•  316
    Huey Newton's Lessons for the Academic Left
    Theory, Culture and Society 38 (7-8): 267-87. 2021.
    The Black Panther Party was founded to bridge the radical theorizing that swept college campuses in the mid-1960s and the lumpen proletariat abandoned by the so-called ‘Great Society’. However, shortly thereafter, Newton began to harshly criticize the academic Left in general for their drive to find ‘a set of actions and a set of principles that are easy to identify and are absolute.’ This article reconstructs Newton’s critique of progressive movements grounded primarily in academic debates, as …Read more
  •  164
    Homogeneity and Heterogeneity: Bataille and Hegel
    Dialogue 43 (2): 317-338. 2004.
    RÉSUMÉ: L’Expérience intérieure de Georges Bataille formule une ontologie de l’hétérogénéité opposée à l’homogénéité du système de Hegel. Bataille définit la pensée de Hegel comme la commensurabilité d’éléments disparates au sein d’un projet unifié, et c’est à cette homogénéité dirigée par un but qu’il oppose les éléments hétérogènes du non-savoir et du sacrifice, lesquels échappent à toute commensurabilité. Cet article se livre à une évaluation critique de l’œuvre de Bataille, tant comme ontolo…Read more
  •  79
    A passion for justice
    Philosophy and Social Criticism 43 (2): 187-207. 2017.
    In this article, I explicate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s account of emancipatory history and activism by examining the influence of G. W. F. Hegel’s account of world-historical individuals on his thought. Both thinkers, I argue, affirm that history’s spiritual destiny works through individuals who are driven by the contingencies of their subjective character and given situation to undertake particular actions, and yet who nevertheless freely and decisively break the new from the old by forsaking s…Read more
  •  79
    Free Love: A Hegelian Defense of Same‐Sex Marriage Rights
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 47 (1): 69-89. 2010.
    By revisiting Hegel's Philosophy of Right, I mount a Hegelian defense of same‐sex marriage rights. I first argue that Hegel's account of the Idea of freedom articulates both the necessity of popular shifts in the determinations of the institutions of right, as well as the duty to struggle to progressively actualize freedom through them. I then contend that Hegel, by grounding marriage in free consent, clears the path for expanding this ethical institution to include all monogamous couples. Lastl…Read more
  •  66
    Universal Grammar
    The Owl of Minerva 39 (1-2): 1-24. 2007.
    In this paper, through Hegel’s account of the predicative judgment in the Greater Logic, I develop an immanent, presuppositionless deduction ofgrammatical form from the very idea of language in general. In other words, I argue that Hegel’s account of the judgment can be read as a demonstrationof a truly universal (rather than empirically “common” or “general”) grammar through which any and all determinate thought must be expressed. In so doing, I seek to resolve the problem that linguistic conti…Read more
  •  57
    American Antigone: Hegelian Reflections on the Sheehan-Bush Conflict
    Telos: Critical Theory of the Contemporary 2008 (144): 180-192. 2008.
    Now that she has retired from public life, philosophers can begin to understand the cultural phenomenon that was Cindy Sheehan, the generally recognized (and self-professed) “‘Face’ of the American anti-war movement.”1 Why did the Iraq War produce domestic resistance led by someone whose moral credentials consisted solely in being a mother? Why was the cartoon-cowboy masculinity of the war president opposed by the equally hyperbolic familial femininity of the “eternally grieving mother of Casey …Read more
  •  53
    The Moral Necessity of Moral Conflict in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 13 (1): 67-80. 2008.
    While not an explicit claim of Hegel’s, this paper aims to use his analysis of ‘Conscience’ in the Phenomenology of Spirit to demonstrate that the conflict betweendifferent moral judgments is morally necessary. That is, rather than being the unfortunate result of ‘hard’ cases, I argue that moral conflict is a necessary condition for the possibility of duty. Grasping the moral ground of moral conflict, I contend, allows us to understand why such conflicts arise, how and why they become entrenched…Read more
  •  48
    Liberation Theology
    Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 17 (2): 141-157. 2013.
    Hegel famously identifies Protestant conscience and its corresponding state as reflecting the unity of ethical and religious principles, thereby bringing into actuality the truth of human spirit. However, he also reminds us that it is vital to free states that the Church remain divided, rather than unifying into one sect. Thus, he affirms a secular state above religious conflict, but explicitly takes sides in one such conflict, out of the interest philosophy has in the development of the Protest…Read more
  •  47
    Erfahren and Erleben
    Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 12 (1): 108-125. 2008.
    This paper presents the origin, development and trajectory of our modes of experiencing beings as presented in Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy. It begins by detailing the historical development of our subjective experience of beings leading up to its current arrangement within the modern, technological worldview, and then proceeds to grapple with Heidegger’s recommended pathway out of our technological mode of experience into a more primordial one. I close with some critical reflections …Read more
  •  36
    Postmodern Platos (review)
    Symposium 2 (1): 119-121. 1998.
  •  32
    This book argues that Hip Hop’s early history in the South Bronx charts a course remarkably similar to the conceptual history of artistic creation presented in Hegel’s Lectures on Aesthetics. It contends that the resonances between Hegel’s account of the trajectory of art in general, and the historical shifts in the particular culture of Hip Hop, are both numerous and substantial enough to make us re-think not only the nature and import of Hegel’s philosophy of art, but the origin, essence and l…Read more
  •  31
    Siding With Freedom: Towards A Prescriptive Hegelianism
    Critical Horizons 12 (1): 49-69. 2011.
