Showing posts with label Dialectics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dialectics. Show all posts
Monday, 2 May 2016
Monday, 1 December 2014
'So Much the Worse for the Whites': Dialectics of the Haitian Revolution
by George Ciccariello-Maher
This article sets out from an analysis of the pioneering work
of Susan Buck-Morss to rethink, not only Hegel and Haiti, but broader questions
surrounding dialectics and the universal brought to light by the Haitian
Revolution. Reading through the lens of C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins, I
seek to correct a series of ironic silences in her account, re-centering the
importance of Toussaint’s successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and underlining
the dialectical importance of identitarian struggles in forging the universal.
Finally, I offer Frantz Fanon’s reformulation of the Hegelian master-slave
dialectic—overlooked in Buck-Morss’ account—as a corrective that allows us to
truly rethink progress toward the universal in decolonized dialectical terms.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
'Fanon & Violence': A lecture by Lewis Gordon
Click here to watch this video at the Histories of Violence project.
The Histories of Violence “Fanon & Violence” lecture is provided by Professor Lewis R. Gordon (Temple University, U.S.A.). At the time of filming, Professor Gordon was the Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He was also Director of the Centre for Afro-Jewish Studies while a Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Professor Gordon has written many works in race theory, Africana philosophy, postcolonial phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political philosophy, film and literature, philosophy of education, philosophy of human sciences, and a variety of topics in the public interest. Before joining Temple, he taught at Brown University for eight years, during which the program in Afro-American Studies became the Department of Africana Studies under his leadership as chairperson. He also taught at Purdue University and Yale University, and he is Ongoing Visiting Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Professor Gordon has presented lectures internationally, and has been a recipient of numerous awards and distinguished fellowships.
The Histories of Violence “Fanon & Violence” lecture is provided by Professor Lewis R. Gordon (Temple University, U.S.A.). At the time of filming, Professor Gordon was the Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He was also Director of the Centre for Afro-Jewish Studies while a Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Professor Gordon has written many works in race theory, Africana philosophy, postcolonial phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political philosophy, film and literature, philosophy of education, philosophy of human sciences, and a variety of topics in the public interest. Before joining Temple, he taught at Brown University for eight years, during which the program in Afro-American Studies became the Department of Africana Studies under his leadership as chairperson. He also taught at Purdue University and Yale University, and he is Ongoing Visiting Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Professor Gordon has presented lectures internationally, and has been a recipient of numerous awards and distinguished fellowships.
Monday, 27 February 2012
Andrew Nash: The Dialectical Tradition in South Africa Routledge, London, 2009
reviewed by Christopher Allsobrook, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
We provincial South African philosophers, trapped in second-hand, neo-Kantian antinomies, tend to discriminate just two basic senses of the abused and beleaguered term, ‘dialectic’: the first associated, respectfully, with a dialogical method of Ancient philosophy; the second, pejoratively, with muddled transgression of the principle of non-contradiction in Continental philosophy. Dialectical thinking is held unreflectively to stand in contrast to analytical thinking; the insertion of such a term in philosophical discussion confirms suspicion that a line of argument has run astray, if not to the point of opinionated assertion, then, to senseless confusion occasioned by impassioned failure to draw sufficiently clear and precise distinctions. In the dominant English-speaking philosophical environment, right-minded philosophers sensibly avoid the dialectic. It is in response to this crisis that The Dialectical Tradition in South Africa recalls and attempts to revive a dormant tradition of dialectical critical thinking that has long animated a dissident sector of predominantly Afrikaans-speaking philosophers in this country.
We provincial South African philosophers, trapped in second-hand, neo-Kantian antinomies, tend to discriminate just two basic senses of the abused and beleaguered term, ‘dialectic’: the first associated, respectfully, with a dialogical method of Ancient philosophy; the second, pejoratively, with muddled transgression of the principle of non-contradiction in Continental philosophy. Dialectical thinking is held unreflectively to stand in contrast to analytical thinking; the insertion of such a term in philosophical discussion confirms suspicion that a line of argument has run astray, if not to the point of opinionated assertion, then, to senseless confusion occasioned by impassioned failure to draw sufficiently clear and precise distinctions. In the dominant English-speaking philosophical environment, right-minded philosophers sensibly avoid the dialectic. It is in response to this crisis that The Dialectical Tradition in South Africa recalls and attempts to revive a dormant tradition of dialectical critical thinking that has long animated a dissident sector of predominantly Afrikaans-speaking philosophers in this country.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Veneration and Struggle: Commemorating Frantz Fanon
As tradition has it, golden jubilees usually provide perfect occasions to reflect back on historical accomplishments that are recent enough to reminisce and important enough to still matter. The second decade of the 21st century marks such a reflective moment across the African world for those who find value in the lessons of the past, their contemporaneous applications and the implications of both for the visions of progress, prosperity and peace. The importance of this decade has already been determined by historical forces that are at least five decades old and the constant need to never forget them. Wherever in the African Diaspora one might exist, the significance of the decade of the 1960s reverberates in both the collective memories and the objective realities. As such, our effort in 2011 to eagerly and unapologetically reflect on the legacy of Frantz Fanon is motivated in one sense by the need to appreciate the iconic figures of the past.
- Kurt B. Young, from the Introduction
Monday, 3 October 2011
Frantz Fanon and the Dialetic of Decolonisation
by Siphiwe Ndlovu
It has been more than five decades since the wave of decolonization swept across Africa. For people on the continent, the rise to power by the former liberation movements brought hope for a better future in the post-colonial state. However later developments showed that independence would, in fact, not change the material and social conditions of the ordinary people. Although the national liberation movement took over the government of the former colony, colonial institutions and structures of power, which were founded on
economic exploitation of the colony, remained unchanged. Thus in this thesis I set out to examine Frantz Fanon’s thought in order to provide a critique of post-independence failures in Africa.
