Marx's Ethical Vision; Pseudoscience and Feyerabend; Ask The Philosopher
An event with Vanessa Wills in conversation and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò; a new article by Chiara Ambrosio and Ian James Kidd; an informal chat with our editorial team
Dear all,
Hoping things are feeling good this Sunday. Before looking at our offerings for the week ahead, I thought I’d begin by letting you know about a free reading group on Marx’s Capital: Volume One that is being run by The Oxford Marx Group. Given our recent event with Paul North, this might be of interest to some of you. All the information is here and any questions should go to the organiser, Michael Mayo at oxfordmarx@gmail.com
Your Sunday Read
“Pseudoscience after Feyerabend”: Chiara Ambrosio and Ian James Kidd
Renowned philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend famously defended astrology, voodoo, witchcraft, Chinese traditional medicine, and other ‘non-scientific’ beliefs, practices, and traditions. It is partly for these defences that, during the 1970s, Feyerabend became famous – or, rather, infamous – and they contributed to his now established image as an self-styled “epistemological anarchist”. Critics later called him“the worst enemy of science”. In this conversation, Chiara Ambrosio and Ian James Kidd use Feyerabend as a starting point for thinking through many of the key epistemologicals, ontological, metaphysical, political, and ethical questions raised by pseudoscience. They also explore why pseudoscience became a topic in the history of philosophy of science and how it relates to newer insights into scientific pluralism. You can read their conversation here.
Monday Event: 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm UK
“Marx’s Ethical Vision”: Vanessa Wills in conversation with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
In this event, Vanessa Wills will follow Marx in centering labour (human beings satisfying their needs through conscious, purpose-driven, and transformative interaction with the material world) as the essential human activity. Working people’s struggles reveal capitalism’s worst ravages while pointing to a better future and embodying the only way there: rational transformation of our relationships to ourselves, to one another, and to the natural world, so that the human condition emerges not as a burden we must bear but as life we joyfully create. As Wills will argue, the purposiveness of labour gives rise to a normativity already inherent in the present state of things, one that can guide us in knowing what sort of world we should build and that further prepares us to build it. You can find out more and register here.
Ask The Philosopher: A Philosophical Chat
Tuesday 22 October 2024 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 6 pm UK / 7 pm CET / 10:30 pm IST (90 minutes via Zoom)
Why am I here? Am I free? Do I have a soul? How do I know things about the world? Does my dog love me? What is a question? Is ignorance bliss?
Join us for the first in our Autumn series of philosophical chats with our Editorial Team. Bring your biggest philosophical questions and we will try our best to offer some engaging responses.
This will be a fun, informal conversation. No experience of philosophy is required. Find out more and register here.
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Anthony Morgan
Newsletter Team