By Timofei Gerber — Any attempted critique of capitalism needs, of course, to first resolve the question of what is supposedly wrong with it in the first place. A popular form of protest is set against the so-called 1%. It is called out for owning half the world’s net wealth, which is considered unjust…

By Timofei Gerber — In a recorded conversation from 1972, Foucault and Deleuze talk about being “in the process of experiencing a new relationship between theory and practice” (Foucault/Deleuze, 205), one that had begun “in the most recent upheaval” (ibid., 207). They are here referring to the events of May 68. Deleuze continues: “At…

By Timofei Gerber — One of the difficulties in approaching the Jargon of Authenticity is that it is written as a reaction to a specific tendency within German thought, particularly the existentialism of the 1920s and 30’s, and its revival in the 50’s and 60’s (cf. JA, xiii). The original title, Jargon der Eigentlichkeit…

By Timofei Gerber — Comedy famously works with types. We can intuit, then, that if it is to teach us something about individuality, then it must do so negatively. After all, the individual is that which does not correspond to a type, and by presenting us types, comedy shows us, what an individual is…

By Timofei Gerber — Grief is supposed to be that little space which we share with the dead, until we are ready to move on and leave them in the past, their home. …

By Timofei Gerber — It is one thing to despair from challenging circumstances, to struggle with life’s possibilities, and a completely different thing to despair from the possibilities of life itself, a life that might suddenly seem appallingly confined. In greatest danger or in our silent moments, we sometimes realise “that desire nevertheless ends…

By Timofei Gerber — “The concurrent or mutually opposing action” of the two fundamental drives (Urtriebe), Eros and Thanatos, are supposed to explain “the phenomena of life” (Civilisation and its Discontents, p. 4509). This is a lot of responsibility to carry. With Eros as the God of love and Thanatos as the God of…

By Timofei Gerber — Vitalism, as a philosophical position, is usually tied to the assumption that there is a fundamental difference between the organic and the inorganic, between the physical forces and the “life force”. In that sense, it relates to the question, if teleological organic processes can be reduced to their causal physical…

By Timofei Gerber — Je voulais tout simplement être un homme parmi d’autres hommes. J’aurais voulu arriver lisse et jeune dans un monde nôtre et ensemble édifier. […] Je voulais être homme, rien qu’homme (Fanon 2011: 155) / J’arrivais dans le monde, soucieux de faire lever un sens aux choses […], et voici que…