Editorial archive

EDITORIJlL I have been secretary and coordinator of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy since 1973. In September last year I decided to resign, though I hope to continue to work as an ordinary member of the collective. With some miSgivings, the editors have allowed me to offer some reflections on the magazine’s past and […]

Notes This issue of Radical Philosophy appears in a situation where the interests of both its writers and readers are under threat. Not only is philosophy being threatened as a result of the economic crisis, but the philosophical frameworks used by radical groups over the last decade are directly under attack: the Open University is […]

Notes In this issue we publish an important study, the first to appear in Radical Philosophy, of sexism in philosophy. Michele Le Doeuff’s article, ‘Women and Philosophy’, breaks new ground in the analysis of the politics and history of philosophical practice. The depth and force of her argument lies in the thesis that the sexism […]

vention in education akin to those being contemplated at present in Britain) may suggest new ways of understanding the state of British philosophy. AbouIIhis issue Orthodox British philosophical theory is fe’eble and emaciated; it feeds on itself and becomes still thinner and weaker. The Radical Philosophy movement is originally a protest against this debility; and […]

RADICAL PHILOSOPHY ELEVEN ,’Belgrade ProIesl In the last three issues of Radical Philosophy we-reported on the continued ba”rr~!sment of philosophers in Yugoslavia. The following letter from eight Belgrade philosophy professors was sent to the Assembly of the Socia~ist Republic of Serbia earlier this year The seven year long campaign against us – in which, in […]

Radical Philos…..y Twelve Philosophy 4 reslival The Radical Philosophy Group will hold a conference at Balliol College, Oxford, on 10, 11, 12 January 1976. The aim of the conference is to enable people to meet and talk winh one another on the basis of a common concern with the connections between politics and theory, in […]

Radical PhilosoRh:y rou..teen Dialectics In this iss!.le we are publishing two articles on dialecticd. The topic aroused considerable interest at our January conference, and at the open meeting on 13 March (see news section), we decided to try to initiate a co-ordinated scheme of collective work on the topic, leading up to a conference next […]

BADICALPBILOSOPHYTBN KeiIh.Joseph andlhe . simpleminded THREAT TO SWANSEA STUDENTS “Mounting evidence that a small minority of university teachers regards truth as being at worst irrelevant anc at best a political weapon to manipulate the simple-minded” is apparently gathering in the files of the right (see p.8) Two boycotts of exams, variou~demonstrations, a three day occupation […]

RadicaIPhilosophy~_. _ _ _ __ system and those within society generally. For when this happens contradictions are exposed. So too is the power of trade unionism – its capacity to act in solidarity and to organise effective opposi tion. And when this menacing power present’s its face at the threshold of the academic sanctuary then […]

RadicaIPhiloso~hy_8_ __ This issue of Radical Philosophy contains sev· ral articles on education. We are particularly glad about this because we feel that although most radical intellectuals spend their working lives in education they have rarely considered what the significance of this is. It is part of the cunning of bourgeois culture that it has […]

Radical Philoso~~y_7_ __ ~I political and economic theory: and we want to develop awareness of the conditions in which philosophy is actually produced – which means bourgeois academic institutions. (See the article by Jon Davies on what it means to take a degree, and also parts of Ranci~re’s wide-ranging critique of his former teacher Althusser […]

Radical Philosop-hy_6_ __ Orthodox English-language philosophy may be pretty boring, ignorant, and mystifying; but beyond this it is hard to make generalisations about it. One of the complications concerns its attitudes to the conceptions which characterise the minds of nonintellectuals or non-academics, to ‘common sense’ or ‘ordinary language’. On this issue, there have been two […]

RADIEAL PHILOSOPHY 5 It has always been intended that the editorship of this journal should circulate regUlarly from one group to another. This intention is now to be put into practice; and with the next issue the work of production and distribution will be taken over by a group in London based at the Middlesex […]

RADIEAl PHIOSOPHV 4 With this issue, Radical Philosophy is one year old: During this year the movement has created a good deal of interest and received a lot of support. However, this success has also served to highlight the long struggle which will he needed if we are to have significant effects. The features of […]

_DIAL PHIlOSOPHY 3 WINTER 1972 .. Since our last issue one of the most encouraging developments has been the formation of several new local groups. There are at least two functions these groups can perform both useful and neither necessarily exclusive of the other. A group aay provide a context in which ideas, ~nich are […]

Editorial Philosophy and race This special issue of Radical Philosophy presents five papers from the recent Radical Philosophy Conference, ʻPhilosophy and Raceʼ, held in London, 6–7 November 1998. The conference was a response to concern about the lack of discussion of race and ethnicity within both mainstream and alternative, more progressive, philosophical discourses in Britain. […]

Radical philosophy has become one hundred in the year 2000, mimicking the Christian millennium with a numerological accident of its own. Arbitrary as such anniversaries are, it nonetheless provides an occasion to reflect upon some of the changes in the context of the journal over the last three decades.RP is the only one of the […]

Editorial One hundred and fifty, not out Anniversaries can be anxious times, as the past piles high – and not only in the form of wreckage. As the revisitings of May ’68 running up to its fortieth birthday last month showed, the recent past retains its currency as a weapon in the present, constantly in […]