Thesis Chapters by Matthew Lowery
The central ambition of this dissertation will be to demonstrate that Schmitt continues to offer ... more The central ambition of this dissertation will be to demonstrate that Schmitt continues to offer valuable insights on a range of topics which are of particular importance for contemporary critical theorists. Because of length constraints, I will focus on what I regard as the areas of Schmitt’s writing which might prove most fertile for contemporary critical theorists: on the nature of democracy and politics, liberalism’s relationship with reason and technology, and dictatorship, the rule of law, and the state of emergency. In order to achieve this aim, this paper will put Schmitt into a dialogue with several other authors, from Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin to Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Žižek, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and many other thinkers in this rea, to revise some aspects of Schmitt’s theory in a more progressive, emancipatory direction
Papers by Matthew Lowery
Disclaimer: I wrote this paper for a module during my Master's course. This paper will endeavour ... more Disclaimer: I wrote this paper for a module during my Master's course. This paper will endeavour to outline some of the essential features of a critical theory of happiness under Capitalism. It will draw on an extensive literature to argue that under Capitalism, reason itself has undergone a process of 'flattening out', undermining the conditions for the possibility of any form of happiness beyond Hedonism, which consequently collapses into full-blown Nihilism.
Conference Presentations by Matthew Lowery
Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism provokes us to think more deeply about our relationship to the p... more Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism provokes us to think more deeply about our relationship to the past, the slow cancellation of the future, the possibility of post-capitalism, and the ways in which ideas of nostalgia and authenticity manufacture consent for the prevailing image of thought. Capitalist Realism is the slow cancellation of the future: both the past and the future are simultaneously dead and alive; they persist, and haunt our present at every moment. My paper starts with some remarks on cultural phenomena such as vaporwave and progressive rock, as well as the relation between history, authenticity, and ’new tourism', before using the aporia represented by the book’s conclusion as a point of departure for thinking about desire and post-capitalism, history and ideology. This will also draw on Fisher’s other work, particularly Terminator vs Avatar and Post-Capitalist Desire, as well as work by Nietzsche, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School. The central tension which Fisher recognises is the same as for Deleuze and Guattari: between ‘resistance’ to the prevailing forces of global capitalism and a return to a Fordist labour society, and the possibility of a vision of society after Capitalism which is increasingly ‘precuperated’ by Capitalism itself. How do we square Fisher’s call for a more libidinally-free society and a ‘designer socialism’ with a seemingly infinitely plastic system which can very well incorporate all such demands? Can we imagine a future which does not resemble the present?
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Thesis Chapters by Matthew Lowery
Papers by Matthew Lowery
Conference Presentations by Matthew Lowery