Theory & Philosophy

Become a Patron (and make me happy): https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I present the chapter titled "Spirit." It is here that Hegel turns his gaze to society, paying specific attention to the dynamic interaction between individuals vying for their own livelihood and the community in which these individuals exist. It traverses through three phases denoted by three sub-chapters: "The True Spirit. The Ethical Order" (7:00), "Self-Alienated Spirit. Culture" (22:12), and "Spirit that is Certain of Itself. Morality (55:27).

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, we continue our dissection of Phenomenology of Spirit. This episode first looks at the chapter "Self-Consciousness" (2:18) including its sub-chapters, "Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Lordship and Bondage" (6:55) (This is where he talks about the 'master/slave' dialectic) and "Freedom of Self-Consciousness" (14:05). It then presents the chapter titled "Reason" (24:26) and the sub-chapters "Observing Reason" (27:56), "Actualization of Rational Self-Consciousness through its own Activity" (46:55), and "Individuality which takes Itself to be Real in and for-itself" (60:05).

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In the first episode of this four part series, I turn my attention to G.W.F. Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," a text as necessary to read as it is difficult to read. This episode specifically tackles the chapters: "Preface" (beginning); "Introduction" (34:50); and "Consciousness" comprised of the sub-chapters "Sense-Certainty" (38:45), "Perception" (49:50), and "Understanding" (57:10). In these chapters, he begins by outlining what he hopes his project to accomplish, and then moves into delineating exactly how human consciousness moves through various phases on the way to Absolute Spirit.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to Derrida's groundbreaking essay, "Structure, Sign, and Play." It is here that he lays the foundation of what would become deconstruction, the destabilization of the assumed univocality of either term in a binary. He does this by undoing the oft-assumed belief that structures do not move, and that they are fundamentally opposed to "play."

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Instagram: theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I turn to Walter Benjamin's seminal text, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Mechanical Reproducibility." Contrary to what some might think, I try to present the way that Benjamin applauds the 'death' of the aura in the age of mechanical reproducibility and the political ramifications of this moment.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Follow me on instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to an important text in the field of communication and media studies. Here Peters tries to imagine communication as a meeting of souls by presenting a number of thinkers from Socrates to Jesus to Saint Augustine to Locke to Heidegger. Timestamps: Ch. 1: Beginning Ch. 2: 12:45 Ch. 3: 18:50 Ch. 4: 25:14 Ch. 5: 31:30 Ch.6: 35:50

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Follow me on instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I present Audre Lorde's "The Master's Tools will never Dismantle the Master's House," a seminal text in the fields of critical face, gender, and feminist studies. Not to mention, ya know, every other field.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Follow me on instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I present the second half of "Discipline & Punish" to expoun upon his key concepts of docile bodies, the panopticon, and the carceral system. Timestamps: Docile Bodies (Beginning) The Means of Correct Training: 27:50 Panopticism: 39:31 Complete and Austere Institutions: 52:40 Illegalities and Delinquency: 56:50 The Carceral: 1:05:10

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Follow me on instagram: @theory_and_philosophy In this episode, I present the first half of Foucault's seminal Discipline & Punish. In this half he sketches a firm distinction between a model of juridical punishment that mobilizes torture as a deterrent to criminality and a model predicated on surveillance as a deterrent to criminality.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode I take on Land's first essay from "Fanged Noumena," "Kant, Capital, and the Prohibition of Incest" that presents his characterization of the present stake that racism has in the maintenance of global capitalistic exploitation.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I present Sunera Thobani's book, "Exalted Subjects: The Making of Race and Nation in Canada." It delineates the passage from colonization to domination and how certain subjects--white European descendants--are bestowed with a status of exaltation.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this long episode, Ben and I conclude our dissection of "L' étourdit," paying specific attention to Lacan's use of topology in his illustration of subjectivity constituted by "cuts." We also explore the implications of Lacan's thought as a political tool and how it differs from the work of other theorists--Derrida, Deleuze--who were writing at the same time.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, Ben and I continue our exploration of "L'étourdit." It is in this episode that we really hone onto the text, with Ben presenting the core themes from the first turn (the first half) of the essay.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Podbean: https://theoretician.podbean.com/ In this episode, I'm joined by Ben, PhD candidate in Theory & Criticism, to discuss one of Jacques Lacan's most enigmatic texts, "L' étourdit." This first episode contextualizes Lacan's thought and establishes a necessary base from which to explore "L' étourdit."

