Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Month: November 2025

A Greek letter symbol designed to mark out the Epicurean four-part remedy, or tetrapharmakos.

Epicureanism 101: The Four-Part Remedy (Tetrapharmakos)

November 24, 2025 / / 0 Comments

We’re now five posts deep into the Epicureanism 101 series! I’ll leave it to the reader whether to be happy or sad about this, but I’ll say that this is probably the final post in the series for now.

So far, we’ve built out a conception of Epicurean philosophy and its power to help us achieve happiness or flourishing in life. Epicurus advises us to achieve static pleasures, by which he means a state of tranquillity that comes from freedom from fear and mental disturbance. The way to achieve this state of tranquillity is by focusing on desires that are natural and necessary.

How, then, might we go about completing the picture? Epicurean philosopher Philodemus has the answer in the form of the four-part remedy, also called the ‘tetrapharmakos.’

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The cover of the book J. L. Austin Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer by M.W. Rowe. Image depicts a photo of the young J. L. Austin in military uniform.

Recent Biography of J. L. Austin

November 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments

It’s unclear how many people want to read a 600 page biography of Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin. But count me among them. As an undergraduate, I made Austin’s paper ‘Other Minds’ the topic of my honors thesis. And even 20 years later, I’ve never lost the sense that there was something right about the method of ‘linguistic phenomenology’ Austin used in much of his work.

What was right about it? And how did it influence my own philosophical work? It can be difficult to say. I didn’t directly develop Austin’s ideas in my own articles and books. But my conceptual work begins from an understanding – we should situate philosophical concepts in relation to the everyday. This is to say that we must first understand – and only then expand upon or improve – ordinary notions.

As Austin put it, ordinary language is the first word.

On this blog, I’ve written a couple of reviews of books on Austin’s work. Readers can check those out here and here.

And so, with all this said, I was excited to read M.W. Rowe’s biography of the giant of ordinary language philosophy.

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A photo of a man holding a magnifying glass in front of his right eye, while looking at a ballot closely.

Why the ‘Left’ Lost the City Council Election

November 6, 2025 / / 0 Comments

So, we held another city council election in Iowa City. As usual, we can pull a few lessons from the results.

But first, let’s talk about the big picture. Three incumbents ran for office – Megan Alter and Bruce Teague in the At-Large race and Shawn Harmsen in District B – and they all won. Who’d they defeat? Newman Abuissa and Clara Reynen in the former race and Amy Hospodarsky in the latter.

At first glance, it feels mundane. The voters gave a new term to three popular incumbents. Big deal.

But to many Iowa Citians, the race held interest for its impact on the factions the six supposedly represent. Progressive and activist circles took this as a loss, with most backing Abuissa, Hospodarsky, and Reynen. And those who oppose them chalked it up as a win, because they backed Alter, Harmsen, and Teague. Even though more than a few of them would’ve opposed Alter, Harmsen, and Teague in the not so distant past.

As it goes.

However, I find this all very misguided. I’ll say a word about why the three challengers lost. But in the process of getting there, I’ll need to deal with all this folderol about ‘factions.’

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A man dressed formally in a suit with "Hi, I'm Analytic Philosophy" written under him, standing next to a man dressed informally with "I'm Continental Philosophy" written under him, intended to represent a review of the book A Social History of Analytic Philosophy.

A Social History of Analytic Philosophy

November 3, 2025 /

I should start by saying that I found Christoph Schuringa’s A Social History of Analytic Philosophy enjoyable and informative. But it’s also rather spicy. Above all, it’s never dull.

I can live with that combo.

As someone trained in analytic philosophy, readers might expect me to dislike A Social History of Analytic Philosophy. After all, Schuringa takes an unsympathetic approach to the field. On the other hand, I did work that crosses the borders between the analytic and the Continental. And I sympathize with the critique of even ‘dissident’ analytics as using abstract and disengaged methods. So, readers might expect me to love it.

In reality, I neither disliked nor loved the book. I thought it had its merits and shortcomings.

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