• Streetlight
    9.1k
    70 pages in, and it's pretty fun so far. I think Graeber gets a bit of flak for coming off as a bit glib, but he's got the chops to back it up so I don't mind. Seems to me the basic point is to say of debt what Marx said of capital: it's a social relation. The rich anthropological and historical discussions are all meant to flesh this out.
  • Maw
    2.7k
    you gotta tell me how you like the Brown book.StreetlightX

    Finished it a few days back and really enjoyed it. Quite pithy, which I always appreciate. The chapters on the dissolution of the social and the political, replaced by an expanding private sphere was compelling. They are variants on themes I've heard before. I found the last chapter particularity intriguing with Brown's analysis that Capitalism dissolves moral values that would otherwise act as a conscience barrier restraining aggressive acts. With this nihilism in place it then opens a lacuna for nihilism, power as politics, viz., the Alt-Right, to rush in, which explains our contemporary political climate.

    However, thinking about the final chapter more in depth, and in a historical context, the political violence in the USA has in fact decreased in the past 40 years. And it's not as if political history isn't abound with moral sublimation between colonialism, slavery, torture, genocide, etc., I'd have to think about it more, but I would say that a conscience isn't a given - which I think Wendy Brown somewhat presupposes here - something that is then subsequently eroded, by neoliberalism. Rather, a conscience is something to be developed, and neoliberalism works to ensure that it doesn't. There are more layers here than explain the political climate, rather than just neoliberal hegemony.
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    Yeah, I thought the last chapter - along with the legal analysis in chpt 4 - were the most original of the book. I think you're entirely right too in saying that liberalism stifles the development of moral relations, rather than eroding a given.
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    Christian Marazzi - The Violence of Financial Capitalism

    Read this over a couple of days. Was a bit too condensed to be particularly useful, but the emphasis on considering the global (rather than regional) nature and reach of financialization was a good takeaway.
  • frank
    15.7k
    liberalism stifles the development of moral relations,StreetlightX

    When people say "business is business" they mean that it's a world where contracts are much more important than friendship or even familial relationships. People who fail to recognize that will eventually be screwed over by a former friend and either learn to protect themselves legally or exit that world. So there are natural sentiments that get squashed.

    The cultural climate also matters.
  • Maw
    2.7k
    The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel
    A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America by Bruce Gibney
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    So jelly you people can read books.
  • 180 Proof
    15.3k
    liberalism stifles the development of moral relations,
    — StreetlightX

    When people say "business is business" they mean that it's a world where contracts are much more important than friendship or even familial relationships. People who fail to recognize that will eventually be screwed over by a former friend and either learn to protect themselves legally or exit that world. So there are natural sentiments that get squashed.

    The cultural climate also matters.
    frank

    True.

    :death: :flower:
  • Baden
    16.3k
    Conversations with Zizek—Zizek with Glyn Daly

    And a bunch of grammar/style guides for work.
  • Amity
    5k
    And a bunch of grammar/style guides for work.Baden

    Such as ?
    Do you really need them - I thought you already a talented writer and educator ?
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Oh, they're predominantly academic style guides for my editing work (Chicago, MLA, APA, Turabian etc). They're very fine grained and differ on minutiae depending on the field etc. Thanks for the compliment anyhow. :wink:
  • Amity
    5k
    ...for my editing work (Chicago, MLA, APA, Turabian etc). They're very fine grained and differ on minutiae depending on the field etc. Thanks for the compliment anyhowBaden

    Ah, OK - so you provide professional editing services for all sorts. Consider me even more impressed.

    Had a quick look at Turabian. I note that it is used in journal articles and essays as well as for theses, dissertations and research papers. Apparently offering more readability.

    The Turabian style of writing a bibliography in the notes-bibliography mode is perfect for humanities, like arts, languages, literature and history.

    So, let's just say that there might be a few generous intellectuals on or off TPF...
    And imagine that they have a burning desire to write an article for TPF.
    Why wouldn't they ?
    This would be a polished, perfect product; a proud upstanding piece of philosophy :cool:
    Then we could all tear it to shreds :naughty: ...er... I mean enjoy and comment :halo:

    I think you should write an article on 'How to Write an Article'.
    You know ya wanna :wink:
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Check out all this attention. @Banno eat your heart out. :wink:

    Actually, I've started a blog on various aspects of writing on my site, including how to write academic articles. What I might do here is write an article on argumentation (claims, reasons, warrants, and evidence etc). Anyhow, we're off-topic, so I'll shut up now. Feel free to send a PM about any of this and thanks for the encouragement. :up:
  • Amity
    5k
    Check out all this attention. Banno eat your heart out. :wink:Baden

    You guys :roll:

    What I might do here is write an article on argumentation (claims, reasons, warrants, and evidence etc)Baden

    Excellent :up:
    Make it so, number one.

    Anyhow, we're off-topic, so I'll shut up nowBaden
    Well, not really and please don't.

    While I enjoy the lists of current reads, I like it even more when there's a bit of a conversation or review. Like here:
    you gotta tell me how you like the Brown book.
    — StreetlightX
    Finished it a few days back and really enjoyed it...
    Maw

    Writing a TPF Book Review article would be a bit more challenging but would be easy to find, informative, insightful and inspiring.
    How about it...?
  • Amity
    5k
    Actually, I've started a blog on various aspects of writing on my site, including how to write academic articles.Baden

    Didn't know that. Is there a link to this on TPF ?
  • Baden
    16.3k


    No. I try to keep that stuff separate. I've started writing something along the lines suggested though, so I'll keep you posted. :up:
  • Amity
    5k
    I try to keep that stuff separateBaden

    That's a shame. However, I understand the need to keep personal stuff separate. God knows you don't want to be deluged by fan mail :hearts:

    I've started writing something along the lines suggested though, so I'll keep you postedBaden

    Look forward to reading it, thanks.
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Alright, did that. I put it in the learning centre for now: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/7014/effective-argumentation
  • Amity
    5k

    Thanks for that excellent read. My fuller response there :smile:
  • Baden
    16.3k


    And thanks for the push. :wink:
  • Chris Hughes
    180

    A reading room, perhaps
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    A reading room, perhapsChris Hughes

    Woah woah woah. I donno if this kind of highly charged erotic language is allowed here.
  • Chris Hughes
    180
    Well, I've been reading 50 Shades of Grey. (Not really.)
  • Chris Hughes
    180
    Actually, I've been reading five non-philosophy books. The one possibly fit to mention here is Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, "a searing modern polemic... from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala", as UK bookseller Waterstones' synopsis has it.
  • _db
    3.6k
    Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq
  • 180 Proof
    15.3k
    november-december readings:

    Mythmakers & Lawbreakers, ed. Margaret Killjoy
    Peter Watts is An Angry Sentient Tumor, Peter Watts

    re-reading

    Poor Economics, Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo
    The Sublime Reader, ed. Robert Clewis
    The Source of Self-Regard, Toni Morrison
    Murray Talks Music, Albert Murray
    The Nearest Thing to Life, James Wood
  • Pantagruel
    3.4k
    "Chaos and Complexity in Psychology" - finishing today
    "Essay on Philosophical Method" - R.G. Collingwood, underway
    "Analysis of Sensations and Relation of the Physical to the Psychical" - Ernst Mach - starting tomorrow

    Wanted to start Popper's 3 volume "Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery" but volume 1 is hung up from a tardy Amazon vendor. :(
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    Wolfgang Streek - Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
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