Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Philosophy (Page 11 of 11)

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.

Pragmatic Approaches to Voting

October 1, 2018 /
pragmatic Keep Calm and Vote

Source: James Mallos (https://www.flickr.com/photos/james_mallos/15467214887)

Leftists and liberals love arguing about how to vote, whether they admit it or not. Pragmatic issues are central to these debates. They enter through the front or rear door, but they’re there.

Even the most hardcore anti-electoralists talk about electoral issues. Anarchists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Peter Kropotkin, and the Catalonian anarchists drew lines. Sometimes they crossed those lines.

I’ve given the issue some thought over the years. I’ll lay out these thoughts in this post.

Here’s how I vote. How do you vote?

Continue reading

capitalism and racism

Capitalism and Racism: Which is Prior?

September 24, 2018 /

Marxists, other leftists, and/or antiracists have argued for decades about the relative importance of capitalism and racism. They’ve framed the issue in different ways. Some people discuss which system exerts the greatest force on society. Others discuss which system offers the more fundamental social explanation. Some people talk about which one came first, historically. And still others ask which we should address first in our leftist movements.

Not only that, but approaches aren’t even mutually exclusive.

You might ask: what’s the difference between these frames? If so, that’s unfortunate, because they are different. It’s possible to argue, for example, that racism (or capitalism) came first historically, but that capitalism (or racism) explains more or should be addressed first.

And so, I’m going to sort out some of these issues in this post. I’ll use Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America as a reference point.

Continue reading

Icebreaker Speech

August 1, 2018 /

This post is a speech I gave about a year ago as a part of a local Toastmasters group. It’s an introduction to, well, myself. They call it an Icebreaker speech.

For anyone unfamiliar, Toastmasters is an organization for developing and promoting public speaking skills. The first speech you give as a part of the organization is an ‘Icebreaker,’ or an introduction of yourself to the group.

I’ve made some light edits to the icebreaker speech. This includes light copy editing, updating of dates (the speech is about a year old), and minor tinkering to fit the change from spoken to written format.

Continue reading

On Pornography and Its Social Impact

July 9, 2018 /

If you’re familiar with my academic career, you’ll know I’ve written about pornography. But who am I kidding? I’m not famous.

You can find this writing in a book chapter and an article.

Both of these works are broadly accessible to audiences both inside and outside of academic philosophy. The article is a major expansion of the material in the book chapter, and so that’s probably the best place to look.

My perspective on these issues is not exactly abstract. I’m thinking about it from within an ongoing debate over whether and how pornography subordinates, and perhaps oppresses or marginalizes, women. This is a debate conducted largely within academic literature. I’d like to help move it beyond academia.

I recently discovered a blog entry about my article. Someone thought it interesting enough to write about. And so I wanted to reflect on my past work and how I might approach it several years later. It was fun to read the blog entry and get another person’s take on the ‘theory’ I’ve developed.

Continue reading

Newer posts »

© 2026 Base and Superstructure

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