See below for my introduction to a new project from Tom Pepper and myself, a blog we are calling “Interventions.”
I hope this project appeals to those who want to try to think in new ways about important social questions—questions that we seem perpetually unable to answer in the ways we tend to pose them.
Tom’s intervention on the question of “Why We Teach Literature,” published on the blog today, makes an excellent, thought-provoking read to kick off this project.
I hope you’ll read, discuss, and consider contributing your own interventions!
About this project
This project was conceived as a rough sketch of what, it is hoped, might some day take shape as a new social practice. Taking off from the notion of a “new practice of philosophy” elaborated by the French philosopher Louis Althusser, this experiment aims to breathe new life into the technique of the “philosophical intervention,” by broadening its scope of application beyond the realm of philosophy proper.
To that end, each article published on this blog takes the form of a short and accessible “intervention” into a moment of public discourse. An intervention may be written, for example, as a direct response to a specific newspaper or magazine article, or it may address more broadly some ongoing debate around current events—a political controversy, a scientific finding, a global event, or a piece of popular culture that provokes public discussion.
The technique of the philosophical intervention
It might…
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