The Philosophical Salon

Unlearning Zionism - The Philosophical Salon Edward Said ends his introduction to Orientalism with a plea for “unlearning”: “If [Orientalism] stimulates a new kind of dealing with the Orient, indeed if it eliminates the ‘Orient’ and ... Read Mor...

How to unlearn Zionism: thephilosophicalsalon.com/unlearning-z...

An Obituary for Fossil Fuels This time around the deceased will not be missed.

An obituary for fossil fuels: michaelmarder.substack.com/p/an-obituar...

Promotional graphic for Metamorphoses Reimagined by Michael Marder. It includes the book's cover, a blub by Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback, and a 20% discount with code CUP20SM at cup.columbia.edu.

Now available! METAMORPHOSES REIMAGINED is a work of breathtaking philosophical, literary, and linguistic experimentation, proposing creative ways to write and think, to be and become. buff.ly/9aYTHXV

Uprootedness in Digital Space and Solipsism: A Critical Sketch - The Philosophical Salon In the movie Blade Runner 2049, we see the bloodstained protagonist, Officer K, gazing at a giant hologram of his AI companion, JOI, who points at him and says, “You ... Read More

thephilosophicalsalon.com/uprootedness...

I'm looking forward to this talk on white collar crime, jouissance, and cinema by the brilliant scholar Fabio Vighi on Oct. 15 at Stanford. All welcome. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Rearm or Reworld? Another fork in the road of destroying a livable planet

"Rearm or Reworld?" an op-ed previously published in Spanish and Portuguese now accessible in English: michaelmarder.substack.com/p/rearm-or-r...

The Unfinished Revolution in African Philosophy: We Have Defended Enough — Can We Now Build? - The Philosophical Salon One of the central dilemmas that has long haunted modern African philosophy is its derivative posture, its tendency to emerge in response to the overwhelming intellectual dominance of Western philosop...

A fresh look at the future of African philosophy: thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-unfinish...

Out now ➡️ Eco-Freud From A to Z by Michael Marder

An unprecedented conceptual portrait of Freud as an ecological thinker, this book analyzes current approaches to environmental crisis through psychoanalysis.

Order now: https://bit.ly/4nIzoSC
Preview: https://bit.ly/47MrCCp

What Are Humans? And Who Are Plants? Human being today is more of a mystery than ever before.

"What are humans? And who are plants?" michaelmarder.substack.com/p/what-are-h...

Metamorphoses Reimagined | Columbia University Press In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, existence is perpetual transformation. Humans and gods become plants and animals, stones and stars—or something in between. No r... | CUP

Already out from @columbiaup.bsky.social: cup.columbia.edu/book/metamor...

Eco-Freud From A to Z An unprecedented conceptual portrait of Freud as an ecological thinker, this book analyzes our current approaches to ecology and the environmental crisis throug…

Just published by @BloomsburyAcad: Eco-Freud From A to Z - www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ecofreud-...

Beyond the Scapegoat: Girard, Kelsen, and the Possibility of a Non-Sacrificial Law - The Philosophical Salon The Need for a New Legal Imagination The law, as the quintessential institution of order, is increasingly under pressure to rethink its foundations. Beneath the surface of codified statutes and ... Re...

Is non-sacrificial law possible? thephilosophicalsalon.com/beyond-the-s...

Immortal Authoritarianism When the Leader Wants to Live Forever

open.substack.com/pub/michaelm...

CHERNOBYL HERBARIUM — ANAIS TONDEUR

Gorgeous, important book (and open access) that my friend and colleague @jrdwrrn.bsky.social tipped me on to: Michael Marder, Tchernobyl Herbarium (FR/EN - @openhumanities.bsky.social, 2016; #skystorians). anaistondeur.com/chernobyl-he...

Intensification - Michael Marder - Heavy, Heavenly, Heaving Metaphysics is light, perhaps all too light. It abhors heaviness, which it associates with matter.

Meditations on the city, earthly and heavenly: www.e-flux.com/architecture...

