Fleshy Memory

Fleshy Memory Kelly Oliver Freud conceived of the ego as energetically self-contained, though formed in relations with the maternal and paternal figures of the Oedipal situation. In his Hegelian reading of Freud, Lacan emphasises the relationships that give rise to (and undermine) a sense of ego identity with his famous account of the infant’s self-recognition […]

Looking for the Good Life

COMMENTARY Looking for the Good Life Bob Brecher It is almost impossible these days to stumble across anything like a vision of the good society lurking even in the background of a left position. From the intellectual void that is the Labour Party, to the labyrinthine morass of postmodern and postfeminist postponements that constitutes the […]

Coal: Economics versus Emotions?

COMMENTARY Coal Economics versus Emotions? Andrew G/yn On 13 October 1992 the British government sanctioned the closure by British Coal of 31 collieries by the end of the year. It completely miscalculated the scale of public response, especially from such unlikely quarters as the streets of Cheltenham and the pages of the Sun and Express. […]

Ethnic War in Bosnia?

COMMENTARY Ethnic War in Bosnia? Cornelia Sorabji Bosnia is fading from the news, winter has descended to sever its population from the outside world, and military intervention of any significant scale has not occurred. In Britain much of the debate over the desirability of such intervention has revolved around the idea of ‘ethnic war’. Given […]

Endgame

COMMENTARY Endgame Joseph McCarney Every now and then an event occurs which brings a shift of perspective on the intellectual scene, relating familiar components in new ways and by its oblique light revealing the contents of dark corners and alleys. Such an event is the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s The End ofHistory and the Last […]

The Personal and Political: 20 Years On

The Personal and Political 20 Years On fan Craib Thinking about 1968, the most interesting thing for me is 1967. 1967 comes back more easily; it is the signpost from which, sometimes with difficulty, I can move forward to what I remember of 1968. The reason is quite simple: in 1967, I was in love, […]

The ‘A’ Level Canon

The’A’LeveICanon Sally Minogue [This is a slightly revised version of a paper delivered at the Conference for Higher Education Teachers of English at the University of Kent, Easter 1987.] I want to begin by saying something about the institutionalisation of English in education, and we don’t need to look far for images of this institutionalisation. […]

Ideology and the Media: A Response

COMMENT Ideology and the Media: A Response Martin Barker’s examination of problems and evasions discernible in the use made of the concept of ideology by major strands of media research (Radical Philosophy 46) is timely. Media analysis in Britain seems now to be well-launched into a phase in which empirically-based studies, including studies of audience […]

Philosophy and Aggression

Philosophy and Aggression Jean Grimshaw It is not uncommonly suggested that whereas men tend to have an aggressive or competitive style of interacting or conducting a debate or a discussion, women tend to be more co-operative. They listen better, are more supportive of other people’s contributions; they are less prone to be assertive, more anxious […]

Strange Days for Philosophers

COMMENT Strange Days for Philosophers Geoffrey Thomas Philosophers appear to have an unquiet certainty that something is happening to their subject. What I don’t think is happening is the “end” of philosophy. Rather there is a confusion of two things which are very easily detachable. As a distinctive activity philosophy is ineliminable at a certain […]

A New Marxist Paradigm?

COMMENT A New Marxist Paradigm? Joseph McCarney I agree with a great deal in Gregor McLennan’s review of Jon Elster’s Making Sense of Marx (RP42), and most of all with his idea of the book’s importance. He may well be right in thinking it ‘likely to dominate discussions of Marx and Marxism for the next […]

More on Market Socialism; A Level Philosophy: A Reply to Roche

Comment Soris Frankel More on Market Socia.lism I In Radical Philosophy 39 Alec Nove rejected my argument concerning the historical obsolescence of market soclallsm. Nove particularly emphasised that my lack of an alternative model was no substitute for his own ‘feasible soclallsm’ model. While I plead guilty to lacking an elaborate blueprint of the future […]

Feminism: History and Morality

Feminism: History and Morality Jean Grimshaw Janet Radcliffe Richards’ book The Sceptical Feminist (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980, £12 hb) is an attempt to extricate feminism from what she sees as ideological commitments that are not essential to it, and serve merely to confuse feminists themselves, and alienate potential supporters. The image of the feminist […]

The Real Meaning of Conservatism

The Real Meaning of Conservatism Andrew 8e/sey After the Affluent Fifties, the Swinging Sixties and the Doubting Seventies, what – the Authoritarian Eighties? Events around the world – in the Soviet Union, in the United States, in Thatcherite Britain, in South America, in Iran, Korea, Turkey and plenty of other places – suggest that aggressive, […]

Nuclear Disarmament

COMMENT Nuclear Disarmament Kate Soper The Editorial Collective regards nuclear disarmament as an extremely important issue at the present time. It therefore decided that the following piece by Kate Soper should be given prominence in Radical Philosophy 27. The views expressed are Kate’s: they do not represent the unanimous opinion of the Collective. While millions […]