Samir Gandesha
Simon Fraser University, Humanities, Faculty Member
- Adorno, Jurgen Habermas, Martin Heidegger, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Humanities, and 42 moreContemporary Art, Photography, Aesthetics, Phenomenology, Social Theory, Political Violence and Terrorism, Critical Theory, Political Theory, Art and Aesthetics of the Cold War, Right wing Discourse, Postmodernism, Deconstruction, Nietzsche, Theodor Adorno, Levinas, Baudrillard, Honneth, Socio Political Philosophy, Frankfurt School (Philosophy), Philosophy, History, Sociology, Communication, Ethics, Freedom, Philosophy of Technology, International Relations, Social Movements, Canadian Studies, Political Science, Continental Philosophy, Michel Foucault, Violence, Neoliberalism, Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Heidegger, Gramsci, Frankfurt School, Agamben, Temporality, and Benjaminedit
- I am Professor of Modern European Thought and Culture and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Frase... moreI am Professor of Modern European Thought and Culture and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. I am author of numerous refereed articles in top-tier journals, chapters in edited volumes, and encyclopedia entries. I am also co-editor with Lars Rensmann of Arendt and Adorno: Political and Philosophical Investigations (Stanford, 2012) and co-editor (with Johan Hartle) of Spell of Capital: Reification and Spectacle (University of Amsterdam Press, 2017) and Aesthetic Marx (Bloomsbury Press, 2017), also with Johan Hartle.
More recently, I have edited Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and International Perspectives (Pluto, 2020), and co-edited (with Peyman Vahabzadeh) Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian H. Angus, Beyond Phenomenology and Critique (Arbeiter Ring, 2020).
I write regularly for popular audiences in publications such as openDemocracy, Art Papers, Canadian Dimension, Espace Art Actuel, Truthout, the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
In the Spring of 2017, I was the Liu Boming Visiting Scholar in Philosophy at the University of Nanjing and Visiting Lecturer at Suzhou University of Science and Technology in the People's Republic of China. In January 2019, I was Visiting Fellow at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe and, in February of the same year, Visiting Lecturer at Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas - FFLCH-USP (Universidade de São Paulo).
I have delivered some 100 lectures and presentations at universities and public venues around the world.edit
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Concerns over the rise of fascism have been preoccupied with the Trump presidency and the Brexit vote in the UK, yet, globally, we are witnessing a turn towards anti-democratic and illiberal forces. From the tragic denouement of the... more
Concerns over the rise of fascism have been preoccupied with the Trump presidency and the Brexit vote in the UK, yet, globally, we are witnessing a turn towards anti-democratic and illiberal forces.
From the tragic denouement of the Egyptian Revolution to the consolidation of the so-called Gujarat Model in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the consolidation of the power of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, fascist ideology, aesthetics and fascist personalities appear across the globe.
Spectres of Fascism makes a significant contribution to the unfolding discussion on whether what we are witnessing today is best understood as a return to classic twentieth-century ‘fascism,’ or some species of what has been called ‘post-fascism.’ Applying a uniquely global perspective, it combines analyses of historical contexts, theoretical approaches and contemporary geopolitics.
From the tragic denouement of the Egyptian Revolution to the consolidation of the so-called Gujarat Model in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the consolidation of the power of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, fascist ideology, aesthetics and fascist personalities appear across the globe.
Spectres of Fascism makes a significant contribution to the unfolding discussion on whether what we are witnessing today is best understood as a return to classic twentieth-century ‘fascism,’ or some species of what has been called ‘post-fascism.’ Applying a uniquely global perspective, it combines analyses of historical contexts, theoretical approaches and contemporary geopolitics.
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FREE DOWNLOAD of the full book and individual chapters are available at: https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book30/ After President Trump’s election, BREXIT and the widespread rise of far-Right political parties,... more
FREE DOWNLOAD of the full book and individual chapters are available at: https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book30/
After President Trump’s election, BREXIT and the widespread rise of far-Right political parties, much public discussion has intensely focused on populism and authoritarianism. In the middle of the twentieth century, members of the early Frankfurt School prolifically studied and theorized fascism and anti-Semitism in Germany and the United States. In this volume, leading European and American scholars apply insights from the early Frankfurt School to present-day authoritarian populism, including the Trump phenomenon and related developments across the globe. Chapters are arranged into three sections exploring different aspects of the topic: theories, historical foundations, and manifestations via social media. Contributions examine the vital political, psychological and anthropological theories of early Frankfurt School thinkers, and how their insights could be applied now amidst the insecurities and confusions of twenty-first century life. The many theorists considered include Adorno, Fromm, Löwenthal and Marcuse, alongside analysis of Austrian Facebook pages and Trump’s tweets and operatic media drama. This book is a major contribution towards deeper understanding of populism’s resurgence in the age of digital capitalism.
