Critique of the Podcast Form

<p>Mac and Crane are joined by J. E. to continue the discussion about Lukács's politics and his essay "Legality and Illegality." This episode goes into depth on the historical and political context of Lukács's work, debates in the Comintern, and the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution.</p>

<p>The culture industry is at it again! Their new weapon: anime. Their strategy? The media mix. In this episode, the anime subcommittee of the CTWG tackle the anime media-form by discussing Marc Steinberg’s anime’s media mix. We talk about modern anime’s history, the emergence of the media mix, and transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. </p>

<p>Mac and Crane discuss the essay "Legality and Illegality" by György Lukács (Georg Lukács) in the context of his broader development: after joining the Communist Party in 1918, Lukács would play an important role in the leadership of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic (March to August 1919), around which time he would write many of the essays later collected and published in <em>Tactics and Ethics: 1919-1929</em>, only to reverse some of his positions on core issues in his subsequent exile in Vienna, resulting in <em>History and Class Consciousness</em> (1923). In their discussion of the vicissitudes of fate and philosophy, Mac and Crane attempt to answer the fundamental question tragically left out of E40's classic song "Choices": Lukács - Nope or Yup?</p>

<p>J. E. is joined by Cam for an introduction to the history of left-communism, specifically the German/Dutch (councilist), Italian (Bordigist) and French (ultraleft) traditions. The books we mention are the following: </p><ul><li>Histoire Critique de l'Ultragauche by Roland Simon </li><li>The Future of Revolution by Jasper Bernes</li><li>The Science and Passion of Communism edited by Pietro Basso</li><li>The Communist Left in Germany by Denis Authier and Gilles Dauvé </li><li>The Italian Communist Left by Philippe Bourrinet</li><li> Rupture dans la Théorie de la Révolution edited by François Daniel.</li></ul>

<p>In this episode, Mac Parker and Anatarah Bin AlKaf have a casual chat on Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins seminal book <em>the Dialectical Biologist</em>. They cover why this book remains a key contribution to Marxist theory, philosophy of nature, and philosophy of technology. Along the way, the conversation tackles the influence of Friedrich Engels on Marxist science historiography and science critique from Boris Hessen to the Max Planck institute’s historical epistemology research program. Our discussion culminates in a call for an integrative approach—one that unites political philosophy and science, the local and the global—in the spirit of the dialectical biologists’ vision.</p><p>The books discussed were (or alluded to):</p><p>- The Dialectical Biologist (1985) by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin</p><p>- Biology Under the Influence (2007) by by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin</p><p>- The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution (2009) ed. Gideon Freudenthal and Peter McLaughlin</p><p>- Abstraction and Representation (1996) by Peter Damerow</p><p></p><p>Please support us at: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.patreon.com/crittheoryworkgroup">https://www.patreon.com/crittheoryworkgroup</a></p>