Liberalism, Progressivism, and Love

Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2009

This article explores the connections between liberalism and romanticism, and argues that there is a split within liberal thought between a rationalist conception of liberalism, which relies on traditional moral psychology, and romanticist versions of liberalism, which adopt the romantic critique of reason and attach a positive value to the supposedly “irrational” faculties of the human psyche, such as passion, emotion, and love. Attending to this split within liberal theory provides us with a deeper understanding of what motivates religious fundamentalism and the more general movement of “return to traditional values” in religious and socially conservative quarters. Fundamentalists and other socially and religiously conservative critics of liberalism perceive that the embrace of a romantic picture of human psychology, and the implementation of doctrines of individual freedom and choice in the realm of marital and sexual relations (in the realm of love) undermines the premises of tr...

Can Philosophy Love, 2018

Drawing on Howard Caygill's study of resistance, this chapter reads Carl Schmitt's figure of the partisan in contrast to the concept of the political as envisioned by Emmanuel Levinas.

In Hardt and Negri’s collaborative writings the concept of ‘love’ has come to function as an important pivot between the indictment of poverty and oppression, and the activation of social bonds to produce new political groupings and energies. However, ‘love’ is invoked in two entirely contrasting ways: firstly, as an encounter from the outside, that disturbs and unsettles the subject; and secondly, as an attachment and investment in familiar forms of social belonging. This paper explores tensions in Hardt and Negri’s accounts of love, and argues that the concept needs to be supplemented with a notion of learning. To develop a more ‘pedagogical’ understanding of love, we draw on Deleuze’s writing on Proust, as well as Deleuze and Guattari’s collaborative writings. By comparing approaches to love in Deleuze and Guattari and Hardt and Negri, we argue that a key difference around these scholars is not as much in their respective critiques of Marxism (although this remains important), but in the ways that love and desire are taken up in ‘post-Marxist’ ethical frames.

2015

Social Change, 2018

Neoliberal globalisation has increased inequalities, injustices, and violations of freedoms on an unprecedented scale, whilst creating a fertile environment for the rise of far-right xenophobic nationalism and authoritarianism. In parallel, the emergence of the alter-globalisation movement has responded with a growing popular resistance to neoliberal policy and practice. The experience of social movements over the last century confirms the pressing need for a framework of unity within this current movement wave which avoids the dominations and hierarchies of previous structures, maintains its constituent diversity and yet allows for the construction of a cohesive collective identity. This article positions love as a key concept in political theory/philosophy and for performing a central role in the revolutionary transformation of contemporary global capitalism, exploring how new love-based political subjectivities, practices, and group formations might emerge via a more than human material-psycho-socio-affective commons, with opportunities for a re-imagining of the frame within which an alter-globalisation might occur.

Political Theory , 2006

Reviews in American History, 1982

Nussbaum engages core questions about the relationship between political stability and moral psychology (or, the emotions). Rawls considers these questions in the final section of TJ (entitled "Ends"), but never revisited them in the light of his later ideas of political liberalism. Nussbaum thus proposes a theory of political love (and its affiliated emotions) that addresses these questions in a manner consistent with the spirit of political liberalism, and so in a way that Rawls himself might have wanted. Before directly engaging some of Nussbaum's ideas, I provide a brief overview of the philosophical context for her book and of its content.

This article discusses the ongoing discourses on love that first developed in the 1980s in France as they are articulated through the work of Malek Chebel. It argues that for Chebel 'love' contributes to the ongoing negotiation between Islam and the West and of Islam in France/Europe. The article considers his discourse on love within the context of the current debates on French constructions of community and membership and examines how love engages with the question of difference and identity to decentre and de-essentialise 'Islam'. It concludes that the negotiation between Europe and Islam involves questioning the role of Maghrebi culture and tradition in defining 'Islam' in France.

Radical Philosophy Review, 2019

As we witness the collapse of the neoliberal consensus and the subsequent rise of authoritarian 'strong men' and xenophobic nationalisms across the globe, the capitalist hegemony that was consolidated by the neoliberal project remains very much intact. In pursuit of a sane alternative to this post-neoliberal world order this article proposes love as a key concept for political theory/philosophy and for performing a central role in the revolutionary transformation of contemporary global capitalism. Through a close reading of the works of Emma Goldman and Michael Hardt, and specifically their own pursuit of a political concept of love I draw on, and make links with contemporary ideas of love as a political concept for radical social transformation in the twenty-first century. I argue that new love-based political subjectivities, practices, and group formations offer exciting opportunities for a reimagining of the frame within which an alter-globalisation can occur, and link theory to praxis by introducing an ongoing Collective Visioning project which illuminates a new post-capitalist, post-patriarchal, post-colonial, and post-anthropocentric synergetic politics grounded in revolutionary love.

We have to build organizations that are democratic, multiracial, and militant, with a foundation in solidarity…"Solidarity" meaning that even if you don't experience a particular oppression, it doesn't matter, because you understand that as ordinary people, our fates are tied together, and that one group's liberation is dependent upon the liberation of all the oppressed and exploited." -Keeayanga-Yamahtta Taylor 1 "In the airports, we have formed our itinerary. Begin with the joy of disobedience, the love of the stranger, and the hope for the new. Move onward to class hatred and the science of structural analysis. Continue to travel, never satisfied, to arrive at the power that is constituted by organization." -Asad Haider 2

A lyric piece arguing against leftism or progressivism as intrinsically aligned with nature or natural processes, with the focus on how living systems exceed philosophical or political systems. [Composed under pseudonym]

Society

With the tide of progressive reforms facing strong headwinds today, this essay offers a retrospective look at the progressive movement in the U.S.A. and reflects on the lessons to be learned from its triumphs and failures. The case is made that major advances in the progressive agenda came at historical junctions precipitated by dramatic events. The stretch between 1900 and 1920 saw the first wave of social reforms following the late nineteenth century recessions and upsurge in labor unrest. The New Deal took shape in the 1930s in the aftermath of the Great Depression. The Civil Rights movement burst onto the scene in the 1960s in the face of bitter attempts to shore up segregationist practices in southern states. And the 2020s spike in progressive activism gained momentum against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the January 6 Capitol riots. Special attention is paid to the interfaces between Social Gospel theology and efforts to ground progressive rhetoric in what John Dewey called "common faith," Robert Bellah "civil religion," and Richard Rorty "liberal pragmatism."