Louis Jargow | New School for Social Research (original) (raw)

Papers by Louis Jargow

Research paper thumbnail of BRIDGING THE GAPS BETWEEN ANARCHISM AND RADICAL DEMOCRACY

I would like to engage and interrogate the relations, resonances, dissonance and points of confli... more I would like to engage and interrogate the relations, resonances, dissonance and points of conflict between two important modes of critical political analysis, Anarchism and Radical Democracy. These two converge at the point of relation with the institutionalization of non-hierarchical and egalitarian politics. I will attempt to address how do these work two lenses theorize their ideal political forms, and how they relate to constituent and destituent politics. Radical Democracy is a contemporary theoretical device that has its origins in the theoretical work of Ernest Laclau and Chantelle Mouffe, as a post-Marxist reading of a need for a direct and counter-hegemonic institution of politics. However, RD has its genealogy of thinkers who processed Laclau and Mouffe, including the council democrat Hannah Arendt. Arendt in On Revolution offers important groundwork for the interpretation of the most positive revolutionary, which values can be found in the Paris Commune's radical democratic council system that incorporated the people themselves directly into the institution of politics; her reading is in direct contradiction to the Marxist reading, which asserts that the socioeconomic improvements are the important revolutionary factors that was brought under the authoritarian rule of Jacobins. Radical Democracy thinkers tend to idealize direct democracy, and see radical and prefigurative democratic practices happening everywhere: democratic and student-run schools, cooperative living arrangements, workplace councils, and of course radically deliberative political institutions wherein the state, if there is one, is acutely aware of, and responds to the peoples' voice.

Research paper thumbnail of THE POLITICS OF RAGE, COURAGE AND STRIFE IN HOMER’S ILIAD.

My MA Thesis charts Homer’s Iliad as a song of thumoresistance. I mean the very intersection of t... more My MA Thesis charts Homer’s Iliad as a song of thumoresistance. I mean the very intersection of thumos and stasis. Thumos means heart, spirit, rage, bravery and is understood to be the courageous part of the Ancient Greek psyche. Stasis implies civil strife—a radical rupture with the organization of political power—an event which needs to occur for structural changes to manifest. Stasis, as contestation and conflict is politics as such. I have deeper interests in producing a strong, albeit polemic, argument that affirms and extenuates Ancient forms of rage, dissent and courageous action.
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.

Research paper thumbnail of KYNICAL PARRHEISIA

Over the course of this paper I will interrogate thematically the life, the embodied practice and... more Over the course of this paper I will interrogate thematically the life, the embodied practice and materialist philosophy of Diogenes the Kynic. How did a scandalous and beastial form of life of the Kynic—the wild and tenacious dog—become a mainstay in Ancient Western philosophy? How did Diogenes, who disrespected all formalities and hierarchies, relate to sovereignty? How do the dual conceptualizations of truth as courage and courage as truth—parrhesia—speak to the practice of living central to Kynicsm?
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.

Research paper thumbnail of CONTEMPORARY ALEATORICISMS

In his final writings, Louis Althusser examines the ‘philosophy of the encounter,’ a materialist... more In his final writings, Louis Althusser examines the ‘philosophy of the encounter,’ a materialist and aleatory tradition, which spans from Epicurus to Derrida. Althusser is searching for a new way to frame materialism after the crisis of the party in France post-1968, and tries to reframe the question of a materialist history, by the radical contingency encounter. How does aleatoricism reposition Althusser’s intellectual and political legacy? What do we gain from interrogating Alhusser’s late work, which is a major departure from his more widely written about theories of the ISA and the Dialectical Materialism as posited in Reading Capital and On The Humanist Controversy? Why have fewer thinkers attempted to wrestle with aleatory?
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.’

Research paper thumbnail of Mourning Mitsein: Failures of Radical Life

Research paper thumbnail of The Political Ontology of OWS

The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee against willfulness. It brings satisf... more The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee against willfulness. It brings satisfaction to the understanding.

Research paper thumbnail of CONCRETIZING COMMUNISM

Research paper thumbnail of Eternal canary of the west, endless parties, Greek style

Only a new ‗heresy'represented at this moment by Syrizacan save what is worth saving of the Europ... more Only a new ‗heresy'represented at this moment by Syrizacan save what is worth saving of the European legacy: democracy, trust in people, egalitarian solidarity etc. -Slavoj Žižek i We don't believe that a government, even if it is this left, can deal with this [crisis]. -Eliana Kanaveli ii …I would not die without delivering a stroke, or die ingloriously, but in some action memorable to men. -Homer iii For its heroic pride, Greece suffered the pains of giving birth to, and experimenting with Democracy, Morality, and Courageous War. Today, Greece is still the European Canary, both for its seemingly impassable economic crisis, and the myriad ways that Greeks have adapted, from developing barter networks to self-sustaining, direct-democratic assemblages. The upcoming elections in May may prove to be more telling for the future of the EU than European Central Bank Technocratic policy. Perhaps the question is not whether the Greeks are following the German Neoliberal model, but rather, whether the rest of Europe will wind up following Greece.

