In light of the 2020 uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd taking place across America, I want to share an excerpt of a longer interview… Read more "Political emancipation and representation – Interview with Alain Badiou"
Socialists Think: Study Group on the Thought of Sylvain Lazarus
Readers may remember my references to the thought of Sylvain Lazarus over the years, including my piece on his Anthropology of the Name. I'm pleased to invite… Read more "Socialists Think: Study Group on the Thought of Sylvain Lazarus"
The Red-Green Conspiracy: On Messiah
A scholar of Rumi once told me that if Rumi had never met Shams he would have never found the pearl of deep spiritual insight. The function… Read more "The Red-Green Conspiracy: On Messiah"
Best Books of 2019
The traditional year-end inventory of my year in reading. Lists may be clichéd, but they really help me take a breath of air and look out on… Read more "Best Books of 2019"
Upcoming Talk: On the Virtue of Modesty in Lacan
Lacan has remarked that modesty is the most important virtue. Lacan thinks modesty as an affect that keeps one’s desire or symptom protected behind a veil. Yet when the veil is lifted through the gaze of the other, the subject undergoes shame. Where there is shame, the extimate part of one’s being, precisely their desire is exposed to the other. Shame thus awakens the subject to being riveted to oneself, to a foreign self inside oneself.
A Lacanian Reading of Joker
Todd Phillip's Joker is a film about class war in utero. The film sets the stage for a coming political world in which the class war in… Read more "A Lacanian Reading of Joker"
On Kołakowski and the Neoplatonist Pre-History of Marxism
With increasing interest in new forms of Marxism, the philosophical origins of Marx’s thought have been a topic of important debate with many studies locating Marx’s early… Read more "On Kołakowski and the Neoplatonist Pre-History of Marxism"
Overcoming Liberalism from Within: On Solidarity and American Socialism
I have a long essay up on socialism, liberalism and solidarity for the great working class think tank The Hampton Institute. Please give it a read here.… Read more "Overcoming Liberalism from Within: On Solidarity and American Socialism"
The Best Books of 2018
It's time to restore a tradition on this blog: the classic year-end best books list. 2018 has been a fairly significant year for my research and reading.… Read more "The Best Books of 2018"
Lacan And The Politics Of Psychoanalysis – An Interview With Thomas Svolos
The following is an interview I conducted with Lacanian psychoanalyst Thomas Svolos for The New Polis where I serve as Contributing Editor.
The Missed Encounter Between Critical Theory And American Pragmatism
The great European Marxist saw in American philosophy a form of thinking that refused speculative thought and that presented a form of reason adjusted to exploitation of the status quo. The confluence of American philosophy produced a most insidious form of idealism.
The Death of Storytelling and the Rise of Myth
In the 1960’s, capital valuation cycles occurred in an average of three-year cycles. Capital would hang around in one place for an average of three years. But…… Read more “The Death of Storytelling and the Rise of Myth”
Is the Stock Market a “Camp”? Towards a Cosmic Politics
Arne De Boever's book Finance Fictions: Realism and Psychosis in a Time of Economic Crisis is not providing a new psychoanalytic analysis of psychosis, which I immediately thought it… Read more "Is the Stock Market a “Camp”? Towards a Cosmic Politics "
Teaching Philosophy in Prison
Next month, I will teach a class for inmates in the DC jail as part of the JCI Prison Scholars Program. I’ll most definitely plan to write…… Read more “Teaching Philosophy in Prison”
Dissolving the I in the We: Love and the Problem of Community
I'm giving a lecture at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY called “Dissolving the I in the We: Love and the Problem of Community.” This lecture is… Read more "Dissolving the I in the We: Love and the Problem of Community"
Colloquium Workshop: “Islam and Psychoanalysis”
You can attend a workshop I’m pleased to offer on the topic of “Islam and Psychoanalysis” at Georgetown University. Here are the details and a link to…… Read more “Colloquium Workshop: “Islam and Psychoanalysis””
Whither the critique of political economy in post-Marxism?
In my dissertation, I made an argument that the decisionism of Badiou, Zizek, Laclau and other so-called ‘post-Marxist’ theorists is derived from an intra-theoretical debate amongst left-Heideggerians,…… Read more “Whither the critique of political economy in post-Marxism?”
Embracing Fragmentation
Derrida famously opens Specters of Marx with a meditation on the motif in Hamlet that "time is out of joint." This reference provokes many implications, but the… Read more "Embracing Fragmentation"
Something Bigger: Lady Bird and the Divinity of the Name
“a something, a greater than which cannot be conceived.” St. Anselm Amidst the fanfare and excitement over Lady Bird, a lingering debate about the film is whether the family…… Read more “Something Bigger: Lady Bird and the Divinity of the Name”
Vultures and Starlings: Class and Debt Feudalism in Ozark
The European Starling was first introduced to America by a Shakespeare enthusiast who felt that New York city, already a booming theater-going town in the early 1800’s,…… Read more “Vultures and Starlings: Class and Debt Feudalism in Ozark”
Daniel Tutt 