CONTENTS
Preface
Douglas Kellner
Introduction: The Frankfurt School and Authoritarian Populism – A Historical Outline
Jeremiah Morelock
Part 1: THEORIES OF AUTHORITARIANISM
1. Frankfurt School Critical Theory and the Persistence of Authoritarian Populism in the United States
John Abromeit
2. The Persistence of the Authoritarian Appeal: On Critical Theory as a Framework for Studying Populist Actors in European Democracies
Lars Rensmann
3. Understanding Right and Left Populism
Samir Gandesha
4. Donald Trump as Authoritarian Populist: A Frommian Analysis
Douglas Kellner
PART 2: FOUNDATIONS OF AUTHORITARIANISM
5. From Modernity to Bigotry
Stephen Eric Bronner
6. Opposing Authoritarian Populism: The Challenge and Necessity of a New World System
Charles Reitz
7. Public Sphere and World-System: Theorizing Populism at the Margins
Jeremiah Morelock and Felipe Ziotti Narita
Part 3: DIGITAL AUTHORITARIANISM
8. Racism, Nationalism and Right-Wing Extremism Online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook
Christian Fuchs
9. Authoritarianism, Discourse and Social Media: Trump as the ‘American Agitator’
Panayota Gounari
10. Phantasmagoria and the Trump Opera
Forrest Muelrath
After President Trump’s election, BREXIT and the widespread rise of far-Right political parties, much public discussion has intensely focused on populism and authoritarianism. In the middle of the twentieth century, members of the early Frankfurt School prolifically studied and theorized fascism and anti-Semitism in Germany and the United States. In this volume, leading European and American scholars apply insights from the early Frankfurt School to present-day authoritarian populism, including the Trump phenomenon and related developments across the globe. Chapters are arranged into three sections exploring different aspects of the topic: theories, historical foundations, and manifestations via social media. Contributions examine the vital political, psychological and anthropological theories of early Frankfurt School thinkers, and how their insights could be applied now amidst the insecurities and confusions of twenty-first century life. The many theorists considered include Adorno, Fromm, Löwenthal and Marcuse, alongside analysis of Austrian Facebook pages and Trump’s tweets and operatic media drama. This book is a major contribution towards deeper understanding of populism’s resurgence in the age of digital capitalism.
CONTENTS
Preface
Douglas Kellner
Introduction: The Frankfurt School and Authoritarian Populism – A Historical Outline
Jeremiah Morelock
Part 1: THEORIES OF AUTHORITARIANISM
1. Frankfurt School Critical Theory and the Persistence of Authoritarian Populism in the United States
John Abromeit
2. The Persistence of the Authoritarian Appeal: On Critical Theory as a Framework for Studying Populist Actors in European Democracies
Lars Rensmann
3. Understanding Right and Left Populism
Samir Gandesha
4. Donald Trump as Authoritarian Populist: A Frommian Analysis
Douglas Kellner
PART 2: FOUNDATIONS OF AUTHORITARIANISM
5. From Modernity to Bigotry
Stephen Eric Bronner
6. Opposing Authoritarian Populism: The Challenge and Necessity of a New World System
Charles Reitz
7. Public Sphere and World-System: Theorizing Populism at the Margins
Jeremiah Morelock and Felipe Ziotti Narita
Part 3: DIGITAL AUTHORITARIANISM
8. Racism, Nationalism and Right-Wing Extremism Online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook
Christian Fuchs
9. Authoritarianism, Discourse and Social Media: Trump as the ‘American Agitator’
Panayota Gounari
10. Phantasmagoria and the Trump Opera
Forrest Muelrath
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Critical Discourse Studies, Marxism, Frankfurt School (Philosophy), Herbert Marcuse, and 15 moreTheodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Fascism, Neo-Fascism, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Populism, Social Media, Critical Discourse Analysis, Media Discourse, Ideology and Discourse Analysis, Western Marxism, Frankfurt School, Authoritarianism, Political Discourse, and Extreme and Far Right
This book explores the tradition, impact, and contemporary relevance of two key ideas from Western Marxism: Georg Lukács's concept of reification, in which social aspects of humanity are viewed in objectified terms, and Guy Debord's... more
This book explores the tradition, impact, and contemporary relevance of two key ideas from Western Marxism: Georg Lukács's concept of reification, in which social aspects of humanity are viewed in objectified terms, and Guy Debord's concept of the spectacle, where the world is packaged and presented to consumers in uniquely mediated ways. Bringing the original, yet now often forgotten, theoretical contexts for these terms back to the fore, Johan Hartle and Samir Gandesha offer a new look at the importance of Western Marxism from its early days to the present moment-and reveal why Marxist cultural critique must continue to play a vital role in any serious sociological analysis of contemporary society.
