Reparations; Disappearance; Liberalism
An essay by Stephen Darwall and events with Gil Anidjar, Samuel Moyn, and Becca Rothfeld
Dear all,
Thanks to all those who have bought our new print issue. I haven’t received my own copy yet, but they look pretty cool!
Our good friend, the lovely Michael Spicher, has just launched a Substack newsletter called “Aesthetics Research Lab”. If you’re into art and aesthetics, this should be a really awesome read:
Your Sunday Read
“Reparations for American Chattel Slavery” by Stephen Darwall.
Arguably, the function of the modern concept of race was to rationalize forms of oppression and subjugation like chattel slavery.
This powerful essay from one of the leading moral philosophers of our time assesses the ongoing impact of slavery on contemporary American life, looking to thinkers like James Baldwin and Tommie Shelby to try and understand how we can establish relations of mutual respect and equality between all members. You can read the essay here.
Monday Event: 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm UK
“Rituals of Disappearance”
Gil Anidjar with Brad Evans and Chantal Meza
What does it mean to resist oblivion? Can this be explained through attending to the intensive interplays between appearance and the vanishing of life? This conversation with Gil Anidjar will interrogate the drama of the political as it relates to rituals of disappearance. The talk will address the politics of stasis and the links between sovereignty, the logics of forgetting and repression. You can find out more and register here.
This conversation is part of the ongoing State of Disappearance series:
Tuesday Event: 4pm PT/7pm ET/11am (Wed.) AET
“What Happened to Liberalism?”
Samuel Moyn in conversation with Becca Rothfeld
Liberalism is in crisis – but why, exactly, and how did we get here?
In his new book, Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times, historian Samuel Moyn argues that by the mid-twentieth century, many liberals, recoiling from totalitarianism and devastating wars, redefined liberalism around a new ideal: preserving individual liberty at all costs.
Denouncing this stance, as well as the recent nostalgia for Cold War liberalism as a corrective to illiberal values today, Moyn calls for a new emancipatory and egalitarian liberal philosophy – a path to undoing the damage of the Cold War and to ensuring the survival of liberalism.
In this conversation, Moyn discusses his argument with Washington Post nonfiction book critic and Boston Review contributing editor Becca Rothfeld, who reviewed Moyn’s book for the Post in August. You can find out more and register here.
Recording of Eilenberger/Bacevic conversation
For those of who missed the recent conversation between Wolfram Eilenberger and Jana Bacevic on Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, and Weil, you can watch the recording here.
Ending
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Wishing you all a lovely Sunday, wherever you are.
Anthony Morgan
Editor