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.

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Interlude. This week, we take a detour off the road Toward Meaningful Work to examine what exactly Heidegger means by Dasein and Being-toward-death, and why these concepts are relevant to the "turning toward death" I believe is necessary to overcome the "Work Ethic."


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

Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden: Blackwell, 2013.
Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy. Future tense : why anxiety is good for you (even though it feels bad). New York, NY : Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublilshers, 2022.

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What is labor-time, and what the hell does turning towards death mean? These are the questions. Part 2.

In this episode we start unpacking the strategy of making "work," strange. We start with the psychological weight carried by deeply held beliefs and why a sense of disruption may be necessary before any critical examination of concepts like work. We touch a bit on Freud, Heidegger, and the joys of German compound nouns.

As promised, the link for David McRaney's conversation at Dragoncon 2014:
https://youtu.be/SuPKUXz3edU?si=YwAc3dEZ809HwjVn

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out. I've not included links to purchase since, one, I recommend checking your local bookstore or library, and two, Amazon isn't about to go out of business because I didn't send them a few extra clicks.

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: Bantam Matrix. 1967
Heidegger, Martin, and David Farrell Krell. "The Question Concerning Technology," in Basic Writings: From Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964). New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 2008.
Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Malden: Blackwell, 2013.
McRaney, David. You are not so smart : why you have too many friends on Facebook, why your memory is mostly fiction, and 46 other ways you're deluding yourself. Gotham Books/Penguin Group, New York. 2011

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What is labor-time, and what the hell does turning towards death mean? These are the questions. Part 1.

In this episode we begin the project of "meaningful work" as an ethical demand. I begin to lay out my approach to the "problem of work," the questions, issues, and authors that shaped my MA research project, "Toward Meaningful Work; Labor-Time and the Turn Towards Death," and some of the complications that have arisen since the original paper was written five years ago.

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out. I've not included links to purchase since, one, I recommend checking your local bookstore or library, and two, Amazon isn't about to go out of business because I didn't send them a few extra clicks.

Bataille, Georges, and Robert Hurley. The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy. 1. New York, NY: Zone Books, 2007
Camus, Albert, and Justin O'Brien. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. Paw Prints, 2008.
Graeber, David. Bullshit Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Heidegger, Martin, and David Farrell Krell. "The Question Concerning Technology," in Basic Writings: From Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964). New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 2008.
Livingston, James. No More Work: Why Full Employment Is a Bad Idea. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016.
Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. London, UK: Penguin, 1992.
Marx, Karl. Early Writings. Harmondsworth: Penguin in association with New Left Review, 1992.
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Lexington, Ky: Renaissance Classics, 2013.
Weeks, Kathi. The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2011.

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Behold! The introductory episode. Take a minute, or 20, and get to know a little about me and the point of this podcast. I discuss some of my philosophical, educational, and working background as well as a bit about myself. I also discuss the questions, themes, and method of the podcast generally.

Obligatory bibliography, or books you may also want to check out. I've not included links to purchase since, one, I recommend checking your local bookstore or library, and two, Amazon isn't about to go out of business because I didn't send them a few extra clicks.

Graeber, David. Bullshit Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy. Future tense : why anxiety is good for you (even though it feels bad). New York, NY : Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublilshers, 2022.

Message Us!

Support the Show.