Alexandre Kojève and Universal Emancipation; no events this week
An essay by Jeff Love on Alexandre Kojève - polymath, philosopher, architect of the Common Market, Stalinist and likely Soviet agent
Dear all,
This past week, we had three events. This forthcoming week, we have none as the final event of our winter series (Adrian Parr talking with Brad Evans and Chantal Meza on “When Ecologies Fall”) has been cancelled (for now). We will be back on Monday 18th March for what promises to be another exciting season of digital dialogues. So, a quiet newsletter this week…
Your Sunday Read
“Alexandre Kojève and Universal Emancipation” by Jeff Love.
Although he is hardly a household name in philosophical circles, Alexandre Kojève exercised an extraordinary influence on French intellectual life in the mid-20th century, with his famous lectures on Hegel captivating the likes of Raymond Aron, André Breton, Georges Bataille, Henry Corbin, Jacques Lacan, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Raymond Queneau. In this essay, Jeff Love offers us a tantalising biographical overview of an extraordinary life, as well as a clear exposition of two of Kojève’s key philosophical positions:
All human activity results from a struggle to the death between two parties, a putative “master” and a “slave”;
The loser in this struggle, the slave, creates history which is nothing else than the work of bringing history to an end in the acquisition of final truth, or wisdom, in a universal and homogeneous state.
Love sums up Kojève’s philosophy as being rooted in the question: Do we accept our servitude, recognizing that all attempts to overcome it end in futility, or do we seek to abolish it, once and for all, in an act of self-erasure? You can read the essay here.
Monday Event Cancelled
Tomorrow’s planned conversation between Adrian Parr, Brad Evans, and Chantal Meza has been cancelled. It will be rearranged for sometime in the autumn.
Recording of Wild/Schmidt/Bacevic conversation
For those of who missed Monday’s conversation between Thomas Wild, Jana Schmidt, and Jana Bacevic on “Thinking Together Through Writing”, you can watch the recording here.
Recording of Ray/Hoadley-Brill/Bacevic conversation
For those of who missed Tuesday’s conversation between Victor Ray, Sam Hoadley-Brill, and Jana Bacevic on “Critical Race Theory, Science, and Pseudoscience”, you can watch the recording here.
Ending
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Wishing you all a lovely Sunday, wherever you are.
Anthony Morgan
Editor