Early in his Treatise Hume proposes a simple challenge to anyone who would deal his system a fatal blow: come up with an idea that cannot be traced to a corresponding impression. Hume then offers a possible example, namely the case of the missing shade of blue. If we had Read more…
After LeBron choked – or became imperceptible – in game 5 against the Celtics it became clear “King James” is no Kobe Bryant. He’s more interested in his public persona than winning (not that Kobe is not concerned with his public persona). This is no surprise, of course. Since the Read more…
Adam Smith is often held up as the darling and founding father of neoclassical economic theory, and by extension neoliberal attitudes towards the market, Smith does indeed question the effectiveness of state intervention within the market. Beginning with the premise that ‘No regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of Read more…
Where Latour and Whitehead most clearly converge is in their emphasis upon events, and in particular with their understanding of events as always exceeding themselves. Latour has developed this line of thinking in numerous works, but most notably in We Have Never Been Modern, and he among others (especially Isabelle Read more…
In a post over at Bogost’s blog there’s an interesting discussion of Marx. I think it is correct to say one is not a Marxist if by that one means that Latour is not a Marxist. Latour is explicit on this point in his recent book, The Science of Passionate Read more…
Much of the humor of the Louis CK clip below derives from the fact that he is right: we take things for granted. We take things for granted not because (or not primarily because) they are always there, a permanent, stable presence we can rely on. We take them for Read more…
Taking advantage of some time off – even if in an airport – I read Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism. This small little book – really a long essay at 81 pages – is an excellent example of a text that actualizes Zero Books’ goal of publishing books that are ‘intellectual Read more…
In a recent online debate, Harman defended SR against the charge that it is nothing new, that you can search far and wide for a 20th century philosopher who didn’t believe that there are objects that exist autonomously of whatever conscious access we may have of them. In addition to Read more…
At first it might seem he is. If Bruno Latour is on the right track with respect to speculative realism, as Graham Harman and others would argue, then it might seem that Deleuze is on the right track as well for there are a number of areas where their philosophies Read more…
As Niall Ferguson argues in this clip (from CNBC [I know, bublevision as Bill Fleckenstein called during the bubble years of the late 90s]), we’re headed for a major fiscal crisis, a death spiral, in two years. What is interesting, but perhaps wishful thinking on Ferguson’s part, is that he Read more…