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Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno, two of the most influential political philosophers and theorists of the twentieth century, were contemporaries with similar interests, backgrounds, and a shared experience of exile. Yet until now, no... more
Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno, two of the most influential political philosophers and theorists of the twentieth century, were contemporaries with similar interests, backgrounds, and a shared experience of exile. Yet until now, no book has brought them together. In this first comparative study of their work, leading scholars discuss divergences, disclose surprising affinities, and find common ground between the two thinkers. This pioneering work recovers the relevance of Arendt and Adorno for contemporary political theory and philosophy and lays the foundation for a critical understanding of political modernity: from universalistic claims for political freedom to the abyss of genocidal politics.
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In response to the oil spill in English Bay on April 8, 2015, we assembled a panel of experts from various fields, who have studied oil spills first hand. We will discuss the health, environmental and social impacts of this oil spill and... more
In response to the oil spill in English Bay on April 8, 2015, we assembled a panel of experts from various fields, who have studied oil spills first hand. We will discuss the health, environmental and social impacts of this oil spill and how we can try to mitigate the risks. Since oil spills occur all over the world as a by-product of the extraction of resources by huge corporations. Many vulnerable people face substantial risks to their water and land that they rely on for existence. This event was a continuation of the conversation we started at the State of Extraction conference. The aim is to continue the dialogue with the community, indigenous front line land defenders and those with experience with oil spills. We hope to create a space that we can share information, ask and answer important questions and create workable solutions. Participants: • Samir Gandesha, Professor and Director of the Institute of Humanities at SFU • Shirley Samples, We Love This Coast Group and SFU Associate • Audrey Siegel, Musqueam First Nation • Taylor George-Hollis, Squamish First Nation • Doug McArthur, Director of School of Public Policy at SFU • Riki Ott, Author, PhD, School of Fisheries, U. of Wash. Oil Expert Response Expert • Anita Burke, BSc in Environmental Science/Physics, Oil Spill Response Expert • Karen G.Wristen, Executive Director,Living Oceans Societ
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This performance-lecture is an unconventional treatise that explores the lineage of the narcissistic-capitalist subject as the dominant neurotic way of being in the present world and its relation to the chronic discontent in society. Is... more
This performance-lecture is an unconventional treatise that explores the lineage of the narcissistic-capitalist subject as the dominant neurotic way of being in the present world and its relation to the chronic discontent in society. Is it narcissism that drives capitalism, or is it capitalism that drives narcissism? Hilda Fernandez, a practitioner of Lacanian psychoanalysis in Vancouver, delves into psychoanalytic and social theory to ponder how the phallic self-image intertwines with the Freudian drive to arrive at the hegemonic capitalist discourse. She will consider the implications of this new human animal we have designed today and will relate it to its shadow side, the pervert. Hilda transforms into the narci-capitalist and in her reading, she tenses what possible relations between the individual and the collective, the private and the political, the conscious and unconscious. The Narci-capitalist is you - come and see your reflection. Panelists: Samir Gandesha who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities. Clint Burnham is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Simon Fraser University
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The global emergence of authoritarianism has, unsurprisingly, provoked analogies with the Weimar period. Yet caution must be exercised when reasoning by historical analogy. While we ought not so easily be swayed by analogical reasoning,... more
The global emergence of authoritarianism has, unsurprisingly, provoked analogies with the Weimar period. Yet caution must be exercised when reasoning by historical analogy. While we ought not so easily be swayed by analogical reasoning, the European interwar period might yet hold some unexpected lessons for us today. Neoliberalism exacerbates the rationalization tendencies of capitalist modernization through heightened processes of institutional and ideological abstraction. This means the unceasing subordination of qualitative human needs and aspirations to the quantitative monetary values of the market and the dynamics of capital accumulation. Such processes come under pressure in moments of crisis, giving rise to a fragmentation of the universalism that had historically underwritten the struggle for socialism, leading to aspirations to what could be called a false concreteness centred on a particularistic form of identity on both the contemporary right as well as the left. Each of these forms of ‘false concreteness’ eschews universalism, and has thus contributed to the crippling