Louis Jargow
Louis Jargow is currently ABD, studying Politics and Historical Studies at the New School for Social Research, engaged in questions around the history of political thought, Ancient Greece, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, contemporary social movements, uprisings and insurrections, radical democratic theory, liberty, autonomy, antifascism, decolonization, intersectional and critical race theory, He also is a politics adjunct faculty member at Ithaca College's NYC campus, writer, musician, and a community organizer living in Upstate NY.
Activities and Societies: Organizer, Radical Democracy Conference Politics Representative, Fellowships and Funding Working Group, Former Co-Speaker and Executive, Graduate Faculty Student Senate Former Treasurer, Union for Political Science Students
Supervisors: Andreas Kalyvas, Deva Woodly, Jermey Varon and Martin Breaugh
Activities and Societies: Organizer, Radical Democracy Conference Politics Representative, Fellowships and Funding Working Group, Former Co-Speaker and Executive, Graduate Faculty Student Senate Former Treasurer, Union for Political Science Students
Supervisors: Andreas Kalyvas, Deva Woodly, Jermey Varon and Martin Breaugh
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Papers by Louis Jargow
It is in the points of resonance between Menis, Thumos and Stasis, that I locate brave, courageous and enraged modes that engage and produce political crises. I am examining liberatory, revolutionary acts of thumotic resistance/stasis (individual/heroic and collective rage), as essential parts of Ancient Greek life. Affirming menis, thumos and stasis, as I feel the need to do, will strengthen critique Plato for being anti-democratic, anti-collective decision-making, against the capacity for courageous and spited action, and against political rage and politics as such. The object of my analysis is Homer’s Iliad, the tradition of militant rage that persists in the Bronze Age that was carried though in song well throughout 4th Century Democratic Athens. Over the course of this paper I will come to see Achilles not only as a flat warrior-model, but as a thumo-resisting hero who creates a legitimate and ethical stasis against the rule of the tyrant Agamemnon, and also a parrhesiastes. In addressing the dense network of themes I just described, I will be making close readings of the Ancient Greeks, including Homer, Solon, Plato, Aristotle and their interpreters: Peter Sloterdijk, Kostas Kalimtzis, Gregory Nagy, Michel Foucault, Leonard Muellner, DL Cairns and Glen Most.
In order to examine such dense theoretical, political and historical assertions, I will examine in depth a number of primary texts, those written by the historians Dio and Diogenes Laertes, along with references to Plato and Aristotle. In terms of secondary literature, in addition to passing references to Peter Sloterdijk, I will offer a close reading of Michel Foucault’ final lectures, On The Courage of Truth. These lectures offer us a dynamic and contentious reading of Parrhesia as the courage to speak truth, along with theorizing the relationship Diogenes had to this type of courage. Thus, my intention is to unpack, dynamize and question the relationship between Kynicsm, Truth, Courage, Scandal, Beastiality, and Sovereignty.
In this paper I will begin developing the concept of aleatoricism by way of unpacking its genealogy. I will also examine the work of newer inheritors of an aleatory turn. This would be an attempt to move forward with the themes I presented on: the risk taken by the underground current, historical contingency, Althusser’s aleatory genealogy: Epicurus and Spinoza and Heidegger, and contemporary aleatoricism theorized by new materialist scholarship. I will work out how both Althusser’s genealogy of thinkers and their theories fit into and expand the concept of Aleatory Materialism, moving through a reading of aleatoricism alongside other New Materialist, Vitalist and post-Heideggerian texts. My goal is to both re-read Althusser’s Philosophy of the Encounter (new) materially, and, when the opportunity arises, attempt to develop my own theories of aleatoricism and contingency.
What would a new materialist or a Heideggerian re-reading do for the project of Althusser? I start from a point which understands most of Althusser’s theories as not clearly grounded in the political, social and material world in which he lived. I find much of Althusser’s project as dead weight. Therefor any experiment to re-vitalize him to be worthwhile, not only as a means to hold onto what is valuable (aleatory materialism and contingent history), but also to be able to position my own theories of aleatoricism among other ‘Young Althusserians.’
Books by Louis Jargow
Text: Louis Jargow, Suzahn Ebrahimian
Images: Lauren Moran
Formatting: Blaine’ O Neill
Publishing: Patrick Kiley (Publication Studio)
It is in the points of resonance between Menis, Thumos and Stasis, that I locate brave, courageous and enraged modes that engage and produce political crises. I am examining liberatory, revolutionary acts of thumotic resistance/stasis (individual/heroic and collective rage), as essential parts of Ancient Greek life. Affirming menis, thumos and stasis, as I feel the need to do, will strengthen critique Plato for being anti-democratic, anti-collective decision-making, against the capacity for courageous and spited action, and against political rage and politics as such. The object of my analysis is Homer’s Iliad, the tradition of militant rage that persists in the Bronze Age that was carried though in song well throughout 4th Century Democratic Athens. Over the course of this paper I will come to see Achilles not only as a flat warrior-model, but as a thumo-resisting hero who creates a legitimate and ethical stasis against the rule of the tyrant Agamemnon, and also a parrhesiastes. In addressing the dense network of themes I just described, I will be making close readings of the Ancient Greeks, including Homer, Solon, Plato, Aristotle and their interpreters: Peter Sloterdijk, Kostas Kalimtzis, Gregory Nagy, Michel Foucault, Leonard Muellner, DL Cairns and Glen Most.
In order to examine such dense theoretical, political and historical assertions, I will examine in depth a number of primary texts, those written by the historians Dio and Diogenes Laertes, along with references to Plato and Aristotle. In terms of secondary literature, in addition to passing references to Peter Sloterdijk, I will offer a close reading of Michel Foucault’ final lectures, On The Courage of Truth. These lectures offer us a dynamic and contentious reading of Parrhesia as the courage to speak truth, along with theorizing the relationship Diogenes had to this type of courage. Thus, my intention is to unpack, dynamize and question the relationship between Kynicsm, Truth, Courage, Scandal, Beastiality, and Sovereignty.
In this paper I will begin developing the concept of aleatoricism by way of unpacking its genealogy. I will also examine the work of newer inheritors of an aleatory turn. This would be an attempt to move forward with the themes I presented on: the risk taken by the underground current, historical contingency, Althusser’s aleatory genealogy: Epicurus and Spinoza and Heidegger, and contemporary aleatoricism theorized by new materialist scholarship. I will work out how both Althusser’s genealogy of thinkers and their theories fit into and expand the concept of Aleatory Materialism, moving through a reading of aleatoricism alongside other New Materialist, Vitalist and post-Heideggerian texts. My goal is to both re-read Althusser’s Philosophy of the Encounter (new) materially, and, when the opportunity arises, attempt to develop my own theories of aleatoricism and contingency.
What would a new materialist or a Heideggerian re-reading do for the project of Althusser? I start from a point which understands most of Althusser’s theories as not clearly grounded in the political, social and material world in which he lived. I find much of Althusser’s project as dead weight. Therefor any experiment to re-vitalize him to be worthwhile, not only as a means to hold onto what is valuable (aleatory materialism and contingent history), but also to be able to position my own theories of aleatoricism among other ‘Young Althusserians.’
Text: Louis Jargow, Suzahn Ebrahimian
Images: Lauren Moran
Formatting: Blaine’ O Neill
Publishing: Patrick Kiley (Publication Studio)