Research paper thumbnail of JURIDICAL ARCHITECTURES OF POLICE FORCE

Louis Jargow is a scholar of political theory and continental philosophy, a poet and a community ... more Louis Jargow is a scholar of political theory and continental philosophy, a poet and a community organizer. His current field of research explores the production of urban space by police force, microfascisms, prefigurative politics and sites of resistance and autonomy from empire. Abstract: This paper charts the space -productive effects of police force that repress the free movement of any bodies impeding Capital. Over the years, police force has evolved to include paramilitary operations, cartographic police efforts, microfascisms, and with the expansion of Neoliberalism, new forms of Colonial policing. These affect the ordering of bodies, space, and the categorization of humanness itself. The resistance to police force exists on onto -political grounds. Mapping ruptures from police order offers sites of subtraction to the interpellations of Empire -autonomous zones engaged in worlding and self -narrativity. Occupy Wall Street"s (OWS) deterritorialization of urban mapping offers a means by which space and bodies escape the rigid architectures enforced by the New York Police Department (NYPD). Exarchia, Athens, our second example exhibits a strong fissure in juridical and colonial order in Greece by both self -defining and attacking myriad forms of police force.

Books by Louis Jargow

Research paper thumbnail of E//O

E//O is a contemporary poetic retelling of the Eurydice and Orpheus myth—a memory of a memory of ... more E//O is a contemporary poetic retelling of the Eurydice and Orpheus myth—a memory of a memory of a memory. Following the classical story of love, death, and a trip to the beyond to rescue love, our E//O takes on Eurydice’s under-examined perspective. What motivates her to leave the world of the living and keeps her in Hades? E//O traces our own lives as we struggle to find meaning and love in a cold dark world.

Text: Louis Jargow, Suzahn Ebrahimian
Images: Lauren Moran
Formatting: Blaine’ O Neill
Publishing: Patrick Kiley (Publication Studio)

Research paper thumbnail of BRIDGING THE GAPS BETWEEN ANARCHISM AND RADICAL DEMOCRACY

I would like to engage and interrogate the relations, resonances, dissonance and points of confli... more I would like to engage and interrogate the relations, resonances, dissonance and points of conflict between two important modes of critical political analysis, Anarchism and Radical Democracy. These two converge at the point of relation with the institutionalization of non-hierarchical and egalitarian politics. I will attempt to address how do these work two lenses theorize their ideal political forms, and how they relate to constituent and destituent politics. Radical Democracy is a contemporary theoretical device that has its origins in the theoretical work of Ernest Laclau and Chantelle Mouffe, as a post-Marxist reading of a need for a direct and counter-hegemonic institution of politics. However, RD has its genealogy of thinkers who processed Laclau and Mouffe, including the council democrat Hannah Arendt. Arendt in On Revolution offers important groundwork for the interpretation of the most positive revolutionary, which values can be found in the Paris Commune's radical democratic council system that incorporated the people themselves directly into the institution of politics; her reading is in direct contradiction to the Marxist reading, which asserts that the socioeconomic improvements are the important revolutionary factors that was brought under the authoritarian rule of Jacobins. Radical Democracy thinkers tend to idealize direct democracy, and see radical and prefigurative democratic practices happening everywhere: democratic and student-run schools, cooperative living arrangements, workplace councils, and of course radically deliberative political institutions wherein the state, if there is one, is acutely aware of, and responds to the peoples' voice.

Research paper thumbnail of THE POLITICS OF RAGE, COURAGE AND STRIFE IN HOMER’S ILIAD.

My MA Thesis charts Homer’s Iliad as a song of thumoresistance. I mean the very intersection of t... more My MA Thesis charts Homer’s Iliad as a song of thumoresistance. I mean the very intersection of thumos and stasis. Thumos means heart, spirit, rage, bravery and is understood to be the courageous part of the Ancient Greek psyche. Stasis implies civil strife—a radical rupture with the organization of political power—an event which needs to occur for structural changes to manifest. Stasis, as contestation and conflict is politics as such. I have deeper interests in producing a strong, albeit polemic, argument that affirms and extenuates Ancient forms of rage, dissent and courageous action.
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.

