Category: On theory.

Molotov in the Form of a Prayer for Grad Students: Or, The World Is Over, I Must Write This Seminar Paper

This is the document I produced back in April/May in lieu of doing a traditional seminar paper for one of my graduate courses. Typically these seminar papers will take the form of a 25 - 30-page draft of a publishable research article. Because of my own exasperation at the contradictions of professionalism/professionalization and the fact that I was approaching this project during the first wave of the COVID crisis in the United States (who knows what wave we're on now), I took a more experimental, unprofessional approach to this project.

Undead Authors // Deuteronomy

We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a single “theological” meaning (the “message” of the Author-God), but is a space of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kinds of writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from … Continue reading Undead Authors // Deuteronomy →

A Land Without a People // Numbers

Even if it is called the social nexus, link to the other in general, this fiduciary “link” would precede all determinate community, all positive religion, every onto-anthropo-theological horizon. It would link pure singularities prior to any social or political determination, prior to all intersubjectivity, prior even to the opposition between the sacred (or the holy) … Continue reading A Land Without a People // Numbers →

One for Azazel // Leviticus

…but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.             Leviticus 16.10 Disgrace upon you, Azazel! For Abraham’s lot is in heaven, but yours is upon the earth. Because you have … Continue reading One for Azazel // Leviticus →

The Ends of the World // Kant and Fisher

On imagining futures. A philosophical attempt to write a general world history according to a plan of nature which aims at a perfect civil association of mankind must be considered possible and even helpful to this intention of nature.             Immanuel Kant, “Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Intent” (1784) Capitalism is what is … Continue reading The Ends of the World // Kant and Fisher →

Experience // Esposito (Part 6)

On displaying the wound. Non-knowledge isn’t the production or the attribution of meaning but knowledge’s being exposed to what denies and negates it. Whereas knowledge tends to stitch up every tear, non-knowledge consists in holding open the opening that we already are; of not blocking but rather displaying the wound in and of our existence. … Continue reading Experience // Esposito (Part 6) →

The Island, the Promised Land, and the Desert // Derrida

On being. “In this same light, and under the same sky, let us this day name three places: the island, the Promised Land, the desert. Three aporetical places: with no way out or any assured path, without itinerary or point of arrival, without an exterior with a predictable map and a calculable programme. These three … Continue reading The Island, the Promised Land, and the Desert // Derrida →