Welcome to the next arc (next chapter?) of Philosophy vs Work! From here, we start unpacking Semiotics, Myth, and Utopia - starting with an unpacking of what is semiotics? - and the role utopias and utopian thought play in thinking about work, in how these utopias and work have been mythologized, and how these mythologized words shape how we think and even what we’re potentially capable of thinking.

In this episode: Roland Barthes' Mythologies, semiotics, myth as speech, professional/amateur wrestling, Lincoln, and Republicans.

*Note* This episode was written and recorded before the recent Trump rally shooting, and in no way condones either the actions of the shooter or the ensuing rhetoric of the far right. The intent to use "Lincoln" as an example of myth-speech was timed to line up with the RNC.

Recommended links:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Party
https://lincolnproject.us/

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out:
Barthes, Roland. 2012. Mythologies 1st American ed. New York: Hill and Wang.

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At long last, the finale to my (5 part) 4 part series on Labor-Time, Turning Toward Death, and Meaningful Work. This week I return to Bataille and the Accursed Share, try to get to what Meaningful Work might be, and why it should be an ethical project. I also discuss Chairs. Grab a seat.

Recommended links:
https://umistapotlatch.ca/potlatch-eng.php
https://voegelinview.com/the-gift-marcel-mauss-and-rene-girard/

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out.

Bataille, Georges, and Robert Hurley. The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy. 1. New York, NY: Zone Books, 2007
Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden: Blackwell, 2013.
Graeber, David. Bullshit Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Marx, Karl. Early Writings. Harmondsworth: Penguin in association with New Left Review, 1992.

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Widgets are strange, when you're an estranger, people are stranger when you're alone. In this episode we start thinking about death and work a little differently, consider what what work is and why it's a problem under Capitalism, why widgets matter, and what appropriation is... in other words, please welcome Karl Marx and George Bataille to the conversation.

Recommended links:
Ask a Left Nietzschean (Acid Horizon episode)
https://www.youtube.com/live/xZtvocD_ooQ?si=EYs311rESuC0LdkB

Nietzsche symposium at Columbia:
https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/nietzsche1313/
(I misidentified it as 8/13, 8/13 is only one discussion, on Fanon, the Symposium is 13/13).
I highly recommend session 4/13 | Gilles Deleuze, on "The Deleuzian Nietzsche" https://youtu.be/oFFxnf92XqY

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out.

Bataille, Georges, and Robert Hurley. The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy. 1. New York, NY: Zone Books, 2007
Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden: Blackwell, 2013.
Marx, Karl. Early Writings. Harmondsworth: Penguin in association with New Left Review, 1992.

Message Us!

Support the Show.