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I conclude my presentation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Here we conclude the "Transcendental Dialectic," and point to the interesting uses of a new metaphysics toward the consolidation of a general happiness and perpetual peace.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to a seminal text in the fields of new materialism and media studies. Here Parikka argues that Media Archaeology serves the function of revealing forgotten and yet-to-be-realized media that disturb the assumed teleological progression of our gadgets.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I continue my presentation of Critique of Pure Reason, specifically presenting the first two chapter of the "Transcendental Dialectic." Here he takes aim at the cosmological ideas and how traditional dialectics only direct us toward a mirage, not truth. Kant proposes transcendental idealism as a solution to the problem presented by dialectics.

Patron: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I continue my exploration of "Critique of Pure Reason," specifically presenting the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the "Transcendental Doctrine of the Power Judgment" and the appendix to it.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I continue my exploration of "Critique of Pure Reason" to propel on my discussion of the Transcendental Logic so as to include how the Power of Judgment operates alongside the transcendental logic.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I begin my presentation of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." Here, I take on the introduction, his section on "Transcendental Aesthetics," and his section on "Transcendental Logic"

In this episode, I present Mohanty's "Feminism Without Borders." In it she makes the case for an intersectional feminism that neither homogenizes nor erases the real lived, material experiences of thirld world women and women of color.

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I present Marcuse's radical idea of a new sensibility, a utopian ideal to combat late Capitalism.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I present Nietzsche's ideas from his brilliant essay "On Truth and Lying." Here he argues that as long as we are immersed in language, we will be unable to get to the core of truth.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I finish my presentation of "The Birth of Tragedy" to expound upon Nietzsche's commentary on his contemporary German situation and the implications of tragedy for the future.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I take a stab at Nietzsche (in)famous inaugural text, "The Birth of Tragedy." It is here that he tries to trace the history of tragedy (and art more generally) to the Ancient Greeks. Specifically, as the product of the tension between the gods Apollo and Dionysus.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I continue Madness & Civilization to present the ways that the asylum operates to 'correct' those people considered mad.

https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I take a stab at one of Foucault's first texts, "Madness & Civilization." In it he tries to disturb everything we know about madness and its treatment--the positivist assumptions about its coming into realization; the treatments believed to be therapeutic; and the influences behind the construction of asylums.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I'm joined by Jeremy Smith once again to continue our excavation of Laruelle's work. In this part, we continue our exploration of "Introduction to Generic Sciences," focusing specifically on the role of the generic in relation to the One, the subject-without-subject, and Truth-without-truth. Contact for Jeremy: [email protected] Translation: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/introduction%20to%20generic%20sciences.pdf?token=AWzNaBladlJSginp_DRaHMjzbX3ln26GJom5k0jvOWPjeCQh1OFV7sE6LDMW6f_kj48CZ01odt0m31l8rPxIDYQVEHN7DG0PPJvfsp5RtViCR_6osjSRmo5cnwUeXmuvglfO3MFAzQMBkgKw9R1dOUSKGF77W57suO7SVQeVb8hNmKgXB4zyTTgkQIxWVbO2iLg Oraxiom: http://www.oraxiom.org/index.php/OJNP

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I'm joined by Jeremy Smith once again to continue our excavation of Laruelle's work. In this part, we take on his "Introduction to Generic Sciences," an enigmatic, yet captivating, text that attends to the potential of non-philosophy (and many of his other concepts) to radically potentiate the sciences against their appropriation by the "principal of sufficiency." Contact for Jeremy: [email protected] Translation: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/introduction%20to%20generic%20sciences.pdf?token=AWzNaBladlJSginp_DRaHMjzbX3ln26GJom5k0jvOWPjeCQh1OFV7sE6LDMW6f_kj48CZ01odt0m31l8rPxIDYQVEHN7DG0PPJvfsp5RtViCR_6osjSRmo5cnwUeXmuvglfO3MFAzQMBkgKw9R1dOUSKGF77W57suO7SVQeVb8hNmKgXB4zyTTgkQIxWVbO2iLg Oraxiom: http://www.oraxiom.org/index.php/OJNP

