If you have a back up file of of your mind on disk and a genetic recording of your physical make up, if you then get killed in an accident and then somebody restores you by replicating an exact copy of you using the stored information: would that be you resurrected (minus the experience you ...
and is, I think, spot on. Here’s his article in TCS. He critiques the works of Asad, Braidotti, Connolly, Butler and Chakrabarty, meticulously examining their case and finding quite a lot of holes in their arguments. I think this is an eminently important piece as post-secularism also led into some politically rather dubious alliances and ...
When talking about the importance of the family for a society, one most often thinks in terms of it in terms of a “bedrock”, an anchor of stability and security in a rapidly changing world. While there certainly is a lot of plausibility to the idea that the family is a counter world to and ...
Whenever I come across any work on consumerism and religion – and particularly consumerism and Islam – I check whether it confirms or otherwise my own more theoretical piece on religion and consumerism. I am currently putting together a research proposal under the working title “Shopping for Turkish/Muslim Spiritualities, Identities and Ethics in the UK”, ...
… not because I could claim any authority to have the last word on the subject, but because it’s unlikely academic journals can be persuaded to publish yet another paper on the matter. Out now: ‘Talcott Parsons, the Sick Role and Chronic Illness’, Body & Society, 16, 2, 2010, 72-94. Here’s the abstract: Parsons’ sick role ...
i’m happy to see my paper “reciprocity, recognition and labor value” published in the journal of social philosophy this spring. i’ve written a first version back in 2001 when it was commonly understood that there is no more link between work and capitalism’s legitimacy. now that casino capitalism imploded (a bit) and the electorate is ...
In my article “After Heroism: Religion Versus Consumerism” I argued that one effect of the adaptation religions undergo in order to survive under the hegemony of consumer culture is a move from radical commitment to “occasionalism” in which religiosity appears as an individual choice – a choice which is, crucially, reversible. This, in turn, would ...
(this is a follow-up to my last post on Kierkegaard and romantic consumption which ends on a reference to Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner) Yesterday I listened in to the “Vox Project” on Radio 4, a programme on voice over artists, one of whom mentioned Don La Fontaine as the inventor of the “In a world…” phrase. ...
I realised I should read a bit more Kierkegaard when one of our undergraduates made reference to him when writing on consumer culture and commodified selves/identities – and I found I had overlooked a thing or two in my first reading of him a decade ago. Delving into the Sickness unto Death, what I found ...
this is an illustration to be read in conjunction with the conclusion of my last post here. i’ve just come across an old Mirror article which Bob Doherty and Sophi Tranchel highlight in their article “Radical Mainstreaming” (in Equal Opportunities International – you need a subscription to access this). the article is from 5th November ...