Rights Movement stands out as one of the clearest examples of Black politics in the social imagination. How we narrate the Civil Rights Movement tends to shape our expectations of politics and the future. But what happens when the resources of this tradition fall into crisis? What is the future of Black politics in a present increasingly disconnected from the past of the Civil Rights Movement? We work through the exhaustion of a certain form of Black politics in the present, the importance of judgment and historical examples for political action, and whether a tragic disposition can help us avoid naive optimism or paralyzing pessimism when faced with the ruins of our present. leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Brandon Terry, Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
130 | Max Horkheimer: What Makes Critical Theory Critical?
In this episode we talk about Max Horkheimer’s essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”, which serves as a kind of manifesto for the Frankfurt School of Marxist thought. We talk about how he defines these categories, reflect on whether the distinction holds up, and ask ourselves whether we can call ourselves critical theorists in the present. It turns out grasping oneself as part of a historically unfolding social totality is difficult, if you can believe it. Special thanks to our friends at the Critical Theory Working Group, who you should check out: https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/ https://jamescrane.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected Essays , trans. Matthew J. O’Connell and others (New York: Continuum, 2002). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
129 TEASER | The General Strike and Socialism: Sorel's Reflections on Violence
In this episode we discuss Georges Sorel’s 1908 Reflections on Violence . We focus on his central claim that all of socialism is concentrated in the idea or ‘picture’ of the general strike, scrutinizing his claim that the ‘myth’ of the general strike is even more important than its precise concretion. His emphasis on political myth gives rise to questions about his potential irrationalism and the consequent (mis)appropriation of his ideas by fascists. Finally, we address his distinction between the ‘proletarian general strike’ – which is violent and revolutionary – and the ‘political general strike’ which aims to win minor concessions instead of a transformed society. This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence , ed. Jeremy Jennings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
129 | Introducing: Marxism & Religion, Part I: Martin Luther King, Jr.
In this episode, we introduce our new series on “Marxism and Religion.” At political, social, and spiritual levels, the series explores this complicated relationship for a transitioning age. We start with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is a political and spiritual beacon for many of us and a democratic socialist by another name. Our discussion explores how MLK Jr. continues to shine light on the righteous path to liberation. leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social References: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Pilgrimage to Non-Violence”: https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-articles/pilgrimage-to-nonviolence.php Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”: https://nul.org/news/letter-birmingham-jail Martin Luther King, Jr., “Loving Your Enemies”: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church Martin Luther King, Jr., “All Labor Has Dignity”: https://truthout.org/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-all-labor-has-dignity/ Martin Luther King, Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here?”: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/where-do-we-go-here Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
127 | Hayden White's Forms of History
In this episode, we discuss the work of historian Hayden White. His provocative claim is that the practice is inescapably the practice of narrative forms to give sense and significance to events of the past. It is this form that often supplements, or even outright makes, historical arguments. Is history a tragedy, a comedy, a satire, or a romance? Why did Marx describe history as tragedy and then farce? What could entitle him to that? The historian always prefigures their history with these choices. We get into whether history has a meaning on its own, what it contributes to politics, and whether there are literary styles more commensurate to Marxist history than others. leftofphilosophy.com References: Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973). Hayden White, The Content of Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
126 | Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program
In this episode, we talk about Marx’s critique of the Gotha Program, but you knew that from the title. We discuss Marxian critiques of redistributive left politics, why dogmatic Marxists are wrong about this, and much more. We connect it to the present and disagree. It’s very good. Listen. References: Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Programme” https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
125 TEASER | Elias Canetti: Crowds and Power
In this episode, we talk about Elias Canetti’s 1960 book Crowds and Power . Equal parts political theory, poetic sociology, and speculative anthropology, this staggering work explores human social life through an increasingly elaborate series of reflections on the nature of crowds. The result is a fascinating typology of different kinds of crowds in which human beings cast off their individuality for the sake of equality and directed collective action: there are baiting crowds, feast crowds, prohibition crowds… Does a lynch mob follow a logic analogous to that of the viewing public in a world of mass media, a gathering of dancers attuned to the rhythms of the others, or those brought before the host of the invisible dead? What does it mean for the general strike that we fear the touch of others, until it’s the thing we desire most? It’s pretty wild stuff, and we find plenty of insights to pull out and play with. This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon: patreon.com/leftofphilosophy References: Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power , trans. Carol Stewart (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
124 | Living Through Capitalism w/ Dr. James Chamberlain
In this episode, we talk with James Chamberlain about his new book, Living Through Capitalism , in which he argues that capitalism is hostile to biological life processes and our ability to know them well enough to lead flourishing lives. Capitalism mutilates all life, and not just human life, in its harnessing of life for its own ends. Only in communities that resist this “strange teleology” that capitalism imposes on life can we truly be free. leftofphilosophy.com References: James Chamberlain, Living Through Capitalism: Resisting Devastation Through Communities of Life (Edinburgh University Press, 2025). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
123 | Adam Smith and the Lessons of Sympathy
In this episode, we take on Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Although he is now more well known as an economist because of his later book The Wealth of Nations , Smith shows himself to be a philosopher in his own right in Moral Sentiments . Smith, contrary to popular characterizations, wanted to show that our conduct is not solely motivated by egoism or selfishness, but that we are also motivated by the fortunes of others. For Smith it is only through sympathy that society can achieve stability and harmony. What follows is a comprehensive examination of how we develop virtue, expound rules for justice, and cultivate emotional maturity through our sympathy for others. This episode is all of you who feel society has become more emotionally dysfunctional, lost its sense of shame, and want to understand why it is so frustrating when our so-called ‘friends’ refuse to hate what we hate. Join the pod as we learn about propriety and justice! leftofphilosophy.com References: Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments , intro Amartya Sen (New York: Penguin, 2009). Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
122 | Real Abstraction and the Origin of Consciousness with Alfred Sohn-Rethel
In this episode, we talk about Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s audacious and influential text Intellectual and Manual Labor . A fellow traveler of the Frankfurt School, Sohn-Rethel argued that the social activity of commodity exchange involves a set of real abstractions that actually precede and give rise to the structure of human consciousness and its capacity for mental abstraction. This really puts Kant in his place: the supposedly pure reason of the transcendental subject is historically conditioned by the fact that at some point people started trading stuff with each other. It also means that after the communist revolution succeeds we’ll have a totally new set of a priori categories with which to synthesize experience. That’s worth looking forward to! leftofphilosophy.com References: Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Intellectual and Manual Labor: A Critique of Epistemology , trans. Martin Sohn-Rethel (Chicago: Haymarket, 2021). Jacob McNulty, “Frankfurt School Critical Theory as Transcendental Philosophy: Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Synthesis of Kant and Marx,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 60:3 (2022): 475-501. Mladen Dolar, “‘Who baptized Marx, Hegel or Kant?’ On Alfred Sohn-Rethel and Beyond,” Problemi International 5 (2022): 109-133. Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
121 | The Federalist Papers
In this episode we discuss the essays of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton compiled as the Federalist Papers. We talk about the philosophical justifications of the recently signed US Constitution, focusing especially on the tension between, on one hand, their passionate defense of republicanism against tyranny and despotism, and on the other, their hostility toward democratic forces. We place the problem of the durability of the republic at the core of their thought, and while noting the successes of their constitutional arrangement, ask about the costs of these successes. leftofphilosophy.com Music: “Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com “My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
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