Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Philosophy (Page 1 of 8)

These are posts on philosophy from the blog Base and Superstructure. My background is in academia, with a specific focus on feminism, philosophical issues in the social sciences, and social and political philosophy. I have also done work on historical figures such as J. L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. These posts incorporate some or all of these issues. The influences may be more or less explicit, depending on the topic. Philosophy can be intimidating, and so these posts present issues in a way that’s open to many people. There is also discussion of specific philosophical issues, and specific issues from a philosophical perspective, such as feminist accounts of pornography, Marxist and socialist accounts of the state and political economy, and the search for the best explanations for social and material phenomena.

A cartoon image of the philosopher Socrates with a stethoscope.

My Interest in Philosophical Counseling

January 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I haven’t yet discussed this on the blog, but over the last few months, I’ve become interested in something called philosophical counseling.

There are plenty of accounts out there about what philosophical counseling is. But the short answer is that it’s the application of philosophical methods and accounts to life challenges. Philosopher counselors help people work through problems and issues in their lives. Most do so by talking with them about their lives and reasoning processes.

It’s not the same thing as psychotherapy or social work, but philosophical counselors at times help people with similar problems and issues. Unlike psychiatrists and licensed psychologists, though, philosophical counselors do not treat mental illness.

Anyway, I’m interested in philosophical counseling – up to the point where I’m thinking about becoming one. At least with part of my time.

And on that note, I’m participating in a training session at the end of this week, and I’m pretty excited about it! Unfortunately, this also means that I’ll be taking a week off next week. So, the next post will happen in early February.

I’ll update readers at some point to let you know how it’s going. If I move more seriously toward becoming a philosophical counselor, readers might even find a website with services and rates!

RevLeft Radio: Liberal Socialism

January 6, 2025 / / 0 Comments

In my 6+ years as a blogger, I’ve never written about one of the more compelling and interesting sources of leftist media: Revolutionary Left Radio (RevLeft Radio). This holds despite the fact that I’m a regular RevLeft listener. And in listening to a recent episode on the political theory of ‘Liberal Socialism,’ I found a chance to rectify my oversight.

RevLeft Radio is hosted by Brecht O’Shea. Politically, Brecht is a bit hard to pin down. But he appears to clock in roughly in the realm of Marxist-Leninist thought. I certainly don’t consider myself a fan of M-L, in general. And I clarify in my FAQ series why I rarely write about the sectarian left.

But Brecht often serves as a happy exception to these problems. On RevLeft radio, he interviews people with a wide range of leftist views. And he excels at drawing out the useful points even the ones he finds wrong. Even when I disagree with Brecht – which happens fairly often! – I find him insightful. I learn from him.

Anyway, readers should check out RevLeft Radio, especially Brecht’s interview with Matt McManus on a view McManus terms ‘liberal socialism.’ A dialogue between a Marxist-Leninist and someone with something similar to Bhaskar Sunkara’s approach to socialism is a thing we should encourage on the left.

We can learn from one another.

For my part, I found myself taking a middle ground between Brecht and McManus. Brecht helpfully points to the key failures of a social democratic route to socialism – its lack of success in the past, its susceptibility to capitalist assault, etc. And McManus serves as a check on the Marxist-Leninist tendency to offer apologia for authoritarian regimes.

Anyway, it’s a great RevLeft episode! And it’s a fine place for listeners to begin.

An image of two figures, one representing analytic philosophy and the other representing Continental philosophy.

Philosophy’s Analytic vs. Continental Divide

November 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Analytic and Continental philosophers aren’t friendly with one another.

With depressingly few exceptions, they ignore one another’s work. They create parallel conferences, journals, publishing houses, and even philosophy departments at colleges. While we can find examples of philosophers who engage meaningfully across traditions, even many of those philosophers engage mostly to heap scorn on the other side.

Anyone who made it through grad school in philosophy knows all the stereotypes. Analytics are pedantic, black and white thinking logic choppers. Continentals are pretentious charlatans more interested in literary theory than in getting at core philosophical notions like reality and truth.

Recently I read Lee Braver’s book A Thing of This World, which makes an attempt at a fruitful intervention into this state of affairs. Having read it, I regret to say the book sat on my shelf for more than a decade before I picked it up.

It’s a great read.

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Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): The AI Trick

March 11, 2024 /

In a recent issue of Jacobin, Garrison Lovely tackles the question of whether humanity can survive AI.

It’s a question with many facets. Along the way, Lovely considers just about all of them. Do people overhype AI or not take it seriously enough? Are its harms primarily short- or long-term?

He looks at both human extinction (!) and much more immediate impacts like job loss, racist algorithmic decisions, and the continuing transformation of the workplace into a giant, soulless corporate warehouse that would terrify even Adam Smith.

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Attachment Theory: Let’s Not Get Too Attached

March 4, 2024 /

A visual depiction of attachment theory and four attachment styles, namely secure, anxious, avoidance, and fearful.

Attachment theory has gotten big in recent years, in large part due to young people pushing it on social media. It’s especially popular with young people who struggle to understand the motives of others. Especially others they’re dating (or trying to date).

Uh-oh. Dating and pop psychology rarely mix well. They don’t mix well in this case, either.

Laura Pitcher recently wrote in Nylon about the ‘Tiktokification‘ of attachment theory. It’s worth a read for a number of reasons. But one reason stands out to me. And it’s a point I’ve been hitting ever since my grad school days, culminating in my first book – Classify and Label.

We’ll take a look at that point.

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