polarizations of our times. On the right, this has taken the form of authoritarian ethno-nationalism. On the left, identity politics, far from challenging the neoliberal consensus, only reinforces its iron grip.4 In these ways, neoliberalism’s deepening of the increasingly abstract nature of social life under capitalism redoubles tendencies towards re-enchantment as a way of providing false solutions to real problems. After looking at the radical conservative response to Weber’s diagnosis of modernity, I turn to neoliberalism’s heightening of abstraction, before showing the way in which identity politics represents an ostensible response to this logic by seeking to grasp the concrete or the particular in its immediacy. In conclusion, I suggest a way in which class analysis can provide a genuine alternative to such a politics, one that articulates what Ato Sekyi-Otu calls ‘left universalism’
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Berlin-based Harun Farocki is perhaps one of the most important independent film-makers active today. Having risen to prominence in Germany during the tumultuous 1960s, his work continues to provoke us to think critically about the... more
Berlin-based Harun Farocki is perhaps one of the most important independent film-makers active today. Having risen to prominence in Germany during the tumultuous 1960s, his work continues to provoke us to think critically about the pervasiveness of the image. In this, Farocki can be situated within a rich, specifically German, tradition of reflecting on the political ramifications of technology in the modern period from Nietzsche and Marx through Heidegger, Hannah Arendt and the Frankfurt School. Farocki addresses the fate of political action through an examination of the constella-tion of institutions that comprise the disciplinary matrix of our present: the shopping mall, the prison, and the military. Observational and disciplinary techniques are de-ployed in these institutions in such a way as to not only establish limits to political action in the world but also, perhaps more insidiously, to establish or frame the param-eters of that world itself. The process by which the world ...
This article poses the question of whether what we are witnessing today can be properly described as “fascistic.” It argues that it can if we understand fascism as an attack on liberal-democracy resulting from the now chronic (rather than... more
This article poses the question of whether what we are witnessing today can be properly described as “fascistic.” It argues that it can if we understand fascism as an attack on liberal-democracy resulting from the now chronic (rather than acute) crisis of capitalism. Like the fascism of the twentieth century, this entails an endocolonizing logic that nonetheless relinquishes its claim on a future increasingly imperilled by the nature of the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the impending climate emergency.
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In this article, it is argued that Gramsci’s conception of hegemony ought to be located not simply in the theory and praxis of Leninism but also in Gramsci’s read-ing of Machiavelli. By situating such a reading in relation to Nietzsche’s... more
In this article, it is argued that Gramsci’s conception of hegemony ought to be located not simply in the theory and praxis of Leninism but also in Gramsci’s read-ing of Machiavelli. By situating such a reading in relation to Nietzsche’s notion of will to power, it is possible to defend Gramsci’s political theory against some of the criticisms leveled by those who decry the “hegemony of hegemony”. Such a reading of the concept of hegemony enables us to understand the idea of “com-mon sense” as oriented towards the distribution and redistribution of the sensible.
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Research Interests: Critical Theory, Political Economy, Critical Discourse Studies, Marxism, Herbert Marcuse, and 15 morePolitical Science, Max Horkheimer, Politics, Fascism, Drama, Populism, Critical Discourse Analysis, Media Discourse, Ideology and Discourse Analysis, Frankfurt School, Authoritarianism, Political Discourse, Extreme and Far Right, Globe, and Neo Fascism
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This article argues that the figure of Oedipus lies at the heart of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. Oedipus is the prototypical Aufklärer as no one can rival him in his courageous attempt to employ his own... more
This article argues that the figure of Oedipus lies at the heart of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. Oedipus is the prototypical Aufklärer as no one can rival him in his courageous attempt to employ his own autonomous reason `without direction from another'; yet self-knowledge remains beyond his grasp. Indeed, Oedipus' obsessive drive to bring the truth to light ultimately leads him to put out his own eyes because he is unable to bear the sight of the catastrophe that this drive engenders. Oedipus' demise represents in allegorical form the self-destruction of enlightenment itself. Enlightenment is similarly driven to illuminate the world in its totality by reducing it to philosophical concepts. In the process, however, it becomes blind to the question of its dependence upon that which it purports to possess. In its attempt at total illumination, therefore, enlightenment does not effectuate an exit or Ausgang from the opacity of myth, as Kant had he...
