What Matters Most

Description

The ancient Greek philosopher Plotinus insisted that philosophy should be concerned with nothing less than “what matters most”. This collection of philosophical conversations seeks to honour Plotinus’ vision by addressing questions related to the art of living.

Much has been written about the “art of living” and it typically conjures up ideas of therapy, meditation, peace, happiness, and so on. But what about the art of living in the midst of all the spectacular messiness generated by an aggressive, anxiety-ridden, acquisitive and lustful species? The conversations that make up this book explore the questions that matter most to us as citizens of increasingly fractious societies and inhabitants of an increasingly fractured planet. They invite us to think anew about the complexities and challenges involved in living a good life in a world characterized by uncertainty and change.

Introduction, Anthony Morgan

Part I: Living together

1. What is “we”? – Dan Zahavi with Luna Dolezal

2. Polarization and talking across difference – Elizabeth Anderson with Alexis Papazoglou

3. Misinformation and the right to know – Lani Watson with Aidan McGlynn

4. A decolonial ecology – Malcom Ferdinand with Romy Oppermann

5. Listening to animals – Eva Meijer with Adam Ferner and Darren Chetty

6. Relationality and political responsibility – Lewis Gordon with Olúfemi O. Táíwò

Part II: Living with technology

7. Misunderstanding the internet – Justin E. H. Smith with Alexis Papazoglou

8. Artificial bodies and the promise of abstraction – Peter Wolfendale with Anthony Morgan

9. Will artificial intelligence transform ethics? – Shannon Vallor with John Zerilli

10. The algorithmic is the political – Annette Zimmermann with Matthew Lord

11. Intelligence and the future of AI – Stephen Cave with Sage Cammers-Goodwin

12. We and the robots – John Danaher with Anthony Morgan

Part III: Living under oppression

13. The politics of gender and identity – Finn Mackay with Jana Bacevic

14. Submission and emancipation – Manon Garcia with Kate Kirkpatrick

15. Madness, identity, and recognition – Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed with Helen Spandler

16. Reimagining Black men – Tommy Curry with David Livingston Smith

17. Responsibility and structural injustice – Maeve McKeown with Alasia Nuti

18. Disobedience and seeing like an activist – Erin R. Pineda with Robin Celikates

Part IV: Living in the end times

19. A world beyond capitalism – Martin Hägglund with Lea Ypi

20. Derrick Bell and racial realism – Timothy Golden with Darren Chetty

21. Spinoza in the Anthropocene – Beth Lord with Chris Meyns

22. Animals, pandemics, and climate change – Jeff Sebo with Lauren Van Patter

23. The task of thinking in the age of dumping – Michael Marder with Sofia Lemos

24. Why misanthropy? – Ian James Kidd with Anthony Morgan

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Ethique et morale
• General
• Animals
• Ethics
• General officer
• Philosophy
• Philosophie et théologie
• Essays
• Moral Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: Agenda Publishing
• Date de parution: 18 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781788216265
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

