Looking for Heidegger’s “Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics“? Maybe the library is across campus and you’re feeling lazy? Look for it on this forum, which includes most of the trendy continental texts you could want: Agamben, Bataille, Deleuze, Derrida. Thanks to Farhang for the link.
Our Uncharitable Agricultural Subsidies
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Discussions of inequality usually focus on charity: what can we give or do for those in need? However, as the breakdown of last year’s WTO discussions demonstrates, most poor countries would much prefer fair dealing and equal opportunities to trade rather than handouts, especially when those handouts come in the form of ‘dumped’ surpluses created through our massive agricultural subsidies. So we should welcome a new round of Doha trade talks, and charitably forgo subsidizing our own farmers at the expense of agriculture around the world. The notion that charity always involves such trade-offs is the really hard point to digest. Worse still, this kind of charity might also be the best way to pursue our own self-interest. Uh oh.
Global Justice or Global Legitimacy
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Two recent articles, one by Thomas Pogge, the other by David Held, highlight the distinction between globalization theorists who have principled repugnance for the structure of international markets, and those who see globalization as a challenge to statist theories of regimes. It’s no surprise, then, that Pogge proceeds as Rawlsian concerned primarily with rights, and Held as a Habermasian concerned with governance. (Continued)
Lacan and political theory
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The other night I was discussing Lacan with a friend who practices psychotherapy, and he suggested that Lacan’s work ‘only makes sense in the clinic.’ We agreed that when philosophers and critical theorists try to invoke Lacan, they inevitably bungle the job. Today, I discovered Andrew Robinson’s nice little takedown of Zizek, Laclau, and Mouffe’s Lacanian inflected political theory, which proves the point. (Continued)
Newsworthy Philosophy
Monday, December 10, 2007
Kwame Anthony Appiah has an article in the New York Times Magazine on experimental philosophy. (Continued)
How rich is rich?
Monday, November 26, 2007
There’s a nice little article in the Washington Post about who counts as rich, which is an important question given the tax priorities that the Bush administration set with regard to the inheritance tax and other tax cuts for Americans. (Continued)
Vendettas
Sunday, November 18, 2007
A tale of revenge within the Shiite community in Iraq, from Jon Lee Anderson’s “Inside the Surge“:
Amar was a lifelong friend of Karim’s. Three months earlier, Amar and his older brother, Jafaar, had been riding in the van of a friend, Sayeed, when a group of gunmen hailed them. Amar recognized them as Mahdi Army men, and assumed that they were coming to say hello. As Sayeed braked, the car was riddled with gunfire. Amar crouched as low as he could, as the Mahdi Army men emptied their Kalashnikovs. He was unhurt, but Jafaar and Sayeed were dead.
That night, Amar told Karim that, at the morgue, he had sworn over his brother’s body to take revenge. He had vowed to kill a hundred Mahdi men—ten for each of Jafaar’s fingers. His mother, Um Jafaar, supported him, and begged Karim to help her son. He agreed. (Continued)
Quarantine by Eavan Boland
Saturday, November 17, 2007
- In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking-they were both walking-north.
- She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.
- In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.
- Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:
- Their death together in the winter of 1847.
Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and a woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.
Coerced Testimony, Classified?
Monday, October 22, 2007
Perhaps you remember Abdallah Higazy? He was detained as a material witness to the World Trade Center attacks when FBI agents found a transceiver in his hotel room. It later turned out that the transceiver belonged to a pilot who was staying on another floor, and he was released. However, between his detention and his release, he confessed to owning the radio and gave three separate accounts of how it came into his possession. He was detained, interrogated, and treated as possibly complicit in a massive terrorist attack. He knew he was in tremendous danger, even though he also knew he was innocent. Why did he confess?
It turns out that FBI Agent Michael Templeton threatened to turn Egyptian security forces on Higazy’s family, who still lived in Egypt. This scared him so badly that he’d admit to anything in order to save them from the consequences. So Higazy agreed to trade his life for the safety of his family, which is a noble act, but perhaps not so remarkable as the FBI’s decision to force that choice upon him. What’s interesting about this is that the details of Templeton’s threat have been classified. (Continued)
Man-Booker shortlist announced
Thursday, September 13, 2007
This is a week late, but I thought I’d note that the list is out:
* Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
* The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
* The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
* Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
* On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
* Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)