Your mid-week read
“Possibility: The New Basics” by William M. Paris
Some of you may know William M. Paris as one of the co-hosts on the excellent and influential podcast, “What’s Left of Philosophy”. In this essay for the “Philosophy” issue of our “New Basics” series, Paris asks how philosophy that aims to be critical, i.e., that aims to address questions of freedom and social transformation, should relate to the category of possibility. We live in a time when many senses of possibility seem to be closed off from us as a result of dysfunctional political institutions, prospects of global war, resurgent forces of reaction, ever-increasing likelihood of climate disaster, and so on. Paris addresses these crises emerging in social possibility, arguing that philosophy should serve to disclose the real possibilities for transformative conduct that already exist in our social practices. He considers his position to be “utopian”, i.e. rooted in the practice of illuminating what is possible but not yet fully realized within our social life. You can read his essay here.