Definition 1. Let “personal existence” denote a person’s capacity for self-expression. Image: The resultant vector R of two coplanar vectors. Definition 2. Let “shame” denote the emotion of feeling wrong just for personally existing, that is, for self-expressing. To shame a person is to cause her to feel shame. Axiom 3. Shame never spontaneously arises […]
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 […]
First publication
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, […]
Slideshow (PDF)
Slideshow (PDF) Peer review for an article presenting the method and results of this project was completed in January 2022. The article will be published in 2022 by the Journal of Homosexuality. The slideshow appearing here contains a few full-color figures that couldn’t appear in the (black-and-white) forthcoming print version.