This document represents my personal opinions at the time of writing, and not the official position of any organization to which I belong. What is a labor union? A labor union is “the first attempt of the workers to abolish competition between workers” (Engels 1845, Condition of the Working Class in England). This means: 1) […]
In his principal doctoral thesis, Gilles Deleuze wrote: “Philosophy […] must be wary of turning into the discourse of beautiful souls. But the name of Marx suffices to save it from this danger.” Difference and Repetition (1968, Eng. trans. 1994) At this moment in history, as the end of the first quarter-century of the new […]
“Have you ever wondered why sociologists still study Marx if he was wrong?” (Erik Olin Wright, “Analytical Marxism”) This fragment grew into a series of YouTube videos: Rationalism and Socialism The time has come for socialists to reconsider Spinoza. As Macherey put it in his 1979 book Hegel or Spinoza, “the entire problem is that […]
Presentation on stateless socialism based on Kropotkin’s 1927 essay. LINK: https://jlacorte.edublogs.org/files/2022/04/kropotkin-notes.pdf
First publication
The linked PDF is a Workbook for a semester-long course using Tannenbaum’s Excursions in Modern Mathematics. I used them as lecture notes at Austin Community College. The general approach is that of “discovery learning”. I’m a recovering fan of the Moore method (see rant below). Topics: Voting theory/Arrow’s Theorem (1 chapter) Fair division (1 chapter) […]
You absorb more philosophy than you realize when you study math. Choices, commitments to specific philosophical doctrines, were collectively made long before our modern textbooks were written. As I attempt a transition to social science research, I feel I should revisit some of these choices. This document is a repository for reflections—basically diary entries—undertaken for […]
Resources linked in this doc: As a working teacher, I’m always thinking about ways to make the history of ideas accessible to ordinary people—say, the average undergrad or advanced high school student. Some people publish articles. Some people tweet. I mostly make slideshows and typeset mathematical notes. 1. Notes on Capital vol. 3, ch. 10, […]
Below is an edited excerpt from a policy recommendation written by members of Georgia State University’s PRISM Faculty Affinity Group, including myself. The paper was written in response to an incident in which a student was confronted for being in the “wrong” bathroom on Dunwoody Campus. The original 2021 document stated that current University System of Georgia […]