Hegel’s racism: A reply to McCarney

Some of Joseph McCarney’s criticisms of my ‘Will the Real Kant Please Stand Up’ arise only because he misidentifies the issue I discuss there. As I explain in my opening paragraph, I wrote the essay to call into question the way philosophers today address – or often fail to address in a serious way – […]

On theoretical foundations: Theses on Brecht: With an Introduction by Andrew McGettigan

Document Introduction to Walter Benjamin’s ‘Theses on Brecht’These four short paragraphs, translated here into English for the first time, were sketched out in Walter Benjamin’s hand on a sheet filed alongside a transcript for his radio talk ‘Bert Brecht’, broadcast on Frankfurter Rundfunk in June 1930.1 In content, they resemble ideas developed in other texts […]

Pre-emptive strike

As the editor of the new journal Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses, published by Taylor & Francis, I am pleased to have a chance to respond to the ‘pre-emptive strike’ launched against the journal as a neoliberal ‘corporate-cum-academic dream’ in Mark Neocleous’s piece ‘Resisting Resilience’ (RP 178). First, it seems to be self-defeating to […]

De-definition of media: A telegraphic postscript

Dossier: What is German Media Philosophy?

In my view, the question raised by this short and sharp Dossier concerns the relationship of the ‘regime’ of German media philosophy to the contemporary philosophy involved in its major operation: the de-definition of media. This is shown, immediately, by the very un/common notion used by Professors Lorenz Engell and Bernhard Siegert: not ‘Philosophy of […]

Architecture or art? (Response to Leslie); War between philosophy and art (Response to Bernstein); Frank significance (Response to Orozco)

~’, LETTERS Architecture or art? Esther Leslie’s sour dismissal of the wrapping of the Reichstag by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (RP 77) contains a number of doubtful and contradictory arguments. Permission to wrap the building required a parliamentary vote; approval was by 295 votes to 226. This democratic act by an institution of the state is […]

Response to Gadamer Interview

LETTER Dear Radical Philosophy, I am not sure how the interview with Hans-Georg Gadamer earned its presence within the pages of a journal called Radical Philosophy. I am no expert on him, and I would like to be corrected, but it appears that the interviewers allowed him to slide away from what should have been […]

Response to Sayers

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Reply to Suchting on Bhaskar

Virtually Real Realism and the Human Sciences Conference, Oxford, 24-26 July 1992 Roy Bhaskar’s opening paper indicated concerns which were to characterise the conference as a whole. He argued that Critical Realism needs to take on Hegelian concepts to bolster its existing epistemic mapping of the world. The notion of totality, for example, could provide […]

Reason Without Emotion

Reason Without Emoti·on Carol Jones J In ‘Reason and Emotion’ (RP 57), Miranda Fricker objects to the polarisation of reason and emotion, the separation of which she sees as a factor in the conflict between rational, patriarchal modes of reasoning and the ‘expressive power of emotions’ which feminists have tended to prefer. Seeking to refute […]

A’ Level Philosophy; The Church Is In Danger

LETTERS ‘A’ LEVEL PHILOSOPHY Dear RP, Steve Brigley (RP 35) was pessimistic about the ‘A’ level Philosophy syllabus proposed by the AEB. His main concern was its failure to provide opportunities for the development of students’ own ideas and arguments, suggesting that the syllabus was likely to reproduce the elitism and obscurity which graces the […]

Philosophy in Hackney

Philosophy in Hackney Nadine Cartner Nadine Cartner, a member of the Radical Philosophy collective, teaches ‘A’ level Philosophy at Hackney College in London. Below is an edited transcript of the ideas and comments of some of her students. The large majority of these students are working class, many of them black; most of them have […]

50 Letters

Dear Radical Philosophy, Since I want to offer a brief, critical comment on the project of RP , I first want to say that anyone who knows anything about producing small unofficial journals will know what desperately hard work it is – financially, administratively, personally. Simply to keep a radical and committed journal such as […]

Response to Birchall; Response to Sayers’ The Need to Work, with Reply by Sayers

LETTERS June 1987 Dear Comrades, Clearly, to judge from his letter in Radical Philosophy 46, my reviewofSartre’sFreudScenario (Radical Philosophy 44) sorely provoked Ian Birchall. I intended my remarks to be provocative but I did not expect them to be so badly misconstrued. In my review I spoke of a ‘legend’ amongst ‘Sartreans’ concerning this scenario. […]

Response to Archard’s Review of Sartre’s Freud Scenario

Philosophy and Medical Welfare Under the auspices of the Royal Institute of Philosophy the Philosophy Department, University of York (UK) is holding a conference on Philosophy and Medical Welfare from 11 to 13 September 1987. Speakers will include Martin Hollis (University of East Anglia), John Harris (University of Manchester), Michael Lockwood (University of Oxford). Further […]

Letters on Strawbridge and Althusser

Letters Dear Radical Philosophy, Sheelagh Strawbridge’s article ‘From “Over determination” to “Structural Causality”: Some Unresolved Problems in Althusser’s Treatment of Causality’ (RP 38) was informative and served to help me get to grips with this widely quoted contemporary thinker. However, I’m still not entirely clear about various matters pertaining to the concept of contradiction and […]