'Radical Philosophy' tag archive

Peter Osborne is the longest serving editor in Radical Philosophy’s history. He joined the editorial collective in 1983 and was involved in the publication of 168 issues until he stood down as an editor in 2016. Over these four decades he undoubtedly did more than any other member of RP to define the journal’s direction […]

It’s 50 years since the first issue of Radical Philosophy was published in 1972. To mark the occasion, we asked a selection of former editors to share their recollections and reflections on their time on the job. We wanted to hear from those involved in the early years, without neglecting those who had participated in […]

EDITORIAL Intellectual journals have their moments; if they’re lucky more than one. But to sustain themselves over decades, they have to change (or become part of an establishment), and change more than once. With this issue, Radical Philosophy marks forty-five years as a collectively edited, selfpublished and still largely self-produced print journal. It is still […]

Obituaries An English Marxist John Mepham, 1938–2012 John Mepham, one of the founding editors of Radical Philosophy, died in London, in September, aged 73. ^ He was a fine thinker and much valued teacher, whose expertise ranged across science, philosophy and literature. During his period as a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex […]

Comment Pirate Radical Philosophy Gary hall Pirate … from the Latin pirata (-ae; pirate)… transliteration of the Greek piratis (pirate; πειρατής) from the verb pirao (make an attempt, try, test, get experience, endeavour, attack; πειράω). … In modern Greek… piragma: teasing [πείραγμα] … pirazo: tease, give trouble [πειράζω].1 Much has been written about the ‘crisis […]

David Macey died from complications of lung cancer on 7 October. He embodied the paradox of being a fine public intellectual while remaining an intensely private person. He was one of the best intellectual historians of his generation and added appreciably to scholarly knowledge, yet did his most significant work as a freelance writer outside […]

Reviewing Rancière Or, the persistence of discrepancies Bruno bosteels In the nearly four decades since its original publication, Althusser’s Lesson has acquired a certain mythical aura as the dark precursor of things to come. Even with the wealth of translations of Jacques Rancière’s work that have been published at an increasingly feverish pace over the […]

Philosophy for children Matthew charles A well‑orchestrated public relations campaign led pri‑marily by educational charity The Philosophy Shop has helped raise the profile of the philosophy for children movement in the UK significantly over the last few years. Whilst The Philosophy Shop has been promoting its ‘Four Rs’ campaign to make ‘Reason‑ing’ a central feature […]

The Politics of Experience Radical Philosophy Conference Birkbeck College, London, 13 November 1993 If, as the cliche goes, a week is a long time in politics, a couple of months is eternity itself when it comes to judging academic conferences. Even in the best of cases, the arguments of the day, stripped of their urgency, […]

EDITORIAL The Radical Philosophy Group, so the mission statement on the inside cover used to announce, grew in part out of opposition to ‘the sterile and complacent philosophy taught in British universities and colleges’. And, as any radical philosopher would have told you, nothing more typified this sterility and complacency than the school of ‘linguistic […]

EDITORIAL Since the late ’80s, all those with sympathies on the Left have had to reconsider their position. In the editorial of the last RP, Greg Elliott, from a knowledge of the recent history of Western Marxism, considered the changed situation of marxist philosophy over the twenty years of RP’s existence. He expressed opposition to […]

News, Comment and Letters AMERICAN ?HILOSOPHY: R.I.P. The latest 0984-85) series of lectures sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy was on ‘American Philosophy’. Given the history of this prestigious series (now in its nineteenth year), this was anunusual choice. The Institute has never been radical in its deployment of this interesting piece of intellectual […]

Analyse und Kritik Anton Leist * & Kritik is a new journal for the sciences in West Germany. In the following article, Anton Leist, one of its editors, explains the editorial aims. Analyse sO~lal I Historical background During the 1960s the social sciences in West Germany were, in Kuhn’s phrase, in a state of ‘crisis’; […]

AN EDITOR SPEAKS J onathan Ree’ s ‘Editorial’ in R P2 0 des cribes itself as a ‘farewell performance’ written to mark his retirement as the magazine’s editorial secretary. Since the piece is a personal, occasional statement, it may seem officious to take up further space merely in order to indicate that this Editorial’s views […]

immediately; he cannot see it, as it were, face to face •.• Instead of dealing with the things themselves man is in a sense constantly conversing with himself. He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms, in artistic images, in mythical symbols or religious rites that he cannot see or know anything except by the […]

Discussion Ordinary Language Philosophy and Radical Philosophy 1. Sean Savers The Editorial of Radical Philosophy 6 (pl) concerns ordinary language and ordinary language philosophy. It is a vapid and compromising piece of writing on a topic upon which radical philosophers have previously been clear and decisive; and what it says is such an abandonment of […]

nOTES state, and therefore teach people not to depend on and fetishize the State as an omnipotent and eternal form on which they depend? In the absence of a coherent theory, situated in the debates that have occupied Marxists (or maybe even Anarchists) for a hundred and some years, I really don’t see that Radical […]

_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 […]

THE EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY TOADULTS Noel Parker Even in the least partisan formulation of its objectives, Radical Philosophy believes in a philosophy ‘relevant to people’s wider lives and interests’. Though many of us may find or hope to find guidance for radical political or social activity in the philosophy we study, the fact remains […]

WHAT IS RADI[AL PHILOSOPHV? BEGINNING FROM COMMITMENT Peter Binns [Reprinted with permission from Times Higher Educational Supplement. 5th May, ]972] The recent conference of radical philosophers in London attracted hundreds of dissident intellectuals. Yet it became apparent that there was no single clearly defined direction in which the philosophers wanted to move as a whole. […]

PHILOSOPHY mTHE A[ADRY J.m.[ahen The following polemic began life as a reaction to the frustrations of various discussions with professional philosophers of issues that are central to the radical transformation of social relationships from alienated and oppressive ones to free, equal-socialist-social relations. It is addressed primarily to people in or near to the movement, and […]