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I take on "The Evil Demon of Images," a text whose title contributes to what I believe to be a common misunderstanding about Baudrillard's work--the antithetical relationship assumed of simulation and reality.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I finish up Butler's "Gender Trouble." It is this episode that I dissect Butler's elusive notion of "performativity" and the potential it houses to challenge the oppressive regimen of sex.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy Note: *I discuss performativity at beginning and end of next episode!* In this episode, I take on Butler's "Gender Trouble," a seminal text in the fields of feminism and post-structuralism. Butler argues that some strands of feminist thought mistakenly attribute a transcendental significance to the idea of 'woman' that fails to account for the modes of discourse/power that construct that identity.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode I explore what might be the last Baudrillard text I do. It is here that Baudrillard considers what is at stake with the advent of integral reality, the apotheosis of the oppressive simulacrum.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this text, we get a peak of Baudrillard's disdain for the West's global project of expansion, consuming otherness and thereby eradicating it under the pretense "scientific rationality," "truth," and "white superiority."

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, Andrew and I dive into the second half of Firestone's text to drive towards the destination she imagines a post-sex-dialectic world might look like.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I'm joined by Andrew Woods, PhD candidate in Theory and Criticism, to discuss Shulamith's brave text that dives head first into the history of sexism in the United States and what can be done to overcome it.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this one, we turn to Baudrillard's infamous "The Spirit of Terrorism." This text gained him some notoriety because of his repudiation of Western global power and seeming exaltation of terrorism.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I turn to Virilio's open sky, a key text to understanding some of his central concepts and concerns. I'm rather hard on Virilio in this one, and I look forward to anyone disagreeing with me for that reason.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I continue my presentation of this text paying close attention to Baudrillard's consideration of destiny, artificial intelligence and radical theory.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I tackle Baudrillard's "Impossible Exchange." This text is necessary to understand some of his developed concerns regarding death, cloning and immortality, each of which has undergone a radical overhaul in the contemporary world.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this final episode we are presented with schizoanalysis as a radical alternative to psychoanalysis. They are that schizoanalysis meets the ontological parameters of existence--being comprised of machines--and compels one to think not of themselves in terms of an overarching oedipal narrative, but rather to consider themselves as a machine among other machines.

In this episode, I take a stab at the 3rd (of 4) chapters from Anti-Oedipus. It is in this chapter that they present a historical overview of Oedipus' retroactive intervention in every epistemic paradigm. To this intervention, they charge that Oedipus is but a stranger in those fields, unable to actually present a meaningful solution to the apparent 'problems' found in those fields.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I dive into the second (of four) chapters of Anti-Oedipus. It is here that they level their strongest critique of Oedipus and Freudian psychoanalysis while proposing an alternative way by which to understand the world: through syntheses.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I begin my dissection of Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus, an enigmatic book to say the least. In this chapter we're presented with their conception of desiring-machines that opposes the totalizing framework of the Oedipal complex.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy *NOTE* I don't think I did justice to Freud's discussion of neurosis towards the end. I'll have to save that for another episode. In this episode, I turn to Freud's work and his consideration of groups and the ego. In this book, Freud takes aim at the historical understanding of groups as a regressive phenomenon that, he argues, fails to recognize the role of the libido (love) in group formations.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, we ask the haunting title's question. What does it mean to disappear? Is disappearance a recourse to nihilism or to some new possibility? I try to answer these questions by contextualizing this book within Baudrillard's overarching projects.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to Baudrillard's "The Agony of Power." This one clarifies Baudrillard's position on power, locating it within the domain of hegemony as opposed to domination. The former presents a much more pernicious mode of oppression for Baudrillard because of its transparency and its illusion of democratic egalitarianism.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to Sara Ahmed's "Queer Phenomenology." This book can be regarded as Ahmed's attempt to perform a queering of phenomenology while simultaneously sketching what a queer phenomenology might look like. To do this, she traverses through the phenomenological tradition to craft her own version of phenomenology and then apply them to the domains of race and sexuality.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I finish my exploration of "One-Dimensional Man" by tracing Marcuse's take on the role of philosophy in late Capitalist society.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy In this episode, I turn my attention to the Frankfurt school giant, Herbert Marcuse and his "One-Dimensional Man." Marrying Marxism with Freudian psychoanalysis, Marcuse constructs an eloquent challenge to the tenets of late capitalism as relevant today as it was in the mid-twentieth century.