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... Samir Gandesha Book Review: Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida http://ptx.sagepub ...
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In the opening lines of the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx notes that, &dquo;Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice.1 He has forgotten to add: the first... more
In the opening lines of the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx notes that, &dquo;Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice.1 He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.&dquo;2 Marx’s primary concern in his interpretation of the ascension of Louis Napoleon is the nature of historicity and its hold over the present and the future. Far from suggesting that a break with the past must take the form of an &dquo;active forgetting&dquo; in the manner of Nietzsche, Marx argues that only a remembrance
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This essay engages in a comparative analysis of Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt. It does so by situating both thinkers in terms of their respective Auseinandersetzungen with the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger. While... more
This essay engages in a comparative analysis of Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt. It does so by situating both thinkers in terms of their respective Auseinandersetzungen with the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger. While Heidegger seeks to engage in a Destruktion of the opposition between time and being, Adorno and Arendt seek to understand this relation critically in terms of the concept of ‘natural history’. For both, a reading of Kant’s Third Critique becomes the indispensable means by which it is possible to locate a path pointing beyond the chiasmic structure of natural history.
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In the current neoliberal world order, is it possible for authoritarianism to return? When we look to the founding of Germany in 1949, a decision was made to follow the logic of ordoliberalism: to firmly regulate the state through the... more
In the current neoliberal world order, is it possible for authoritarianism to return? When we look to the founding of Germany in 1949, a decision was made to follow the logic of ordoliberalism: to firmly regulate the state through the market so as to prevent a return of fascism and authoritarianism. However, according to Samir Gandesha, the opposite effect happened. In this episode, Samir and our host Am Johal discuss the ‘neoliberal identity’, what contributes to it, and how this impacts our current political world order. Samir Gandesha is the director of the Institute for the Humanities at SFU and an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Recently, Samir has written about authoritarianism and the neoliberal personality, along with other theoretical work. Samir is the editor of the forthcoming publication, \u27Spectres of Fascism\u27 in 2020 with Pluto Press; co-editor with Peyman Vahabzadeh of the publication \u27Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian Angus\u27, forthcoming from Arbeiter Ring Press in 2020; and is also preparing a manuscript on the \u27Neoliberal Personality\u27. You can learn more about Samir and the Institute for the Humanities at www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute.html
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It has become almost a cliché that globalization embodies a logic in which borders of every kind are radically called into question. As was said with rare perspicuity by the current US President, after the attacks of September 11th, 2001,... more
It has become almost a cliché that globalization embodies a logic in which borders of every kind are radically called into question. As was said with rare perspicuity by the current US President, after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, foreign policy has become domestic policy. In other words, by virtue of recent events, the border between the domestic and the foreign—perhaps the central binary opposition in the study of politics—has been deconstructed. The consequence of such a deconstruction was vividly brought home by Thomas Friedman, author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000), who argued recently that the Bush administration ought to set aside its preoccupation with Iraq for the moment and direct more of its attention to “stop the slide of over there into over here.” Nowhere has the border between the “foreign ” and the “domestic ” been posed more dramatically and directly than in the recent successes of political parties and social movements of the radical right that have...
This article looks at what has recently been called "cancel culture" in light of the concept of dictatorship.
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A Review of: Habermas, Jurgen. 2003. The Future of Human Nature. Translated by Max Pensky, Hella Beister and William Rehg. London: Polity.
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This book represents Habermas's intervention into the controversial question concerning biotechnology. More specifically, Habermas attempts to work out the rational that is justifiable limits of biotechnology. In the... more
This book represents Habermas's intervention into the controversial question concerning biotechnology. More specifically, Habermas attempts to work out the rational that is justifiable limits of biotechnology. In the constructivist spirit of postmodernism, Habermas resists ...