    My goal in this essay is to demonstrate the continuing relevance of Hegel’s theory of right for contemporary emancipatory politics. Specifically, my contention is that Hegel’s Philosophy of Right can and should be read as defending the possibility of principled, decisive side-taking in political struggles. By revisiting Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, I seek to demonstrate four interconnected theses: that the will’s freedom is both a) the fundamental principle upon which genuinely political change …Read more
  •  31
    In this paper, I reconstruct the conception of political will implicitly developed by the ‘philosophical theoretician’ of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton. Counterintuitively, I argue that his ‘dialectical’ account of political will is best understood through categories derived from G.W.F. Hegel. Briefly, both Hegel and Newton identify abstract negation and situational concretion as equally essential to actualizing the free will, and thus advocate the channeling of revolutionary enthusias…Read more
  •  29
    The People Have Spoken(?)
    International Studies in Philosophy 34 (2): 115-131. 2002.
  •  28
    Why We Fight: Hegel's 'Struggle to the Death' Revisited
    Cosmos and History 9 (2): 178-197. 2013.
    My goal in this paper is to counter an increasingly common interpretation of the most famous moment in Hegel's thought - the struggle for recognition. Specifically, through a close reading of the movement from self-conscious desire to the moment of struggle, I seek to refute three key claims: a) that self-consciousness finds itself, qua determining center, challenged by another desire, b) that self-consciousness responds to this challenge by seeking to somehow subjugate the other as determining …Read more
  •  19
    Hegel and Deleuze: Together Again for the First Time (edited book)
    with Karen Houle and Jean-Clet Martin
    Northwestern University Press. 2013.
    _Hegel and Deleuze_ cannily examines the various resonances and dissonances between these two major philosophers. The collection represents the best in contemporary international scholarship on G. W. F. Hegel and Gilles Deleuze, and the contributing authors inhabit the as-yet uncharted space between the two thinkers, collectively addressing most of the major tensions and resonances between their ideas and laying a solid ground for future scholarship. The essays are organized thematically into tw…Read more
  •  18
    Hegel's Philosophy of Language
    Bloomsbury. 2007.
    This book develops the general theory of language implicitly contained in the writings of G.W.F. Hegel. It offers novel readings of Hegel's central works in order to explain his views on some long neglected topics and as such demonstrates that his accounts of representation, the concept and the speculative sentence can be used to create sophisticated theories of language acquisition, universal grammar and linguistic practice. Hegel's defence of a scientific philosophy that is necessary and unive…Read more
  •  16
    The People Have Spoken(?)
    International Studies in Philosophy 34 (2): 115-131. 2002.
  •  14
    Universal Grammar
    The Owl of Minerva 39 (1-2): 1-24. 2007.
    In this paper, through Hegel’s account of the predicative judgment in the Greater Logic, I develop an immanent, presuppositionless deduction ofgrammatical form from the very idea of language in general. In other words, I argue that Hegel’s account of the judgment can be read as a demonstrationof a truly universal (rather than empirically “common” or “general”) grammar through which any and all determinate thought must be expressed. In so doing, I seek to resolve the problem that linguistic conti…Read more
  •  11
    Liberation Theology
    Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 17 (2): 141-157. 2013.
    Hegel famously identifies Protestant conscience and its corresponding state as reflecting the unity of ethical and religious principles, thereby bringing into actuality the truth of human spirit. However, he also reminds us that it is vital to free states that the Church remain divided, rather than unifying into one sect. Thus, he affirms a secular state above religious conflict, but explicitly takes sides in one such conflict, out of the interest philosophy has in the development of the Protest…Read more
  •  10
    A rich collection of critical essays, authored by philosophers and practicing artists, examining Deleuze and Guattari's engagement with a broad range of art forms.
  •  10
    Drawing on the culture’s history before and after the birth of rap music, this book argues that the values attributed to Hip Hop by ‘postmodern’ scholars stand in stark contrast with those that not only implicitly guided its aesthetic elements, but are explicitly voiced by Hip Hop’s pioneers and rap music’s most consequential artists. It argues that the structural evacuation of the voices of its founders and organic intellectuals in the postmodern theorization of Hip Hop has foreclosed the cultu…Read more
  •  8
    Erfahren and Erleben
    Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 12 (1): 108-125. 2008.
    This paper presents the origin, development and trajectory of our modes of experiencing beings as presented in Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy. It begins by detailing the historical development of our subjective experience of beings leading up to its current arrangement within the modern, technological worldview, and then proceeds to grapple with Heidegger’s recommended pathway out of our technological mode of experience into a more primordial one. I close with some critical reflections …Read more
  •  6
    The Realm of Abstraction
    Proceedings of the Hegel Society of America 17 165-177. 2006.
  •  6
    6. Conquering Finitude: Towards a Renewed Hegelian Middle
    In Susan M. Dodd & Neil G. Robertson (eds.), Hegel and Canada: Unity of Opposites?, University of Toronto Press. pp. 100-122. 2018.
  •  3
    The Panthers Can Save Us Now
    Catalyst 6 (3): 102-37. 2022.
    In his essay “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now” and his new book of the same title, Cedric Johnson persuasively argues for a multiracial, class-based movement toward racial justice, but he questions whether the legacy of the Panthers is suitable for this strategy. This essay argues that the Panthers in fact advocated for the very strategy Johnson recommends, and that they ought to be considered exemplars of the socialist rejection of elite identity politics.
  •  3
    Introduction
    with Bado Ndoye and Delia Popa
    Symposium 26 (1): 131-135. 2022.
  •  2
    This book collects the work of leading scholars on Alain Badiou and G.W.F. Hegel, creating a dialogue between, and a critical appraisal of, these two central figures in European philosophy.
  •  1
    Deleuze and Hegel on the logic of relations
    In Karen Houle, Jim Vernon & Jean-Clet Martin (eds.), Hegel and Deleuze: Together Again for the First Time, Northwestern University Press. 2013.