Research paper thumbnail of KYNICAL PARRHEISIA

Over the course of this paper I will interrogate thematically the life, the embodied practice and... more Over the course of this paper I will interrogate thematically the life, the embodied practice and materialist philosophy of Diogenes the Kynic. How did a scandalous and beastial form of life of the Kynic—the wild and tenacious dog—become a mainstay in Ancient Western philosophy? How did Diogenes, who disrespected all formalities and hierarchies, relate to sovereignty? How do the dual conceptualizations of truth as courage and courage as truth—parrhesia—speak to the practice of living central to Kynicsm?
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.

Research paper thumbnail of CONTEMPORARY ALEATORICISMS

In his final writings, Louis Althusser examines the ‘philosophy of the encounter,’ a materialist... more In his final writings, Louis Althusser examines the ‘philosophy of the encounter,’ a materialist and aleatory tradition, which spans from Epicurus to Derrida. Althusser is searching for a new way to frame materialism after the crisis of the party in France post-1968, and tries to reframe the question of a materialist history, by the radical contingency encounter. How does aleatoricism reposition Althusser’s intellectual and political legacy? What do we gain from interrogating Alhusser’s late work, which is a major departure from his more widely written about theories of the ISA and the Dialectical Materialism as posited in Reading Capital and On The Humanist Controversy? Why have fewer thinkers attempted to wrestle with aleatory?
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.’

Research paper thumbnail of Mourning Mitsein: Failures of Radical Life

Research paper thumbnail of The Political Ontology of OWS

The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee against willfulness. It brings satisf... more The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee against willfulness. It brings satisfaction to the understanding.

Research paper thumbnail of CONCRETIZING COMMUNISM

Research paper thumbnail of Eternal canary of the west, endless parties, Greek style

Only a new ‗heresy'represented at this moment by Syrizacan save what is worth saving of the Europ... more Only a new ‗heresy'represented at this moment by Syrizacan save what is worth saving of the European legacy: democracy, trust in people, egalitarian solidarity etc. -Slavoj Žižek i We don't believe that a government, even if it is this left, can deal with this [crisis]. -Eliana Kanaveli ii …I would not die without delivering a stroke, or die ingloriously, but in some action memorable to men. -Homer iii For its heroic pride, Greece suffered the pains of giving birth to, and experimenting with Democracy, Morality, and Courageous War. Today, Greece is still the European Canary, both for its seemingly impassable economic crisis, and the myriad ways that Greeks have adapted, from developing barter networks to self-sustaining, direct-democratic assemblages. The upcoming elections in May may prove to be more telling for the future of the EU than European Central Bank Technocratic policy. Perhaps the question is not whether the Greeks are following the German Neoliberal model, but rather, whether the rest of Europe will wind up following Greece.

Research paper thumbnail of JURIDICAL ARCHITECTURES OF POLICE FORCE

Louis Jargow is a scholar of political theory and continental philosophy, a poet and a community ... more Louis Jargow is a scholar of political theory and continental philosophy, a poet and a community organizer. His current field of research explores the production of urban space by police force, microfascisms, prefigurative politics and sites of resistance and autonomy from empire. Abstract: This paper charts the space -productive effects of police force that repress the free movement of any bodies impeding Capital. Over the years, police force has evolved to include paramilitary operations, cartographic police efforts, microfascisms, and with the expansion of Neoliberalism, new forms of Colonial policing. These affect the ordering of bodies, space, and the categorization of humanness itself. The resistance to police force exists on onto -political grounds. Mapping ruptures from police order offers sites of subtraction to the interpellations of Empire -autonomous zones engaged in worlding and self -narrativity. Occupy Wall Street"s (OWS) deterritorialization of urban mapping offers a means by which space and bodies escape the rigid architectures enforced by the New York Police Department (NYPD). Exarchia, Athens, our second example exhibits a strong fissure in juridical and colonial order in Greece by both self -defining and attacking myriad forms of police force.

Research paper thumbnail of E//O

E//O is a contemporary poetic retelling of the Eurydice and Orpheus myth—a memory of a memory of ... more E//O is a contemporary poetic retelling of the Eurydice and Orpheus myth—a memory of a memory of a memory. Following the classical story of love, death, and a trip to the beyond to rescue love, our E//O takes on Eurydice’s under-examined perspective. What motivates her to leave the world of the living and keeps her in Hades? E//O traces our own lives as we struggle to find meaning and love in a cold dark world.

Text: Louis Jargow, Suzahn Ebrahimian
Images: Lauren Moran
Formatting: Blaine’ O Neill
Publishing: Patrick Kiley (Publication Studio)