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This talk for a Panel Discussion on "The Canadian Election of 2015 and the Politics of Fear" at SFU's Institute for the Humanities is based on an article published twelve years ago entitled "The Political Semiosis of Populism" In the... more
This talk for a Panel Discussion on "The Canadian Election of 2015 and the Politics of Fear" at SFU's Institute for the Humanities is based on an article published twelve years ago entitled "The Political Semiosis of Populism" In the "Semiotic Review of Books," and it seeks to understand the role of "disgust" in right-wing political discourse through sketches of the theoretical contributions of figures such a Becker, Fromm, Adorno and Postone. This paper is just an over-view of work very much in development.
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Research Interests: Religion, Photography, Contemporary Art, Migration, Painting, and 20 moreGender, Culture, Oral Traditions, Post-Colonialism, Migration Studies, Sociology of Migration, Art Theory and Politics, Ethnicity, Refugees, Minorities, Language politics, State, Displacement, Art and Memory, Borders and Borderlands, Art and Film, Politics of Aesthetics, Refugee memory, POST WAR ART, and Discourse of Art
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This article looks at what has recently been called "cancel culture" in light of the concept of dictatorship.
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The gift of das Gift is that it gives us another way of thinking about the origins of philosophy. Perhaps philosophy doesn’t begin in the wonder or the “question of Being” (Seinsfrage), of “why there is something rather than nothing,” at... more
The gift of das Gift is that it gives us another way of thinking about the origins of philosophy. Perhaps philosophy doesn’t begin in the wonder or the “question of Being” (Seinsfrage), of “why there is something rather than nothing,” at all. What if all philosophizing, instead, begins in trauma, understood in a tear in the fabric of the symbolic order or the web of meaning that comprises a world (Lebenswelt)? Hasn’t Covid-19 shattered our worlds? Trauma, in other words, is as Hal Foster frames it, “the return of the real.” For Plato, the traumatic as opposed to wondrous origin of his philosophy was the trial and execution by the (democratic) polis of philosophy itself as personified, of course, by Socrates. Plato’s political philosophy is therefore a philosophy against politics, resulting in a perhaps over-compensatory attempt to make the world safe for philosophy; it is a philosophy against politics masquerading as a political philosophy. Arguably, the quintessential moment of trauma presaging philosophy was, in fact, a pestilence not unlike the one we are currently living through. This mythical, Theban plague in augurates that quintessential tragedy and provokes the thinking of a figure who has been called the “first philosopher.” Oedipus’ drive to knowledge ends the city’s suffering but begins his own and, of course, belies his (constitutive) lack of self-knowledge.
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Neoliberal globalization has increased both economic insecurity and cultural anxiety. Have theories of populism taken adequate account of such insecurity – key to understanding the difference between right and left populisms?
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The Forum discusses the book of S. Gandesha & J. Hartle (eds.), Aesthetic Marx, Bloomsbury, London 2017.
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A thorough discussions of our book and its main themes and sytsmetiac implications.
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Discussion of Ian Angus's life and work
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Popular art and so-called mass culture have become a kind of "wonderland" 1 and must be understood as a central phenomenon for contemporary intellectuals to address. This is, not least, due to their role in compelling us to broaden and... more
Popular art and so-called mass culture have become a kind of "wonderland" 1 and must be understood as a central phenomenon for contemporary intellectuals to address. This is, not least, due to their role in compelling us to broaden and rethink a part of the vocabulary and conceptuality of certain academic disciplines (such as aesthetics, for example), because of their leading role in shaping our sensus communis. More generally, such attention also has to do with their undeniable impact and influence on people's opinions and taste preferences, their choices as consumers of commodities of all kinds, and even on their sociopolitical views at a global level. On this basis, attempting to craft an adequate theory to fit massart forms has become one of the major preoccupations for art theorists, sociologists of culture, and also philosophers in the last decades, in a somehow comparable way to the preoccupation for attempting to accommodate avant-garde artworks in the twentieth century. 2 The implications and consequences of the above are manifold. Such implications include, for example, calling into question the typically modern dualistic distinctions between the spheres of so-called high and low cultures, serious and popular music, masscult and midcult, etc. In a similar way, also the no less typically modern "segmentation" and "compartmentalization" of culture in the supposedly separate and autonomous fields of what is "purely" aesthetic, ethical, economic, political, etc., have been