For Michael Bavidge, the philosopher
© Anthony Morgan 2023
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2023 by Agenda Publishing
Agenda Publishing Limited
PO Box 185
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE20 2DH
www.agendapub.com
ISBN 978-1-78821-623-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-78821-624-1 (paperback)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset in Nocturne by Patty Rennie
Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books
Contents
Preface – Anthony Morgan
PART I: LIVING UNDER OPPRESSION
1 . The politics of gender and identity
Finn Mackay with Jana Bacevic
2 . Submission and emancipation
Manon Garcia with Kate Kirkpatrick
3 . Madness, identity and recognition
Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed with Helen Spandler
4 . Reimagining Black men
Tommy J. Curry with David Livingstone Smith
5 . Iris Marion Young and structural injustice
Maeve McKeown with Alasia Nuti
6 . Disobedience and seeing like an activist
Erin R. Pineda with Robin Celikates
PART II: LIVING TOGETHER
7 . What is “we”?
Dan Zahavi with Luna Dolezal
8 . Polarization and talking across difference
Elizabeth Anderson with Alexis Papazoglou
9 . Misinformation and the right to know
Lani Watson with Aidan McGlynn
10 . Decolonial ecologies
Malcom Ferdinand with Romy Opperman
11 . Listening to animals
Eva Meijer with Darren Chetty and Adam Ferner
12 . Relationality and political commitment
Lewis R. Gordon with Olúfemi O. Táíwò
PART III: LIVING WITH TECHNOLOGY
13 . Misunderstanding the internet
Justin E.H. Smith with Alexis Papazoglou
14 . Will artificial intelligence transform ethics?
Shannon Vallor with John Zerilli
15 . The algorithmic is political
Annette Zimmermann with Matt Lord
16 . Artificial bodies and the promise of abstraction
Peter Wolfendale with Anthony Morgan
17 . Intelligence and the future of artificial intelligence
Stephen Cave with Sage Cammers-Goodwin
18 . We and the robots
John Danaher with Anthony Morgan
PART IV: LIVING THROUGH CRISIS
19 . A world beyond capitalism
Martin Hägglund with Lea Ypi
20 . Derrick Bell and racial realism
Timothy Golden with Darren Chetty
21 . Spinoza in the Anthropocene
Beth Lord with Chris Meyns
22 . Animals, pandemics and climate change
Jeff Sebo with Lauren Van Patter
23 . The task of thinking in the age of dumping
Michael Marder with Sofia Lemos
24 . Why misanthropy?
Ian James Kidd with Anthony Morgan
Index
Preface
The Egyptian philosopher Plotinus (205–270 CE) insisted that philosophy should be concerned with nothing less than το τιμιώτατον (pronounced “to timiotaton”), generally translated as what matters most . Writing in the twentieth century, the Russian existentialist Lev Shestov considers this to be “the best and only complete definition of philosophy”. 1 I’m pretty sure, however, that neither Plotinus nor Shestov would consider this volume to be το τιμιώτατον. After all, it does not follow their lead in seeking the transcendent, prophetic or mystical through the philosophical. Come to think of it, they may not consider it a work of philosophy at all .
Is living an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. 2 “The art of living” has been captured by retreat centres, wellness escapes, therapy rooms. It brings to mind virtue, happiness, peace, mindfulness, freedom. This volume, by contrast, seeks the art of living in the midst of all the spectacular messiness generated by an aggressive, violent, anxiety-ridden, acquisitive, cruel and lustful species. The conversations that follow are rooted in those questions that matter most to us as citizens of increasingly fractious societies and inhabitants of an increasingly fractured planet: How do we cultivate the art of living under oppression when this oppression may be permanent? (Part I); How do we cultivate the art of living together when the cocoon-like embrace of our echo chamber feels so attractive? (Part II); How do we cultivate the art of living with technology in the face of prophecies of a forthcoming AI apocalypse? (Part III); and How do we cultivate the art of living through crisis when the climate catastrophe has served to shatter any illusion of solidarity or a common world? (Part IV).
In autumn 2020, The Philosopher launched its first series of free “digital dialogues” after our in-person events in the UK were cancelled due to the pandemic. These events have proven surprisingly successful, with over 12,000 attendees from 109 countries tuning in to date. This attests to an ongoing (ineradicable?) public desire to participate in rich philosophical explorations of important contemporary questions. Most of the conversations that follow are edited transcripts of these events. 3
I am enormously grateful to Zara Bain, Frances Darling, and the team at Academic Audio Transcription for their help with transcribing and editing these chapters. Jeremy Bendik-Keymer offered a number of important editorial interventions, including some thoughts on how this collection should be structured, while alicehank winham highlighted a number of areas where my own contributions to this volume could be improved. Kathrine Cuccuru, Emil Kunna and Alexandre Leskanich all chipped in with crucial editorial support when my energies were flagging in the final stages of getting this volume together. An anonymous referee made numerous suggestions across numerous domains – all of them useful. Steven Gerrard at Agenda Publishing has been extremely supportive as this book has taken shape. I am excited at the prospect of building a long-term relationship between Agenda and The Philosopher . Nick Halliday (of Halliday Books) has designed consistently brilliant covers for The Philosopher these past five years for a fraction of what he should be paid. I am delighted that he agreed to design the cover for this volume and remain overwhelmed by Nick’s generosity these past years. I feel a huge debt of gratitude to all those who participated in the events, agreed to be part of this volume, and took the time to edit their contributions. Your work is amazing and I am proud to have been able to collaborate with you all. I also offer thanks to the thousands of people who have attended the events these past couple of years. As long as you keep coming, we will keep running them! Finally, none of this would have been possible without the immense generosity and commitment of Michael Bavidge, Joanna Ciafone, William Eckersley and the editorial board members at The Philosopher .
Anthony Morgan
New Haven, CT
1 . See his 1932 essay collection, In Job’s Balances .
2 . I am paraphrasing Erich Fromm’s book, The Art of Loving (New York: Harper, 1956).
3 . For more information on The Philosopher and the events series, visit: https://thephilosopher1923.org .
PART I
LIVING UNDER OPPRESSION
W e begin with those who bear the greatest burdens of our current reality – those who remain violated, exploited, marginalized and powerless – and the systems of oppression – patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism (to invoke the unholy trinity) – that generate and sustain these burdens.
Gender theorist Paisley Currah argues that prison abolition, the adoption of free universal healthcare, and a large-scale assault on income inequality “would make the most difference to the most trans people”. 1 To riff on Simone de Beauvoir, no oppressed population can be free until all oppressed populations are free. 2 As I write, however, feminists remain divided over the status of trans people, while white working-class Americans continue to accept the psychological “wages of whiteness” 3 rather than unify their interests with those of poor Black Americans.
After a long, overlooked history, the theory of intersectionality finally broke onto the global stage in the late 1980s. 4
Through emphasizing the intersections between different dimensions of oppression, it opened up the possibility of challenging the idea of a single axis of oppression, showing that all axes of oppression are inextricably linked. But how many axes are there, and how far do they reach not just into human life, but into animal and vegetal life?
In the midst of all this, certain oppressed populations continue to be overlooked. Psychiatric populations, for example, experience some of the most appalling and inhumane treatment imaginable, and yet Mad activism remains a movement that few activists engage with – or even know about. 5 How widely can the reach of human compassion and solidarity be extended?
“In oppression, the oppressor oppresses himself ”. 6 The most dangerous populations are those who are oppressed but fail to recognize their own oppression; reaffirming their identity at the expense of others is their legacy to the world.
To paraphrase Lewis R. Gordon, the biggest enemy of oppression is the realization of its irrelevance; the result is individual oppressors without the structures of oppression. 7 What, then, are the conditions of possibility for the irrelevance of oppression?
1 . This quote is from Paisley Currah, Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity (New York: NYU Press, 2022).
2 . The quote I have in mind is: “The other’s freedom alone is capable of necessitating my being. My essential need is therefore to be faced with free men” (from her 1944 essay, “Pyrrhus and Cineas”).
3 . This phrase is from W. E. B. Du Bois’ 1935 book, Black Reconstruction in America .
4 . For an account of this history, see Reiland Rabaka’s 2022 essay, “Intersectionality” (published in the spring issue of The Philosopher ).
5 . To find out more about Mad activism, you can subscribe to the mental health magazine, Asylum : https://asylummagazine.org/ .
6 . This quote is from Jean-Paul Sartre’s posthumously published book, Notebooks for an Ethics . (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Pre