The Universal and The Particular

Listen to this episode from Why Theory on Spotify. In this episode, Todd and Ryan theorize the universal and particular as political concepts. The particular aims at aggregating an "all" and accepts the political situation or sphere for what it is. The universal confronts how the existing political sphere is even constituted. This episode urges a recalibration for the American left around universalist movements like Black Lives Matter--which confronts how constitutive racism is of both American society and capitalism in general--and against "whack-a-mole" politics (i.e. that which is typically aimed at holding individual perpetuators of inequality responsible for their actions without addressing the larger structure (capital) that keeps that inequality in tact.) Suggestions for Further Reading: Hegel, The Encyclopedia Logic (Cambridge currently refers to this by the accurate but clunky AF title: Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline Part I: Science of Logic) Francois Julien, On the Universal Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History Alenka Zupancic, What is Sex? Alain Badiou, Theory of the Subject Todd McGowan, (Forthcoming essay. Will update this shortly.)