PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy

What was a niche, inter-feminist fight in the 90s proves to be prophetically relevant this week. Pills and Victor narrate Martha Nussbaum coming at Judith Butler and almost split the difference. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

We glance at Ranciere's Hatred of Democracy which suggests that hatred, not equality, is the animus of so-called democracies, and then debate whether or not the term even matters anymore. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

It's a "party" for our 100th episode! Thanks for everyone who helped us reach this milestone by listening, guesting, supporting us on patreon, or whatever else, and special thanks to everyone who submitted voice clips. To find out what everyone's working on mentioned in this episode: Diego: @DiegoRuzzarin https://diegoruzzarin.com/ Chris: @aufgehendeRest https://epochemagazine.org/56/the-influence...

Today we read Freud's nephew, the "Father of PR," Edward Bernays' book "Propaganda" and compare his theory and practice to other opinions on the purpose of propaganda, and how it compares to the later neo-marxist conception of "ideology" and whether theorizing about democracy matters at all when private interests run the state. Get all the episodes plus ~60 exclusive eps for just 4 bucks at www.pa...

This resembles one of our FIGHT NIGHT episodes, except the whole of it is mediated by another philosopher, Richard Rorty. We give a bit of background to philosophical pragmatism before trying to get a read on what philosophy is for according to each of these three authors. Is it for self-help? Can it solve 'real' problems? Or is philosophy just cope?   Find the public link on our patreon page http...

We covered this from every perspective we could get to, featuring some Spinoza, Marx, Benjamin, and corn among other references. Please enjoy us bumping into things and trying to figure out what a life's all about.

Find the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 Find LitVic on Twitter! @HoratioVictor Always looking for more suggestions for the lit stuff, someone suggested this several months ago and we bore it out! We are joined by LitVic for a literature episode, looking at the puzzling tale of the guy who gets turned into a bug. Find the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200...

It's easy to get all the bonus eps and a lot besides on www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Brace yourselves for two and a half hours focused on Lacan's psychoanalytic method. We are joined partway through by Director/Auteur Richard Ledes, who has brought Lacan to the silver screen in a film we're proud to hype up: ADIEU LACAN.   To watch the film, (which is pretty safely the only decent depiction of psychoanalysis we've ever seen) you can find it on Amazon and Apple in English, or go to...

We turn our attention to the ur myth of civilizational collapse... and accidentally find political philosophy. Ah well. Get the other half of our episodes and support our continued efforts at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

It's more answers without questions, in part IV of our "Idea of Communism" series. We're getting the hot takes from Diego Ruzzarin (@DiegoRuzzarin) on what he thinks the Idea of Communism means for Latin America particularly, what's up with psychoanalysis, and the other stuff he's working on. Find our content mill over at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

It's a political theory day, speaking with the Know Your Enemy podcast's Matthew Sitman, a former young conservative. Starting with some Roe v. Wade, we then dive deep into the intellectual right's endless fascination with Straussian philosophy (that's LEO Strauss), its underlying esotericism, and its connection to the American right's current political projects. There's a lot of namedropping (bot...

We have another heated discussion on the sense and meaning of the word "communism," this time from a Heideggerian communist. Get all the goods at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

This week we read the article by Susan Buck-Morss "The Second Time as Farce... Historical Pragmatics and the Untimely Present" from, again, The Idea of Communism https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw  All of our episodes and extra content are available for an inconsequential contribution to our group project at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

This is our first in the reading series on the Idea of Communism conferences, covering Alain Badiou.   Our readings will come from The Idea of Communism I https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw , The Idea of Communism II https://amzn.to/3OkDYVd , and The Idea of Communism III https://amzn.to/3b8e3lb   Join up with us on Patreon to get all of the upcoming episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pills is graced by the presence of the eminent Deleuze scholar, editor, and translator, Daniel W. Smith. Dan explains how he came to Deleuzian philosophy, why it's important, and previews the exciting Deleuze Seminars project, which is almost finished translating 20 years of Deleuze's lectures into English.    The Deleuze Seminars project can be explored here: https://deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/   Si...

Reboots and renewals, bodies and images, city and pasture. The Pill Pod takes a crack at analyzing the desire structure of 80s nostalgia in popular media. New episodes and videos not found here are up at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills so check that out for more content.

Pills, Erik and Victor tackle the boogeyman: Lyotard's Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, with reference to Wittgenstein's language-game methodology. Is postmodernism when there are too many gay characters on TV? Or is it the legitimacy crisis of state knowledge precipitated by finance capital, the computerisation of information, and the subsumption of politics by public relations?   Get...

The team reassembles to talk Wittgenstein, champion of "ideas-don't-matter" philosophy, and about why he matters—even if ideas don't. The primary sources referenced throughout this ep are the Tractatus ( https://amzn.to/3t0wD56 ) for Mr. Early Wittgenstein, and Philosophical Investigations ( https://amzn.to/3wVfUkC ) for Mr. Late Wittgenstein.

We venture into the weeds of ignorance, science, and anthropomorphism, and not even immuno-responses can stop us. We look at posthumanism a la Francesca Ferrando (Philosophical Posthumanism), Donna Haraway (Staying with the Trouble), and James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis (The Gaia Hypothesis).  Get the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Matt and Victor interview Nate Hochman on conservative college campuses and America's new right.

Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) from the Washington Post joins Victor and Matt to discuss America's burgeoning illberal right wing. While often painted as reactionary and unintelligible, America's new right may have more coherent principles and goals than first meet the eye.   If you're done with the feed and interested in what else we have on offer in theory and philosophy, check out https://www.pa...

Erik and Pills do the thing, because everything needs to be manifestoed eventually and I needed a title. If you wonder whose name is being referenced throughout, it's the forgotten sociologist, Niklas Luhmann. You can follow us at @podpill and @plasticpills, but we don't go there much. Find anything you might've missed at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pills and Erik talk about transhumanism as opposed to posthumanism, and compare their positions on human technology and technics. Heidegger, McLuhan, Latour and Stiegler are all noteworthy theorists of technological posthumanism, the foundation of which we try to lay out here. Get a lot of content for not a lot of money at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Erik and Pills cover posthumanism in the context of systems theory and what makes it a viable model as an alternative to humanist explanatory frameworks of how society functions. We reference Niklas Luhmann ( https://amzn.to/3ObXyUq) quite a few times as well as Francesca Ferrando's "Philosophical Posthumanism" ( https://amzn.to/3rtH8Nv).     There are more episodes of systems theory to be observe...