It has been more than five decades since the wave of decolonization swept across Africa. For people on the continent, the rise to power by the former liberation movements brought hope for a better future in the post-colonial state. However later developments showed that independence would, in fact, not change the material and social conditions of the ordinary people. Although the national liberation movement took over the government of the former colony, colonial institutions and structures of power, which were founded on
economic exploitation of the colony, remained unchanged. Thus in this thesis I set out to examine Frantz Fanon’s thought in order to provide a critique of post-independence failures in Africa.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Critique of Dialectical Reason
At the height of the Algerian war,
Jean-Paul Sartre embarked on a fundamental reappraisal of his
philosophical and political thought. The result was the Critique of Dialectical Reason,
an intellectual masterpiece of the twentieth century, now published as a
two-volume set with a major new introduction by Fredric Jameson. In it,
Sartre set out the basic categories for the renovated theory of history
that he believed was necessary for post-war Marxism.
Sartre's formal aim was to establish the dialectical intelligibility of history itself, as what he called 'a totalisation without a totaliser'. But, at the same time, his substantive concern was the structure of class struggle and the fate of mass movements of popular revolt, from the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century to the Russian and Chinese revolutions in the twentieth: their ascent, stabilisation, petrification and decline, in a world still overwhelmingly dominated by scarcity.
Sartre's formal aim was to establish the dialectical intelligibility of history itself, as what he called 'a totalisation without a totaliser'. But, at the same time, his substantive concern was the structure of class struggle and the fate of mass movements of popular revolt, from the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century to the Russian and Chinese revolutions in the twentieth: their ascent, stabilisation, petrification and decline, in a world still overwhelmingly dominated by scarcity.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Itinerary of a Thought
Jean-Paul Sartre, New Left Review, 1969
How do you envisage the relationship between your early philosophical writings, above all L’Etre et Le Néant, and your present theoretical work, from the Critique de la Raison Dialectique onwards? In the Critique, the typical concepts of L’Etre et Le Néant have disappeared, and
a completely new vocabulary has taken their place. Yet when reading the
passages of your forthcoming study of Flaubert published in Les Temps Modernes one is struck by the sudden re-emergence of the characteristic idiom of the early work—thetic consciousness, ego, nihilation, being, nothingness. These notions are now juxtaposed in the text with the distinct set of concepts which derive from the Critique—serialization, totalization, practico-inert, collectives. What is the precise relationship between the two in your current thought?
Monday, 1 August 2011
Dialectical Reason
by Richard Turner, Radical Philosophy, 1973
The concept 'dialectical reason', as used by 'marxist' theorists, contains buried within it a number of theoretical problems, problems which have significance for where why and how we may use dialectical reason. There are three issues, in particular, on which reflective clarity is both always needed and often lacking. Firstly, what precisely distinguishes 'dialectical reason' from 'analytical reason'? Secondly, how does one legitimise the use of dialectical reason - that is, are there 'laws' of dialectical reason, how are they discovered, and to what may they be applied? Thirdly, given that the central concept of dialectics is that of 'totality', and that it is therefore assumed that the observer is always part of the totality being observed, how, if at all, does one escape from historical relativism?
The concept 'dialectical reason', as used by 'marxist' theorists, contains buried within it a number of theoretical problems, problems which have significance for where why and how we may use dialectical reason. There are three issues, in particular, on which reflective clarity is both always needed and often lacking. Firstly, what precisely distinguishes 'dialectical reason' from 'analytical reason'? Secondly, how does one legitimise the use of dialectical reason - that is, are there 'laws' of dialectical reason, how are they discovered, and to what may they be applied? Thirdly, given that the central concept of dialectics is that of 'totality', and that it is therefore assumed that the observer is always part of the totality being observed, how, if at all, does one escape from historical relativism?
Monday, 4 July 2011
Frantz Fanon & the Dialectic of Solidarity
by Richard Pithouse
The idea of dialectical praxis runs through out this project. E. P. Thompson writes that "dialectics was rudely snatched out of our grasp and made into the plaything of scholasticism" (2001:451). The aim here is snatch it back and to assert dialectical philosophy as the living logic of revolt. For this reason the fifth and final chapter seeks to develop an argument about what it might mean to take Fanon seriously in contemporary South Africa. The arguments developed here owe much to the activist and Africanist readings of Fanon by Ato Sekyi-Otu and Nigel Gibson and argue for an intellectual praxis of transformative dialogical engagement within nodes of militant resistance.
The idea of dialectical praxis runs through out this project. E. P. Thompson writes that "dialectics was rudely snatched out of our grasp and made into the plaything of scholasticism" (2001:451). The aim here is snatch it back and to assert dialectical philosophy as the living logic of revolt. For this reason the fifth and final chapter seeks to develop an argument about what it might mean to take Fanon seriously in contemporary South Africa. The arguments developed here owe much to the activist and Africanist readings of Fanon by Ato Sekyi-Otu and Nigel Gibson and argue for an intellectual praxis of transformative dialogical engagement within nodes of militant resistance.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Bodies, Languages Truths
by Alain Badiou, Victoria College of Arts, University of Melbourne, September 9th 2006
Our question will be :
What is the dominant ideology today? Or, if you want, what is, in our countries, the natural belief? There is the free market, the technology, the money, the job, the blog, the reelections, the free sexuality, and so on. But I think that all that can be concentrated in a single statement:
What is the dominant ideology today? Or, if you want, what is, in our countries, the natural belief? There is the free market, the technology, the money, the job, the blog, the reelections, the free sexuality, and so on. But I think that all that can be concentrated in a single statement:
There are only bodies and languages.
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