On the Relationship between Philosophy and Activism

A roundtable in memoriam of Herbert Marcuse

A multitude of social and political crises concerning, among others, public health, environmental justice, poverty, border struggles, and the rise of nationalist forces have brought the question of radical change – and its subject – back on the table. Herbert Marcuse, whose birthday was celebrated for the 125th time this July, prominently questioned the role of the proletariat as the sole and determined driving force of social revolutions. Not only did he analyze the fact that the proletariat had failed to fulfill its intended role in the 1930s, but he was also among the first of his peers to recognize a previously underappreciated candidate for the role of “catalyst” of revolutions to come: the groups and social movements formed by and around the socially marginalized. Much has changed since Marcuse’s famous “Essay on Liberation”, and thus the search for revolutionary subjects is, once again, on. In this special issue of “Critical Theory in Context”, we invited some of the most interesting contemporary theorists of revolution and social movements to discuss in Marcuse’s spirit the pressing questions raised by the persisting crises we face today: Who are the collective agents that have both the will and the ability to profoundly transform societies? Does it make sense to think about future revolutions as driven by a definable subject? And can the revolution be predicted?

We present the full recording of the public roundtable that took place at Vierte Welt Berlin and was part of our Critical Theory Summer School: Radical Social Change. You can find more information about our annual Summer School on criticaltheoryinberlin.de.

Participants of the debate, hosted by Robin Celikates, were Gianfranco Casuso, Alex Demirović, Verónica Gago, Sally Haslanger, Rahel Jaeggi, and Eva von Redecker. With special thanks to Vierte Welt Berlin Amin Wagner (Audio-Recording) Lane Hots (Mixing, Mastering and Audio-Restauration) Josefine Berkholz (Audio-Editing and Postproduction)

Speakers:

Gianfranco Casuso is a professor of Philosophy at the Department of Humanities of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and director of the Research Group on Critical Theory at the same university. His teaching and research areas are political and social philosophy, the philosophy of economics, as well as theories of democracy, critical theory of society, and modern philosophy with special emphasis on the philosophy of German Idealism. He is currently working on the links between classical and contemporary critical theory and Latin American social and political thought.

Robin Celikates is a professor of Practical and Social Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin and deputy director of the Centre for Social Critique. His current work mainly focuses on critical theory, civil disobedience, democracy, migration and citizenship.

Alex Demirović is a Senior Fellow at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and an associated member of the Centre for Social Critique. He was a professor of industrial and organizational Sociology at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. His research focuses on marxist state theory, democracy and critical theory.

Verónica Gago is Professor of social sciences at the Instituto de Altos Estudios at the Universidad Nacional de San Martìn (UNSAM) and a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Buenos Aires. Her research focuses on international social movements, feminism and the critique of neoliberal reason.

Sally Haslanger is the Ford Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and teaches in MIT’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Her main areas of research include metaphysics, epistemology, feminist theory, ancient philosophy, and social and political philosophy.

Rahel Jaeggi is a professor of Practical and Social Philosophy and director of the Centre for Social Critique at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her main historical research is critical theory, and her main systematic research is social philosophy, social theory, social ontology and anthropology, political philosophy and ethics.

Eva von Redecker is a philosopher and author. Until 2019, she was the deputy director of the Centre for Social Critique. Her research focuses on theories of social change, feminist theory, and the modern notion of property.

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This Roundtable was part of the Center for Social Critique's annual Summer School. All information about past and future Summer School Programs can be found at www.criticaltheoryinberlin.de.

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