Un/Certainty - The Philosophical Salon One thing I was certain of growing up was that I, an imposingly tall and broad lad from provincial Cumbria, was different. I knew I was gay. In retrospect, I ... Read More

thephilosophicalsalon.com/un-certainty/

CFP for a special issue of @Religions_MDPI: Energy and Religion (www.mdpi.com/journal/reli...)

Hegelian Hostages in Gaza The Protracted Israeli Hostage Crisis and the Hegelian Dialectic: A Reflection

"Hegelian Hostages in Gaza": michaelmarder.substack.com/p/hegelian-h...

It Stops Breaking: Quantum Reflections on AI - The Philosophical Salon Measurement breaks most systems. This one stabilized. “What the mirror reflects depends not on what it shows, but how long you stare.” This is not a prompt hack. ... Read More

Thinking with AI? thephilosophicalsalon.com/it-stops-bre...

Pyropolitics in the Iberian Inferno On Responsibility and the Fires We Fan

Pyropolitics in the Iberian Inferno: michaelmarder.substack.com/p/pyropoliti...

Society of Affiliation (2): Society as Conspiracy - The Philosophical Salon The society of affiliation is constantly polarizing, as this allows it to maintain a semblance of belonging in particular blocs. As a consequence, all positions, institutions and even issues not ... R...

Further reflections on "the society of affiliation": thephilosophicalsalon.com/society-of-a...

¿Rearmamos el mundo o lo reconstruimos? Vivimos una época de guerras, carreras armamentísticas, migraciones y crisis climáticas. Pero no nos damos cuenta de que todos estos fenómenos están relacionados

elpais.com/ideas/2025-0...

The Fetish of a Productive Conversation World leaders announce, again and again, that they have had “productive conversations.” The phrase comes as surely as the handshake photographs and the flags arrayed behind them, an obligatory epilogu...

"The Fetish of a Productive Conversation": michaelmarder.substack.com/p/the-fetish...

Metamorphoses Reimagined | Columbia University Press In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, existence is perpetual transformation. Humans and gods become plants and animals, stones and stars—or something in between. No r... | CUP

Available in two weeks' time! cup.columbia.edu/book/metamor...

On “The Bad Guys 2” and Cosmic Theft by the Billionaire Class - The Philosophical Salon In The Bad Guys 2 (Pierre Perifel, 2025), based on Aaron Blabey’s best-selling graphic novel series, DreamWorks Animation delivers more than a family-friendly movie; it presents, perhaps unintentional...

On #BadGuys2 and billionaire extractivism: thephilosophicalsalon.com/on-the-bad-g...

Sobre “Os Mauzões 2” e o roubo cósmico pela classe bilionária O mundo de Os Mauzões 2 é também o nosso: é onde os bilionários "pensam" e roubam a escalas planetárias e cósmicas; contemplam a mineração de asteróides, investem em startups de viagens no tempo e no ...

expresso.pt/opiniao/2025...

Gaza, Antigone... - The Philosophical Salon What does it mean to insist on burial when sovereignty demands extreme exposure, the gruesome spectacle of decomposition? What does it mean to grieve under siege? Antigone, in Sophocles’ eponymous ......

Thinking the unthinkable with Gaza and Antigone: thephilosophicalsalon.com/gaza-antigone/

Love - The Philosophical Salon People of my generation, born in the late USSR, probably remember that the main political topic discussed with children back then was peace. When I think about it, I recall ... Read More

A touching reflection on love by Oxana Timofeeva: thephilosophicalsalon.com/love/

The Subject of AI - The Philosophical Salon In his studies on patients with aphasia, Lev Vygotsky observed that, despite their differences, they all shared a common difficulty: a deficit in abstraction. When asked to verbalize sentences like .....

More on AI: thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-subject-...

A Proletarian Critique of Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism, Take 2 - The Philosophical Salon In October 2022 we published in The Philosophical Salon a critique of Cedric Robinson’s landmark study, Black Marxism.[1] We took objection to Robinson’s claim that Marxism is a European ideology ... ...

More on the philosophical critique of Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism: thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-proletaria...